Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The film industry in Alberta is in a very grave situation, but the Minister of Culture and Community Spirit is being divisive rather than constructive.

The minister has recently described film unions as selfish and acting like children, which isn’t very helpful. To the Minister of Culture and Community Spirit: why did the minister claim during budget debates that the head of IATSE, Damian Petti, was in a November meeting with the minister and the president of CFTPA, Norm Bolen, and somehow refused to co-operate, when Mr. Petti and Mr. Bolen have never met?

Mr. Blackett: Well, Mr. Speaker, there’s no smoking gun here. What I did say at estimates was that I had met with Mr. Bolen, who is the head of the CFTPA, and I had met with Mr. Petti on the same day. I didn’t say that they were in the same room.

With respect to the fact that I said that they were acting like children, I said that in our film industry there are many reasons why we have to be competitive in Alberta. That’s because we have a film development program that has a labour rate that’s competitive with Ontario, with British Columbia, but we need co-operation from our film producers and our unions and guilds. British Columbia and Ontario have an agreement . . .

The Speaker: Sorry. The hon. member has the floor.

Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Well, back to the same minister. Given that IATSE has signed a binding agreement with 250 producers for a North American low-budget agreement, which helps Alberta producers, why does the minister ignore that in favour of advocating a nonbinding contract with Canadian producers? How does that help Alberta film workers?

Mr. Blackett: I said it again in estimates, Mr. Speaker. That’s great that they have a binding agreement with low-budget films. The question was: why do we not have larger productions that employ more Albertans? I said that if we want to get more large productions into Alberta, then we need those agreements similar to the ones that we have with the small producers to attract those people from the States and from other countries and across Canada to our province.

Ms Blakeman: It needs to be a binding agreement, Minister. Back to the same minister: why did the minister dismiss as grandstanding a gathering of almost 300 concerned film actors, stage workers, directors, set dressers, makeup artists, DOPs, and other film workers? Why did you dismiss them as grandstanding rather than taking their concerns seriously and working with them, not against them?

Mr. Blackett: Well, Mr. Speaker, if they were really interested in talking to me, they wouldn’t have given me less than 48 hours to respond to their invitation knowing full well that I was in Vancouver and I wouldn’t be back in Calgary until late in the day last Monday. They can call whenever they want. If they want a chance to talk to me – I’ve talked to hundreds of them in the past; I will continue to do so in the future – my door is always open, and we’re available.

Alberta Hansard, March 8, 2010

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