ARCHIVED - National Film Board of Canada

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Minister’s Message:

The Canadian Heritage portfolio gives Canadians the opportunity to participate in society, to achieve their full potential, and to celebrate their heritage and their culture. As a departmental agency, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is working to achieve this goal.

The NFB is a vital contributor to Canadian cultural and social life. It plays a unique role in bringing innovative, challenging, and relevant programming to audiences in Canada and around the world. New production and distribution technologies ensure that the many communities that make up Canadian society are given a voice and have access to its rich and diverse programming. It provides our country’s educational networks with trusted Canadian audiovisual content that brings to life Canadian history and values for Canada’s youth. As a laboratory for artistic innovation, the NFB also provides important skills training to talented Canadian filmmakers of all backgrounds and prepares them to participate fully in Canada’s economy and the knowledge-based professions of the creative sector. The NFB enhances Canada’s economic competitiveness through its many creative and technological innovations, which it shares with the Canadian audiovisual sector.

As Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, I invite you to read the Report on Plans and Priorities for 2009-2010 prepared by the NFB. This report shows the NFB’s commitment to ensuring that the creativity and innovation of Canadian society contribute not only to our cultural vitality, but also to our future.

The Honourable James Moore, P.C., M.P.

 

Government Film Commissioner’s Message:

The National Film Board has for seventy years been an active participant in the lives of Canadians, reaching out to them in schools, communities, on television, movie theatres, and on the Internet. Through its exceptional, distinctive and audacious media productions, the NFB inspires and connects Canadians. No matter the platform or the type of audiovisual productions—animation, documentary, interactive media or short films—Canadian points of view and values are shared with a wide and culturally diverse audience.

The NFB’s production and distribution activities serve the public interest by stimulating learning, renewing our shared values and contributing over the long run to a well functioning civil society. Through its programming the NFB nurtures new forms of authentic, socially relevant works that celebrate our most fundamental national values: democracy, human rights and an inclusive society.

The NFB is unique in that it takes risks difficult for the private sector to assume on its own. For example, through its pioneering development of one of Canada’s first e-cinema networks, connecting five Acadian francophone communities, the NFB is playing a role in Canada’s digital transformation while supporting the development of minority language communities. This is one of many projects in which the NFB, working in close partnership with communities across the country, is harnessing the vast potential of new technologies to enable all citizens to participate and engage with NFB productions.

The priorities outlined in this report reflect the NFB’s response to the powerful global transformation of media technologies and the changing needs of Canadian society, as presented in its new 2008-2012 Strategic Plan.

One of the key priorities in 2009 will be making our collection more accessible to Canadians. The NFB intends to take full advantage of new digital technologies for distribution, marketing and interacting with Canadians, providing them with an enriched media experience that is interactive, dynamic and socially engaged. The NFB also intends to exploit new technologies to extend the reach of its rich collection of titles containing our history and heritage. The NFB has just launched its national online Screening Room, providing real-time streaming of NFB films to Canadians via our online portal, NFB.ca. We will continue to expand our offering of online films as they are digitized. Lessons learned from this initiative will be applied to other digital and Web-based activities to serve Canadians better.

In addition to being vital to a lively Canadian cultural life, cultural creativity and innovation are vital to our future economic prosperity. Our country relies on a growing dynamic cultural sector to grow its knowledge-based economy.

By extending the reach of its world-class professional development initiatives through new communications technologies, the NFB will prepare talented Canadians from all communities to participate fully in Canada’s economic recovery.

The NFB will continue to showcase Canadian innovation and play a role in major federal projects essential to the national fabric. In partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of National Defence, the NFB produced Front Lines/Entre les lignes, a tribute to the combatants in the First World War, featuring the directorial talent of Claude Guilmain. This film, celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Armistice, was shared with Canadians on-site, through our national broadcasters, and across the country, in schools, on DVD and online. A pioneering partnership with Readers’ Digest extended awareness of the project and of a vital part of Canadian history. This film traces the conflict through the war diary and private letters of five Canadian soldiers and a nurse. For the educational sector, five documentary vignettes have been drawn from the film: Nurses at the Front, The Officer's Role, The Life of the Soldier, Faith and Hope and The Trenches, each with further information on its particular subject.

In 2008, to celebrate Québec City’s 400th anniversary, the NFB partnered with the Quebec Museum of Civilization on the innovative stereoscopic film Facing Champlain and the exhibit Territoires. Building on this successful experience, the NFB will showcase Canadian technological and creative innovations in film at the World Exhibition in Shanghai in partnership with Cirque de Soleil and at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 in partnership with VANOC.

Mindful of the current extraordinary global economic challenges and uncertainty, the NFB will set a prudent course, delivering value to Canadians through sound budgeting and fiscal management. As a leader in technological, creative and training innovations, the investment that Canadians make in the NFB will contribute to the nation’s economic recovery.

