Parents in Canada’s film and television industry call for government action on child care

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Heather McQuillan, 36, grew up in the film and television industry in Vancouver, starting in front of the camera when she was 10 and switching to behind-the-camera work about eight years ago, with credits including Flora and Ulysses, The Baby-Sitters Club and DC Legends of Tomorrow.

In the fall of 2018, when McQuillan was seven months pregnant, she was let go from her job in the props department of a U.S. network drama series being shot in B.C. She says she was told that she should go home, raise her children and support her husband’s career in the industry.

“There just wasn’t really a shock in the industry that that happened,” said McQuillan, now executive director of Reel Families for Change Canada, a charity that advocates for parents in the film and television industry. “When I started to talk to people, I realized it was happening [to] a lot more than just me.”

According to a recent survey of people with family obligations in Canada’s TV and film industry, 27 per cent of respondents said they were let go from their jobs when they were pregnant.

The cross-country survey explored the impact of COVID-19 on child care and family care for women in screen industries. The resulting Family Care Report was issued by Women in Film and Television – Canada Coalition (WIFT-CC), a non-profit professional organization.

Sixty-six per cent of respondents said they had experienced financial strain and fewer opportunities because of the pandemic; 59 per cent said that COVID-19 created additional pressure for them as parents/caregivers; and 53 per cent reported they had limited opportunities for self-care or mental-health support.

“You hear these stories all the time,” said Susan Brinton, the report’s author. “But when you really see that on paper, it was shocking.”

The film and TV industry can be very demanding for parents and people with family obligations, with extremely long hours, irregular call times and gig-like working conditions, including having to work at night. It is difficult for people employed in the sector to maintain a healthy work-life balance and care for their families, the report concluded.

Brinton began working in the industry as a single mother in 1987.

“There were very few opportunities or role models of women at higher levels in the TV industry at that time,” she said, “and none in charge of major production companies. At best, women could consider running their own small companies, working on documentaries and one-off projects, but that irregular work was not an option for a single parent.”

After starting her career at a provincial film funding organization, Brinton moved on to be manager of business affairs and program development at Canwest broadcasting. She took this job so she could have a steady, well-paying, nine-to-five work schedule that allowed her to find child care to cover her working hours.

“I definitely felt as a woman and a single parent that my opportunities to creatively participate in the film and TV industry were seriously limited by those factors. And sadly, not enough has changed since then.”

Industry-specific child-care program

In the last federal budget, the government committed to funding child care across Canada. However, employers are reluctant to accommodate caregivers and unions are not currently required to address the lack of funding and availability of child care and family care.

The WIFT-CC report called for a roundtable between government, unions and employers to design and fund a suitable overarching child-care and family-care policy for the Canadian screen industries by 2024. It also called for governments to require child care as a budget line item for productions to be eligible for federal or provincial labour-based tax credits or funding.

“That’s taxpayer money, so every Canadian worker in the industry should be entitled to a fair shot at being paid through that employment structure,” McQuillan said.

The report also called for federal and provincial governments to establish on-set and on-demand child care at production centres across Canada by 2024. Fifty-six per cent of survey respondents said they’d like to see onsite child care.

As well, the report recommended that governments, employers and unions establish reasonable work weeks in the industry, including a maximum 10-hour work day and 50-hour work week.

“If we want people to have careers in the industry and have different voices and stories get told, then we need a better industry policy that is more in line with how people want to balance their lives now,” Brinton said.

Reel Families for Change Canada has been awarded a federally funded grant from Women and Gender Equality Canada to advance a tech-based, workplace integrated child-care solution for the film industry and other Canadian shift workers. The project will be a national one, created to tackle the need for rotational and last-minute care, McQuillan said.

The Globe and Mail spoke to several women working in Canada’s screen industries to hear about their experiences, and what changes they want to see.

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Kelly-Ruth Mercier

• Actor for film and television, for more than 30 years. Past projects include Bates Motel and Snowpiercer.
• Mercier is a solo parent. Because of fluctuating call times, it is very difficult to plan for consistent child care throughout a work week. Mercier says she is frustrated about the lack of notice that actors are often given for their schedules. The irregular hours of the profession aren’t always accommodating to the schedules of regular child-care programs.
• “When we work 12 hours we’re delighted and feel like we’ve had a really short day but 12 hours by five days is 60 hours,” she said.
• What Mercier wants to see: Regular work hours; more transparency and better timing in paying cast and crew.

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Asis Sethi

• Independent filmmaker. Director of short films A Bloody Mess and Future Superheroes.
• Sethi often felt that she barely got to spend any time with her children while working on films. She would often rely on extended family members to babysit, which is an option she realizes a lot of people don’t have. When the pandemic hit, she says it was difficult to balance work and family life even while working from home.
• “Constantly helping my older child with online school, keeping my younger one occupied with daily activities, which I had to plan ahead of time, and working my full-time job from home was very challenging. At times, I felt I was not present for my children at all because it had become very difficult to balance everything all at once.”
• What Sethi wants to see: More accommodations for women who are in need of child care; continuing to hold meetings remotely.

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Kim Albright

• Director of short films Edward’s Turmoil, The Purple Plain and Albatross. She has also directed several commercials.
• Albright mentioned how balancing work and family life can be strenuous especially with the hectic schedules of the screen industries. “I find in commercials as a director if you’re not kind of constantly working then you’re sort of out of the game,” she said. She made the decision to work part-time after returning from a nine-month leave for the sake of her family.
• What Albright would like to see: Funding to provide on-set and preproduction child care.

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