National Film Board of Canada 2023–24 Departmental Results Report
© National Film Board of Canada, 2024
Cat. No. NF1-5E-PDF
ISSN 2560-9238
From the Minister
Through their various activities, the organizations in the Canadian Heritage portfolio—including the National Film Board of Canada (NFB)—contribute to the vitality of Canadian society. Together, they not only foster and highlight creativity but also create a space for dialogue that strengthens our social fabric, playing a fundamental role in today’s rapidly changing world.
As a public producer and distributor of audiovisual works, the NFB once again positioned itself this year as an important public service, one serving both citizens and the broader audiovisual industry. The stories that the NFB tells, and shares, contribute to a better understanding of our many communities, and they do so in a way that strengthens our democracy and promotes diversity and social inclusion. In addition, by making its works accessible to teachers across the country, it promotes a greater understanding of our history and culture among young people. The NFB’s preservation of our audiovisual heritage, and the access it provides to its archives, are of inestimable value.
In 2023–-24, the NFB completed 46 original works, enriching its extensive audiovisual collection of over 14,000 titles, including more than 7,000 available free online, and garnering over 57 million views globally.
During the year, the NFB also refocused its production on documentary and animation, and created a lab whose mandate is to support innovation within the organization with respect to production and distribution as well as audience engagement. This new chapter represents a concrete extension of the NFB’s longstanding tradition of innovation. The NFB is also adapting to the major changes under way in the audiovisual industry and actively participating in discussions undertaken by Canadian Heritage on modernizing the sector.
As Minister of Canadian Heritage, I am pleased to present the 2023–24 Departmental Results Report for the National Film Board of Canada. I would like to highlight all the work they have accomplished to serve the people of Canada and help reach our government’s goals over the past year.
The Honourable Pascale St-Onge
From the Commissioner
Fiscal year 2023–24 was my first full year as Commissioner. First of all, I want to thank my colleagues on the NFB management team, the board members, the NFB’s staff and the filmmakers and craftspeople throughout Canada, not only for their trust and support, but also for their respectfully expressed opinions. To me, that is the essence of leadership: to take in the full range of views and then point the way forward on the shared road to progress. Thank you for your involvement.
At the NFB, this past fiscal year saw many important projects and achievements in film that benefitted all Canadians. We produced and co-produced some powerful, original, impactful films, garnered nearly 100 awards, received more than 30 million views in Canada and, for the first time in 40 years, saw an NFB documentary feature nominated for an Oscar.
Like other major institutions in the audiovisual sector, the NFB faces challenges in regard to production, distribution and representation. This report gives an overview of these challenges and the solutions and contingency measures that we have put in place to meet them. These challenges will persist and continue to grow. Over the medium and long term, they pose a genuine risk to the effective fulfilment of our national mandate, both culturally and socially.
In 2023–24, in accordance with its increasingly complex matrix of commitments, our rapidly evolving organization achieved most of its objectives with respect to equitable representation of underrepresented groups, in front of and behind the camera. From the data gathered with our new self-identification questionnaire, we can confirm that close to 30 % of the NFB’s current productions and co-productions are being directed by filmmakers and artists who identify as BPOC (Black or Persons of Colour), and that there is gender parity in almost all NFB creation and decision-making positions.
Regarding our commitments to Canada’ Indigenous communities, over 25% of total production spending was devoted to works by Indigenous artists this year, and during the fall of 2024 the NFB will be issuing its report on the Indigenous Action Plan that it launched in 2017.
The NFB remains the Canadian family album that we can turn to at every stage of our lives. It is and will always be a beacon for freedom of opinion and creation—a guiding light that we so deeply need for the sake of Canada’s national unity and democracy, and to exist as Canadians in this fractured world. Our stories matter, and our cultural sovereignty depends on our ability to tell them.
These are complex times. They demand that the NFB navigate its way through social transformations and adapt to the digital ecosystem while meeting environmental challenges and the imperatives of sound financial management. We must constantly choose among new risks and unprecedented opportunities. We have been doing so for many years with declining funding that compromises our ability to properly fulfil the essence of our mandate and its many ramifications.
We make these choices with the NFB’s unique role in mind: to tell the stories of the present, as we have for 85 years; to nurture the history that we teach through the accumulated stories that we have lived; and to capture the complex reality of Canada in the only possible way, by viewing it through multiple lenses.
