After two terms, NFB commissioner Claude Joli-Coeur bowed out.
Posted at 9:15 a.m.
While some are praising his leadership and his open-mindedness (he has notably implemented a parity policy within this 83-year-old institution), others continue to criticize his management of the budgets devoted to creating and producing films.
This is the case of the directors of Création ONF/NFB. This group, which represents nearly 300 Canadian directors, has been scrutinizing the smallest decisions of its administration for years. You can imagine their surprise when they discovered that, among the members of the selection committee responsible for finding a successor to Claude Joli-Coeur, there was… Claude Joli-Coeur.
“This is a violation of the principles of good governance and the appearance of neutrality and an affront to the public’s trust in the impartiality of its governmental institutions,” wrote filmmakers from Création ONF/NFB in a letter sent to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, on August 18.
The authors outline the fact that two applicants are former NFB employees. “They were rival candidates to Mr. Joli-Coeur when he asked to be reappointed as commissioner in 2019. After being retained, Mr. Joli-Coeur eliminated the positions of these two employees. How can these two candidates now expect to be assessed fairly? ask the signatories.
I wanted to get the point of view of the federal agency specializing in film production. “Unfortunately, the NFB cannot comment on the hiring process for the next commissioner since this process, like all senior federal positions, is the responsibility of the Government of Canada, and more specifically that of the Privy Council, and is confidential,” I was told.
This situation provoked a strong reaction from François Dauphin, President and CEO of the Institute of Governance, to whom I told about this surprising situation, to say the least. “It’s rare that people take part in work to choose their successor. Normally, a committee of independent members must be formed. It is necessary to work in complete transparency and independence of spirit for the evaluation of the candidates. »
You should know that historically, the NFB commissioner also held the role of chairman of the institution’s board of directors. This “archaic” administrative structure overthrew François Dauphin. “It’s something you see very rarely these days, we shouldn’t do that anymore. By default, the chairman of the board of directors happens to be the one who endorses the work of the board, which aims to assess the role of the CEO. So he is both the one who mandates himself and the one who evaluates himself. There is a fundamental governance problem in this regard. »
In the office of Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Canadian Heritage, sources confirmed to me that we were closely monitoring this hiring exercise. We are not overly concerned about the presence of Claude Joli-Coeur on the committee, because it is made up of “several people”.
I was also told that the selection committee had to include a member of the current administration who “knows well how the NFB works”. But did it have to be the outgoing commissioner? I do not think so.
The committee’s choice will first be presented to the minister who, according to some sources, is aware of the “issues” facing the members and the relationship between Claude Joli-Coeur and certain candidates.
As for the changes that Pablo Rodriguez could make in the management of the NFB, we insisted on the “digital” project. In short, no great revolution on the horizon.
The reign of Claude Joli-Coeur as commissioner of the NFB has not been a long calm river. Appointed in 2014, he had his mandate renewed in 2019. “We were very disappointed to see that he was given a second mandate, because that is very rare in the history of the NFB”, confided to me the filmmaker Philippe Baylaucq, one of the spokespersons for Création ONF/NFB.
If the presence of Claude Joli-Coeur on the selection committee arouses the indignation of the members of this group, it is because they want the arrival of the next commissioner to be accompanied by a real wind of change.
Création ONF/NBF likes to point out that two-thirds of the NFB’s budget is now intended to support the institution’s administrative apparatus, while approximately one-third is allocated to creative content (including filmmakers’ salaries) .
The management of the NFB disputes this statement. “Based on the official figures that have been verified by the Auditor General, I can say that 50% of our funds go to production, 34% to distribution and 16% to general expenses,” said Claude Joli-Coeur in interview at Globe and Mailin June 2019.
In a letter that followed the commissioner’s remarks, Création ONF/NFB pointed out that the NFB receives $62 million annually in cash and that $50 million is devoted to executive salaries, the marketing department, administrative expenses and internal expenses. So $12 million would be allocated to external productions.
Filmmakers from Création ONF/NFB deplore the distance that the NFB has tended to maintain for several years with creators. In 2016, the management of the ONF invited its employees to a collective retreat intended to “draw the future” of the institution. “How many directors were invited to this meeting under the unifying title “In it together”? None. Zero. Not a single one,” wrote my colleague Agnès Gruda in July 2019.
Remember that in the early 2000s, the NFB abandoned the “in-house filmmakers” formula. Since then, directors, screenwriters and cinematographers have been freelancers. The days when filmmakers like Claude Jutra, Claude Fournier, Michel Brault, Gilles Carle, Pierre Perrault, Jacques Godbout or Gilles Groulx were associated with the NFB are really over.
Over time, the NFB became a center for the distribution of money, as the National Arts Center in Ottawa is today, since the closing of its studios and the cessation of its associations with the major theaters in Montreal and Quebec.
The NFB continues to support cinematographic creation, but its role is diminishing, getting lost and diluted. Some will say that this is a reflection of our time and its needs. Others, like me, will rather think that this so-called desire for democratization has given rise to a structure that badly needs the sharp eye of a courageous minister.
Who will this person be? Pablo Rodriguez will he play in this film?