OTTAWA, February 27, 2018—The Canadian Media Producers Association applauded measures included in today’s federal budget to maintain funding for the Canada Media Fund.

“This year’s federal budget is certainly a good news story for Canadian audiences and independent producers alike,” said Reynolds Mastin, President and CEO, CMPA. “It’s great to have a government that is both willing to listen and able to take decisive action. We see the announcement in today’s budget as the result of great collaboration – between Finance and Heritage, and between the government and the country’s production sector.”

Last September, as part of the Creative Canada policy framework, Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly announced the government’s commitment to stabilize funding for the CMF, which supports the development, production and promotion of Canadian television content and digital media projects.

Today, the federal government has emphatically followed through on that commitment: with the allocation of $172 million to the CMF over the next five years, the Trudeau government has underlined its strong support for the creation of high-quality Canadian content.

Over recent years, the emergence of new digital technologies has led to diminishing cable and satellite subscription revenues, and resulted in declining contributions to the CMF. The funding measures announced today will act as a stopgap measure that will ensure the continued production of great Canadian content, while regulatory reviews look at how best to update Canada’s broadcasting system so it will continue to thrive and grow for decades to come.

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