This is the rationale behind our decisions. When we appear before the CRTC, it’s so that Canadian works will be seen more in Canada and around the world (since 2017, NFB films have received an average of 60 million views per year). When we redirect resources toward the production of documentary and animated films or a new Innovation Lab, it is to support our raison d’être, the power of the documentary and the need for storytelling. The issues of distribution and discoverability are omnipresent and no longer restricted by borders, as reflected in the proliferation of distribution platforms, the fragmentation of audiences, the overabundance of content, polarization, the loss of reference points, the confusion between real and fake news, and so much more.
In fiscal year 2023–24, we adopted a two-year action plan, which defers the next strategic-planning exercise to 2025 while the discussions on the new audiovisual framework for Canada continue. Meanwhile, we’ve updated the main thrusts of our 2020–23 Strategic Plan, which remain as relevant as ever: giving priority to strengthening our programming and distribution; evolving the organization toward ESG principles; modernizing our management and processes; continuing to upgrade our technology and information systems; improving communications with our employees and partners; and supporting the development of talent; preserving one of the world’s largest collections of archival footage; and providing free access to thousands of works and teaching tools for educators.
The NFB is grounded in its mission, inspired by the initiative to modernize the audiovisual sector and driven by creativity. In these times of political and social ferment, we are a reminder that Canadians’ stories need to be heard, that auteur films are essential, that underrepresented groups need documentary films that speak for them, and that the art of the camera can contribute to reconciliation and cultural sovereignty for Indigenous Peoples. There is no greater bulwark against disinformation and extremist ideology than the stories that we share and that are told, sung, danced and filmed. The NFB plays a leading role in mounting this defence of democracy.
Culture is the breath of life, and investing in culture is a public service. Investing in the NFB helps us to strengthen the fabric of society and to define this meeting space where we build our shared home.
I want to express my thanks to the Government of Canada, which recognizes the importance of cultural institutions and the role of the NFB, and which has expressed its confidence in our team. Leading this organization is a tremendous privilege and a great responsibility that I share with talented people from all parts of Canada.
These times demand that we tell our stories.
These times demand the NFB.
Suzanne Guèvremont
Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Film Board of Canada
Results – what we achieved
Core responsibilities and internal services
Description
The National Film Board’s mandate is to create relevant and innovative audiovisual content that interprets Canada and its diversity to Canadians and people around the world. The National Film Board works with filmmakers and artists from every region of Canada to produce exceptional documentaries, animated films, and interactive/immersive works rooted in Canadian experiences and realities. The National Film Board has long been a champion of technological and film innovation, both nationally and internationally. The National Film Board seeks to reflect the perspectives and experiences of communities that are systematically underrepresented in the media and to develop innovative new storytelling forms and approaches.
Progress on results
This section presents details on how the department performed to achieve results and meet targets for Audiovisual Programming and Production. Details are presented by departmental result.
Table 1: Targets and results for Audiovisual Programming and Production
Table 1 provides a summary of the target and actual results for each indicator associated with the results under Audiovisual Programming and Production.
The NFB works reflect pan-Canadian perspectives
| Departmental Result Indicators | Target | Date to achieve target | Actual Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of works directed by filmmakers and artists from Quebec | 32%–45% | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 42% 2022-23 : 45% 2023-24: 44% |
| Percentage of works directed by filmmakers and artists from Ontario | 15%–25% | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 17% 2022-23 : 14% 2023-24: 17% |
| Percentage of works directed by filmmakers and artists from the Atlantic region | 8%–15% | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 8% 2022-23 : 11% 2023-24: 13% |
| Percentage of works directed by filmmakers and artists from the Canadian Prairies, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories | 10%–18% | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 18% 2022-23 : 17% 2023-24: 12% |
| Percentage of works directed by filmmakers and artists from British Columbia and the Yukon | 11%–21% | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 15% 2022-23 : 14% 2023-24: 14% |
The NFB is a global centre of excellence in audiovisual production
| Departmental Result Indicators | Target | Date to achieve target | Actual Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of awards won at festivals/awards ceremonies | 100 | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 151 2022-2023 : 99 2023-2024 : 95 |
The NFB supports Canadian industry talent and cultural diversity
| Departmental Result Indicators | Target | Date to achieve target | Actual Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of completed productions directed by emerging filmmakers and artists | 25 % | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 35% 2022-23 : 65% 2023-24: 61% |
| Percentage of completed productions directed by Indigenous filmmakers and artists | 15 % | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 26% 2022-23 : 6% 2023-24: 20% |
| Percentage of completed productions directed by women | 50 % | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 54% 2022-23 : 65% 2023-24: Not availableFootnote 1 |
Additional information on the detailed results and performance information for the NFB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.
