Telefilm Canada is a Crown Corporation of the federal government. Its mandate is to support the development and promotion of television programs and feature films by the Canadian private sector. Telefilm is neither a producer nor a distributor and it is not equipped with a production studio; instead, it acts primarily as a banker and deals principally with independent Canadian producers. To this end, Telefilm invests over $100 million annually through a variety of funds and programs that encompass production, distribution and marketing, scriptwriting, dubbing and subtitling, festivals and professional development. Telefilm Canada also administers the official co-production treaties that exist with more than twenty countries, including France, Great Britain, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

Until 1984, Telefilm Canada was known as the Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC). The CFDC began operations in 1968 with a budget of $10 million and a mandate to foster and promote the development of a feature film industry in Canada through the provision of loans, grants and awards to Canadian producers and filmmakers. Unlike the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), or the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the CFDC was expected to become a self-financing agency, interested as much (if not more) in the profitability of the films it supported as in their contribution to Canada's cultural life.

By 1971, the CFDC had exhausted its original budget and recouped barely $600,000, or roughly 9%, of its investments in 64 projects. In keeping with its commercial orientation, the CFDC contributed to a number of films that came to be referred to as "maple-syrup porn", movies like Love Is a Four Letter World. At the same time, the CFDC invested in a number of films that have come to be regarded as early Canadian classics, films such as Goin' Down the Road.

The Federal government approved a second allotment of $10 million in 1971 and for the next six years the CFDC and industry representatives struggled to establish a clear set of corporate objectives. One option, which would have transformed the CFDC into something of an arts council for feature films, and brought it closer in line with the mandate of the NFB, was to rechannel its money into a system of grants that would provide for the production of a small number of Canadian films a year. The other option was to rechannel the CFDC's priorities toward the production of feature films with strong box-office potential, in particular films that would be attractive to the Hollywood majors.

This second option became viable after changes in tax regulations were accompanied by a change in the CFDC's financial practices. In 1974 the capital cost allowance for Canadian feature films was extended from 30% to 100%. In 1978, the CFDC shifted its focus from the provision of equity financing for low and medium-budgeted Canadian films, to the provision of bridge financing for projects that were designed to take advantage of the tax shelter. Both the number of productions and average budgets soared. Measured in terms of employment and total dollars spent, the tax-shelter boom was a success. But many of the films produced during this period were never distributed; many of the ones that did receive distribution were second-rate attempts at films that mimicked Hollywood's standard fare (notable examples include, Meatballs, and Running). By 1980, there was growing criticism of the direction taken by the CFDC, particularly from French-Canadian producers and filmmakers who benefited far less than their English-Canadian counterparts from the CFDC's shift in investment priorities. The tax-shelter boom came to a crashing halt in 1980.

The establishment of the Canadian Broadcast Program Development Fund in July 1983 dramatically shifted the CFDC's priorities from feature films to television programming. To reflect this shift in investment priorities the CFDC was renamed Telefilm Canada in February 1984. The Broadcast Fund has four overall objectives: a) to stimulate production of high quality, culturally relevant Canadian television programs in targeted categories, i.e. drama, children's, documentary and variety programming; b) to reach the broadest possible audience with those programmes through scheduling during prime time viewing hours; c) to stimulate the development of the independent production industry; d) to maintain an appropriate regional, linguistic and private/public broadcaster balance in the distribution of public funds. The fund had an initial budget of $254 million spread over five years. Since 1988, Telefilm has invested more than $60 million annually in television programming. On average its participation represents 33% of the total production budget.

The Broadcast Fund has been enormously successful in achieving its original objectives. Between 1986 and 1990, for example, the fund helped finance close to $800 million in total production volume in 2,275 hours of original television programming, of which more than 1,000 hours consisted of dramatic programming exhibited during peak viewing hours including, Anne of Green Gables, The Degrassi Series, E.N.G., Danger Bay, Love and War, Due South, and The Boys of St. Vincent. In terms of audience reach, viewing of Canadian programs in peak time has increased substantially. The Broadcast Fund has also played a crucial role in providing independent Canadian producers with the leverage to expand into export markets.

As a banker, Telefilm Canada is still a failure. It recoups only a small percentage of its annual investments. As a cultural agency and a support structure to Canada's independent producers, Telefilm has been remarkably successful, especially in terms of television programming. It is still the case that Canadians view far more foreign than domestic programming, but without Telefilm's presence there would be virtually no production of Canadian dramatic programming. In many respects, Canadian television is a function of Telefilm Canada.

-Ted Magder