Message From the Chair: Raising our Game in 2019

Just into our 2019/20 fiscal year as of April 1 and with the ‘new year’ in full motion, we’re in high gear to keep up the momentum of our work in 2018. To this end, we’re focused on a managed growth strategy that capitalizes on our strengths. Leadership in industry best practices, cross sector collaboration, community and government engagement, and environmental sustainability have all been hallmarks for us here in BC.

This year, with these same priorities still in play, we want to make progress across education and training, talent development, acquisition and retention, diversity and inclusion, regional growth and, not least, domestic industry growth. BC is home to a robust and talented contingent of producers and production companies — yet it’s a challenge to gain market share in Canada’s centralized landscape even with the persistent strategies and successes advanced by the CMPA-BC and its members. We need to do more to support and elevate these efforts.

Fortunately the global demand for content is only growing across genres and platforms, and the field of play continues to break open with new opportunities, particularly on the international front. Ultimately — how ever the market shapes itself in the coming years — the long term sustainability of BC’s motion picture industry and our creative economy will be in hands of BC ‘creatives’– writers, directors, producers — all of the talented innovators who become the decision makers driving content creation, job creation and new economic activity.

This is the theme of the upcoming Creative Industries Week in BC (April 29-May6): BC Creators + Job Creators — which together equals the vitality of our creative economy. Stakeholders from across the creative sectors under the purview of Creative BC will showcase and celebrate our achievements and aspirations on May 1 in Victoria, along with our partners in government. BC has much to show for our efforts to date, but we still have work to do.

We’re on the right track — with the CMPA-BC incubating screenwriters, the DGC-BC expanding markets for its directors, the Animation & VFX Alliance creating education and training models, and Creative BC, along with our unions and guilds, leading a labour market initiative to address talent and training development across the board. Our strength will continue to be in our ability to be aware of, and to support leveraged strategies together — to expand in areas where we need to grow, and to manage the growth that flourishes .

I’m proud of our collaboration — between competitors, sub-sectors, cross sectors, labour, government, our partners in production in Canada (CMPA-BC) and the US (MPA-Canada), and Creative BC — that distinguishes us here in BC. Our all hands on deck approach has served us well and it only gets better as so many more get involved in our common objective to excel in BC’s motion picture production sector.

I hope more companies and individuals with a stake in our lasting success will join us this year — it’s gratifying to contribute to work that we know will provide opportunities for future British Columbians.

Peter Leitch, Chair, Motion Picture Production Industry Assn. of BC