Details on results
The following section describes the results for Audiovisual Programming and Production in 2023–24 compared with the planned results set out in the NFB’s departmental plan for the year.
National Film Board works reflect pan-Canadian perspectives
Results achieved
The NFB is dedicated to producing stories from coast to coast to coast, reflecting the lives, experiences and perspectives of all Canadians in its works and upholding its longstanding tradition of giving voice to the voiceless. In fiscal year 2023–24, 46 original works were completed: 14 animated films, 25 documentaries, 6 interactive experiences and 1 experimental film that have now been added to the NFB’s extensive audiovisual collection.
2023–24 also ushered in new creative leadership with the arrival of a new Director General who has provided a fresh perspective on programming and production principles, developing a harmonized organizational structure that cements the NFB’s reputation as a globally renowned centre for audiovisual excellence. The NFB also undertook a review of its Greenlight process, which included:
- evaluating the ideation, refinement and approval stages of the process;
- experimenting with a roundtable pitch format, in which all the relevant teams that impact a project from idea to screen—including staff from Education, Marketing, Legal, Finance, Distribution, Communications, Operations and the Technology Branch, as well as the Innovation team and the newly appointed Equity, Diversity and Inclusion lead—are brought together to ask questions and ensure a thorough, collaborative reflection process;
- ensuring that the Greenlight process serves to present the projects accurately and that the support teams raise questions or ask for clarification, contributing to the process so that the decision made by the DG is optimal, well informed and open;
- inviting creators to participate in the Greenlight process with the goal of being more transparent.
In the coming fiscal year, the NFB will be launching its new Greenlight process and putting an organizational structure in place for production and distribution.
The National Film Board is a global centre of excellence in audiovisual production
Results achieved
From coast to coast to coast, the NFB offers a creation space that’s unique in the world, enabling artistic expression while providing top-quality professional support. In 2023–24, the NFB shone on the world stage in a number of ways, including the following:
- the NFB received 95 accolades and honours, including 50 international awards;
- NFB co-production To Kill a Tiger was nominated for the Documentary Feature Film Oscar at the 96th Academy Awards;
- the Programming, Creation, Distribution and Marketing (PCDM) team participated in 167 events—workshops, community screenings, festivals, markets and conferences, at both the national and international level, underscoring our commitment to fostering relationships within the audiovisual sector and staying up to date on industry developments.
The NFB has long been a space where artists, thinkers and innovators are encouraged to push boundaries and be leaders in technological innovation, a feature that distinguishes the organization on both the national and the international stage. In 2023–24, the NFB made progress on technology solutions that will ensure production teams are agile, adaptable, efficient, innovative and resourceful. Some examples of these solutions include:
- the use of cloud-computing technologies that have proven crucial by facilitating many remote post-production activities. Any NFB production can use available physical or cloud technologies and receive consistent service at all key stages of a film’s lifecycle;
- implementing the project-management software ShotGrid, completed earlier than anticipated. ShotGrid supports production practices with the latest audiovisual technology, aiding in tracking and planning the projects of all NFB production units across Canada, enabling a national programming vision, and contributing to future Greenlight meeting discussions;
- integrating the Technology Branch into Greenlight meetings, offering resource consolidation, solutions across all projects, and guidance on technology choices from the earliest project stages.
These tools have significantly increased the NFB’s capacity to work quickly and collaboratively. Our commitment to applying the latest technology in production speaks to our dedication to ensuring we produce timely, high-value and innovative works.
The National Film Board supports Canadian industry talent and cultural diversity
Results achieved
As shown in Table 1: Targets and results for Audiovisual Programming and Production, the NFB fulfilled its commitments to supporting Canadian emerging industry talent and promoting cultural diversity through its completed works.
Every year, the Canadian demographic landscape becomes richer and even more diverse. The NFB is aware of the importance of its mandate to be representative, and firmly committed to making every effort to meet its commitments in this regard. The NFB is equally devoted to applying best practices that ensure equitable representation of underrepresented demographic groups, both behind the camera and in key craft positions. As part of its commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), the NFB recognizes that accurate data is needed to employ an evidence-based approach that measures and tracks the NFB’s progress towards equitable programming. In April 2023, the NFB implemented a confidential, non-mandatory self-identification questionnaire that’s sent to filmmakers, artists and production team members, collecting information on Indigenous identity, racial/ethnic identity, disability status, gender identity/expression, 2SLGBTQI+ status and official-language minority status. Since its implementation, the self-identification form has received a response rate of 78%.
