Hi. Thank you for receiving us.

The Regroupement des distributeurs indépendants de films du Québec has existed since 2008. It was established by independent distributors of Quebec films after the temporary closing of Cinéma Excentris—Cinéma Parallèle at the time—which created a crisis for Quebec distributors.

At that point, we realized that independent distributors had much in common and that they could hold discussions amongst themselves and with various levels of government, broadcasters and the industry in general.

We represent nine independent distributors in Quebec—in other words, the majority of Quebec distributors. We also release most of the Quebec films in the province.

Since our association was created, we have made headway on a number of issues. We have negotiated agreements with the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles—SODEC—in Quebec, and with Telefilm Canada at the federal level. We have met with representatives of the provincial government and other governments. We have proposed a number of agreements to those various governments.

We have also spent a lot of time discussing issues our industry is currently dealing with. Recently, the merger between Entertainment One and Alliance Films created the largest distributor in Canada—a huge company that controls most of the country's distribution activities. That is a major source of concern for us, especially since we do not consider it to be a Canadian company. It is based on Jersey Island and it is publicly traded in England. Entities outside Canada are controlling a significant portion of our industry.

The majority of films funded in Quebec are funded by that entity or its subsidiaries—Christal Films, Films Séville or eOne. They are all part of the same family.

Most of the public money is going to a company based in a tax shelter, and we all find that somewhat ironic. It has caused difficulties in terms of distribution work and the distribution economic model in Quebec for independent distributors, who are still behind many films.

I will give you a great example. Everyone is saying that eOne released Mommy, the Xavier Dolan film we are all very proud of. It has been seen around the world. However, let's not forget that Louis Dussault, my colleague from K-Films Amérique, distributed J'ai tué ma mère. Had he not distributed that film, Mommy would have never seen the light of day. That is a very important point.

Major changes are taking place in the industry when it comes to digital platforms, which have taken up a tremendous amount of space and changed the public consumption patterns. The public is no longer as bound to television. One of the main sources of revenue for distribution and film funding has historically been broadcasting—television licenses. The number of those licenses has decreased because of the important place taken up by platforms such as iTunes and Netflix. Those platforms are currently not managed by the CRTC, both when it comes to Canadian content and reinvestment in Canadian cinema. We think it is important to acknowledge those facts. In my opinion, the federal government has some work to do in that regard.

We prepared a brief that will be submitted to you later. We wrote in French, but it has to be translated into English before we give it to you, and that will be done soon. In the meantime, Louis will give you a summary.

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