Since the NFB’s digital transformation will be costly, the organization will have to prioritize its activities to capitalize on the opportunities of powerful new communications technologies.

The NFB, therefore, has conducted extensive reviews of its spending and will streamline its internal systems to control costs and maximize internal efficiencies. As well, we will re-allocate existing resources to maximize productive outputs and to focus on a leadership role in the digital revolution. The Film Board will also focus on new areas of revenue generation, leveraging partnerships in areas such as marketing to reduce costs and increase reach, and become more aggressive in traditional distribution activities. Such measures will allow us to produce new content for distribution platforms as well as to capture, preserve and share Canada’s heritage found in the NFB’s unique 70-year collection.

Government Film Commissioner and
Chairperson of the National Film Board of Canada

 

Section I — Departmental Overview

1.1 Summary information

Raison d’être

The NFB exists to reflect Canada and matters of interest to Canadians, to Canada and the rest of the world through creating and distributing innovative and distinctive audiovisual works based on Canadian points of view and values.

Our promise to Canadians is to move them and the world to see differently through exceptional, distinctive and audacious media productions that can only be created at the NFB.

 

Responsibilities

The National Film Board reports to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. The NFB is mandated by the National Film Act (established in 1939) to initiate and promote the production and distribution of films in the national interest, in particular, to produce, distribute and promote the production and distribution of films designed to interpret Canada to Canadians and to other nations.

Through its distribution activities, the NFB reached an estimated Canadian audience of 26 million with its productions in 2007-2008, the last year for which statistics were available. Almost half watched NFB productions on television, and 5 million accessed media works via NFB.ca. As a trusted provider of Canadian content to educators, NFB productions were viewed over 7.5 million times in Canadian schools this past year.

Recognized and celebrated the world over as one of the great cultural laboratories for research, development and innovation in documentaries, animation and new media, the NFB partners with the private sector or public broadcast sector to take risks and to undertake works of special interest to Canadians.

Through its production activities, the NFB prepares talented emerging filmmakers from across Canada’s ethnic, linguistic and Aboriginal communities for highly skilled knowledge-based jobs, making them competitive on a global scale and helping to position Canada for the opportunities that will come with economic recovery.

In addition to these direct benefits to Canadians, the NFB also contributes to the overall competitiveness of Canada’s economy through its responsibility to engage in research on media and to share its findings with the filmmaking community. The NFB has pioneered unique developments in digital animation through its Oscar-winning films. Its research into stereoscopic animation has led to innovative productions that contribute to events of national importance, such as the 400th anniversary celebrations of Québec City, and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

The NFB represents Canadians as it undertakes its film related activities and supplies Canadian reflections to our embassies and trade missions in all parts of the world. Its international reputation and brand value have made it a preferred first port of call for foreign governments seeking to do business with the Canadian audiovisual industry and has opened doors for the private sector to new markets such as Brazil and Singapore.

As stated in its enabling legislation, the NFB’s responsibilities extend to advising the Governor in Council in connection with film activities and discharging such other duties relating to film activity as the Governor in Council may direct the Board to undertake.

The NFB is also governed by a series of other statutes, including the Financial Administration Act, which sets out the government’s financial administration structure and process, and the Access to Information act, Privacy Act and Official Languages Act.

Headquartered in Montreal, the NFB provides services to Canadians through its regional facilities located across the country (Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Moncton and Halifax, a production office in Quebec City) and two viewing centres in central Canada (Montreal and Toronto). In addition, foreign sales agents in Paris, New York and Los Angeles support the distribution of NFB works around the world promoting Canada through its trusted brand.

 

Strategic Outcome and Program Activity Architecture (PAA)

Strategic Outcome

In pursuing its mandate, the National Film Board aims to achieve the following strategic outcome:

The reflection of Canadian values and perspectives through the production of innovative Canadian audiovisual works accessible in relevant media of the day.

Program Activity Architecture

The chart bellow illustrates the National Film Board’s complete framework of program activities and program sub-activities, which roll-up and contribute to progress toward the Corporation’s Strategic Outcome.

 

1.2 Planning Summary

Financial Resources ($ thousands)

2009­2010	2010-2011	2011-2012
65,062	65,062	65,062

Human Resources (FTEs)

2009­2010	2010-2011	2011-2012
452	452	452

Summary Table:

Strategic Outcome 1: The reflection of Canadian values and perspectives through the production of innovative Canadian audiovisual works accessible in relevant media of the day.
Performance Indicators	Targets
Percentage of Canadian public that perceives the NFB as an innovative, creative and socially engaged institution	60% by March 31, 2011
Percentage of completed productions dealing with major social issues	90% by March 31, 2011
Percentage of NFB audience who indicated that NFB productions reflect Canadian values or perspectives	85% by March 31, 2011

