Let’s Talk TV: WGC CRTC Hearing Date Set

In April, the WGC released a survey for writers/story editors working in factual television to get a better understanding of how story telling works in factual entertainment, and of the issues and concerns for writers in the industry. Most respondents to our survey were independent contractors working in Toronto and Vancouver, cities with the largest concentration of factual programming. Respondents reported a great deal of variance in the types of writing duties they perform. And while fees seem relatively healthy, factual writers are taking on many different roles when working on factual programs. The survey helped to confirm that there is little to no union representation on factual programs and that writers who work in this sector do not receive insurance and retirement benefits. 

The WGC is now affiliated with The Black List, an organization promoting screenwriters and their scripts to the North American industry and to the world. The Black List, originally created to promote feature film scripts, has now expanded to accept original episodic material, and is designed to help promote scripts that have not yet been produced. WGC members can list scripts and details related to those scripts (genre, format, subject matter etc.), as well as contact details -- for free -- on the highly searchable Black List website.

Please be advised that effective immediately the WGC will discontinue intellectual property registration of paper copies of materials, and will begin phasing out storage of paper registration materials. This notice relates to paper registrations only and does not affect any electronic registrations. We will continue to honor and store existing paper registrations of scripts and other materials at our secure offsite storage facility until they expire. 

Anyone who has one or more paper registrations will be provided with ample notice before the material expires and given an opportunity to either provide payment to withdraw the material and have a copy mailed to them, or create an account and register the material electronically on our online registration service.

Please contact Terry Mark at t.mark@wgc.ca if you have any questions regarding this service change.

WGC statements of earnings and benefits, which provide details regarding earnings as well as insurance and retirement remittances (processed between Jan. 1-June 30, 2014), are now available online. To access your statement, log in to the members' website and click on the "member toolkit" red button on the member home page. Then select "Get Your Statements & Tax Receipts" to view, print or save your statement. If you require further assistance or need a login I.D. and password to access the site, contact either Dinesh or Terry. Please inform us of any missing projects or unreported income as soon as possible.