Program Activity1 ($ thousands)	Forecast Spending 2008-2009	Planned Spending			Alignment to Government of Canada Outcomes
		2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012
Production of Audiovisual works	45,683	45,417	45,417	45,417	Social Affairs: A Vibrant Canadian Heritage and Culture
Distribution, Accessibility & Outreach	12,965	12,150	12,150	12,150
Internal Services	7,464	7,495	7,495	7,495
Total		66,112	65,062	65,062

 

Contribution of Priorities to Strategic Outcome

The new operational and management priorities presented here will enable the implementation of the NFB’s new 2008-2012 Strategic Plan. Building on the results reported in the NFB’s 2007-2009, this Plan sets out the goals to be achieved over the planning period, in line with the government’s priorities. Progress toward these priorities will be measured and reported in the NFB’s Annual Departmental Performance Report.

Operational Priorities	Type	Links to Strategic Outcome(s)	Description
CREATIVE LEADERSHIP AND PROGRAMMING EXCELLENCE: The NFB will exercise leadership as the key reference point globally for innovation and creation, connecting with Canadians.	New	SO: The reflection of Canadian values and perspectives through the production of innovative Canadian audiovisual works accessible in relevant media of the day.	Why is this a priority? As a public producer, working in the interest of Canadians, the NFB’s role is to reflect diverse Canadian perspectives and encourage authentic artistic voices, through creative excellence and innovation. These are vital to assuring a lively cultural life for Canadians and also to securing Canada’s economic future. Canada’s economic prosperity depends in part on the NFB’s risk taking, innovation and the rich talents of creative individuals it nurtures.   In doing so, the NFB will provide opportunities to talented creators from Canada’s diverse communities to develop their skills, and prepare them to participate fully in the knowledge-based creative economy.   Plans for meeting the priority Review programming criteria Reach youth and educational sector Produce for new platforms Program socially relevant works Refocus marketing strategies
WIDE ACCESSIBILITY AND DEMOCRATIC ENGAGEMENT: The NFB will make its works and the work of its partners readily and widely accessible to Canadian and world audiences on all relevant platforms.	New	SO: The reflection of Canadian values and perspectives through the production of innovative Canadian audiovisual works accessible in relevant media of the day.	Why is this a priority? Engaging audiences with socially relevant works serves the public interest by fostering social cohesion and national experiences stimulating learning, renewing our shared values and contributing to the cultural fabric of our country. NFB productions allow Canadians to celebrate their heritage and their culture.   Canadians surveyed indicated that they wanted better access to NFB productions, through their educational networks, on television and new platforms. The latter is especially true for young people.   Plans for meeting the priority Renew distribution strategy Revitalize educational sector strategy with online offerings Increase NFB presence online, in order to make NFB productions more accessible to all Canadians. Market and promote NFB.ca, launched earlier this year.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: The NFB will assure that it can deliver on its mandate into the future by continuing with the implementation of its digital strategy in programming, distribution, new business development, outreach and preservation of its audiovisual heritage. To do so, it must invest in high definition digital production technologies, leveraging new technologies to and update its internal systems to leverage the opportunities afforded by digital production.	New	SO: The reflection of Canadian values and perspectives through the production of innovative Canadian audiovisual works accessible in relevant media of the day.	Why is this a priority? The NFB must stay abreast of new production and distribution technologies to continue to provide value to Canadians. Investments in new digital production technologies will lead to improved efficiency, enable greater innovation, and position the NFB, as Canada’s public producer, to help Canadians take advantage of opportunities provided by the new creative and knowledge-based economy.   The ongoing digitization of the NFB's audiovisual collection will enable the NFB to deliver programming and value to Canadians into the future, while ensuring the preservation of NFB's rich Canadian heritage collection for future generations.   Plans for meeting the priority The NFB will put in place a digital strategy and will: continue to digitize its vast collection of historically and culturally significant films create a financing, technological and rights renewal plan for its digitized collection. Invest in new high-definition production technology.

 

Management Priorities	Type	Links to Strategic Outcome(s)	Description
ORGANIZATIONAL RENEWAL: The NFB will become a model for the creative organization of the 21st century: a transparent, efficient and effective agency of the federal government, an organization that embraces ambitious environmental stewardship, values its employees and is a crucible for creative innovation. These values will extend to our industry and community partners, with whom we will work in a timely and transparent way to deliver value to Canadians, aligned with their priorities.	New	SO: The reflection of Canadian values and perspectives through the production of innovative Canadian audiovisual works accessible in relevant media of the day.	Why is this a priority? The NFB requires a flexible, efficient and effective organizational structure and corresponding work processes, to continue to deliver value to Canadians. The planned organizational renewal, based on principles of good governance and accountability, will support the NFB’s recent implementation of a new Program Activity Architecture, the Management Accountability Framework of the Government (MAF) and its five-year Strategic Plan, which positions it and its industry partners to be more competitive in the changing environment.   Plans for meeting the priority The NFB will continue its shift to cross-disciplinary, cross-departmental collaborative work. This will be supported by: an HR strategy that includes: recruitment plan institutional training program internal communications plan. A finalized Operational Plan Priority operations have been identified and the role of the Operations Committee clarified to support the Plan. A detailed risk and audit plan based on new corporate risk profile. New service standards and an improved overall corporate “look and feel” for NFB communications. A new two-year “Green” plan is in development, which will set environmental protocols and standards for the NFB.
FIRM FINANCING: Anchor the NFB on solid financial footing through sound budgeting, responsible fiscal management and cost-effectiveness in order to focus resources on programming and accessibility and assure the NFB can deliver on its mandate and responsibilities into the future. The NFB will also seek new sources of revenues through new distribution activities and by leveraging public and private partnerships.	New	SO: The reflection of Canadian values and perspectives through the production of innovative Canadian audiovisual works accessible in relevant media of the day.	Why is this a priority? In these uncertain economic times, the NFB will do its part to maximize value to Canadians, control costs and maximize revenues. The NFB must find new ways to attract resources to finance strategic activities that will deliver added value to Canadians. The NFB has therefore conducted extensive reviews of its spending and reorganized and reprioritized its activities to find the resources needed to deliver on its mandate now and into the future.   Plans for meeting the priority Continue with improved financial planning and control mechanisms to maximize internal efficiencies. Streamline as appropriate to manage costs. Focus on new areas of revenue generation, leverage partnerships in areas such as marketing to reduce costs and increase reach, and become more aggressive in traditional distribution activities. Seek out and develop private- and public-sector partnerships in order to finance key strategic initiatives, based on sound business cases.

 

Risk Analysis

The current economic downturn will likely impact on the NFB’s ability to meet its financial targets in the coming year, with a real potential for generating less than expected revenues or making it more difficult to develop partnerships in support of NFB activities. In this the NFB shares in the challenges faced by similar organizations.

The NFB’s “digital transformation” will require major new investments and significant changes in how the Board conducts its business. The NFB will continue to maximize internal efficiencies and is reviewing activities and processes to identify opportunities for streamlining and re-allocation.

Profound and sweeping technological changes are taking place throughout the audiovisual environment, with which the NFB must keep pace to continue to serve Canadians. The NFB shares with other media producers and distributors in Canada and the world the unprecedented opportunities for connecting with audiences enabled by digital media and also in the challenges entailed in transitioning to this new environment. The challenge for the NFB is to develop a new language and visual grammar best suited to the new platforms, and to ensure that Canadians can find NFB productions on the platforms of their choice.

The NFB must act quickly to adjust its production chain, distribution strategies and collection management methods to continue to serve Canadians by exploiting digital distribution opportunities such as HD television, the Internet and digital cinema. The transition will offset declining sales and revenues but also represents considerable challenges, particularly related to the financing of technological upgrades and rights management.

The NFB must also digitize its entire collection, which will not only preserve this vast and culturally important collection for future generations of Canadians, but will also create new opportunities for the production of new cultural products. However, the undertaking is enormous (over 13,000 titles) and presents many technical and cost challenges. Approximately 20% of the NFB’s 70-year production of films is at risk of loss over the medium term unless it is migrated to new formats. Migration requires careful restoration and the development of standards for digital information management. The NFB must also negotiate costly new platform distribution rights for approximately two-thirds of its film titles, while 20% have rights that need to be renewed.

Changes in the environment may oblige the NFB to introduce new strategic initiatives. These new initiatives may affect the timely delivery of existing projects.

The NFB will, therefore, regularly review and reprioritize its activities and internal systems to adapt to the changing environment in a timely way.

The NFB must also maintain workforce capacity and expertise, keeping staff skill sets up-to-date, and ensuring sufficient depth and continuity of staff. The risk is highest in the case of technical positions where the NFB is only “one-deep.” To address this concern, the NFB has implemented competency profiling and workforce-planning initiatives such as identifying positions at risk, creating incentives like personal development profiles to keep people in these positions and succession planning. Finally, reorganizing technical services will allow for more multi-tasking and development of back-up capacity.

 

Expenditure Profile

As the table below shows, following a ten-year period of budgetary decline, the NFB’s reference levels have remained relatively steady at approximately 65 million dollars per year. Faced with this challenge, the NFB will continue to operate by adapting its programs and services to maximize efficiencies, keeping pace with inflation and new costs associated with the digital transformation of the industry.

Departmental Spending Trend

Voted and Statutory Items
($ thousands)

Vote # or Statutory Item (S)	Truncated Vote or Statutory Wording	2008-09 Main Estimates	2009-10 Main Estimates
65	Program expenditures	65,042	65,062
Total		65,042	65,062

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