The resultsFootnote 2 of this self-declaration questionnaire demonstrate that from among the NFB’s active productions and co-productions in 2023–24:
- 55% of works were directed by filmmakers or creators who self-identify as women;
- 22% of works were directed by Indigenous filmmakers or creators;
- 22% of the works were directed by filmmakers who belong to an official-language minority community;
- 29% of works were directed by BPOC (Black and People of Colour) filmmakers or creators;
- 11% of works were directed by filmmakers or creators who self-identify as a person with one or more disabilities;
- 18% of works were directed by filmmakers or creators who identify as part of the 2SLGBTQI+ community.
In the 2023–24 fiscal year, the NFB also committed to ensuring that by March 31, 2025, more than 30% of its productions and co-productions underway at the time will be directed by artists and filmmakers who self-identify as BPOC. This figure represents a minimum; the NFB is aiming for more but certainly not less than this objective. The NFB will prioritize skill development and career acceleration for a diverse pool of artists, with the aim of supporting a creative ecosystem that’s not just inclusive, but sustainable as well.
Key risks
The decrease in production budgets has long been a concern for the NFB’s senior management and its major stakeholders, particularly Canadian creators. To partially mitigate this risk to one of the NFB’s core responsibilities, $1.5 million was reallocated to documentary and animation production, leading to the difficult decision to close the Vancouver and Montreal interactive studios in January 2024.
The NFB’s interactive studios were founded in 2009, a trailblazing moment for the immersive storytelling format. An early leader in the field, the NFB produced more than 200 innovative projects in collaboration with more than 500 artists. Fifteen years later, the NFB has fulfilled its mission to fill the gap in immersive storytelling, which is now well-served by many high-profile interactive experiences produced within the industry. The NFB will continue to offer an environment that’s conducive to creative exploration and has reallocated a total of $3.5 million dollars to production and innovation.
One of the risks identified for the 2023–24 fiscal year is that if the work necessary to achieve the NFB’s institutional priorities is not managed carefully, employees’ workloads may increase. In response, the NFB introduced the 2023–25 Action Plan, serving as a roadmap towards the 2025–28 Strategic Plan, which clarifies priorities and emphasizes project-management principles for cross-organizational initiatives. An Operations Committee began meeting to oversee and regularly review the implementation of these priorities. More details about the Operations Committee can be found in the “Internal services” section of this report. By reorganizing its resources and improving its practices and management tools, the NFB has begun a process that will move it into the future while keeping it aligned with the realities of today’s production and work methods.
Resources required to achieve anticipated results
Table 2: Snapshot of resources required for Audiovisual Programming and Production
Table 2 provides a summary of the planned and actual spending and full-time equivalents (FTEs) required to achieve results.
| Resource | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Main Estimates | 35,190,308 | 36,401,156 |
| Revolving fund | 1,575,000 | 5,172 |
| Total spending | 36,765,308 | 36,406,328 |
| Full-time equivalents | 158 | 147 |
Complete financial and human resources information for the NFB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.
Related government-wide priorities
Gender-based analysis plus
As noted in the Audiovisual Programming and Production’s “Details on results” section, the NFB has implemented a confidential, non-mandatory self-identification questionnaire, in addition to making a firm commitment that by March 31, 2025, at least 30% of its current productions and co-productions will be made by filmmakers/artists who identify as Black and People of Colour (BPOC). This commitment was developed in conjunction with the NFB’s Indigenous Action Plan and its plan for gender parity, both of which are ongoing commitments.
Implemented in 2023–24, the questionnaire and the BPOC production target are examples of strategic execution of the 24 goals and commitments to transformational change outlined in the NFB’s February 2021 EDI Plan, which contains concrete actions within four key areas: organizational structure, production and distribution, staffing, and governance. The NFB has experience in reaching targets, having set them for both gender equity (in 2016) and Indigenous production spending (in 2017), and anticipates positive results when its EDI action plans are finalized. By carrying through on these commitments, the NFB can contribute to eliminating decades of injustice that have arisen not only in Canadian society, but also within the institution.
United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals
The NFB has a mandate to give a voice to communities that are systematically underrepresented, to deal with subjects that have strong social resonance and to help promote co-existence in Canadian society. The agency therefore subscribes to the goals and principles set out in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Here are some examples of how the NFB contributed to these goals over the past year.
Sustainable Development Goal 5 – Within the 2023–24 fiscal year, 51% of respondents to the self-declaration form’s gender identity question identified as women.
Sustainable Development Goal 13 – Climate Action: The NFB explores issues around the environment and climate warming in audiovisual works such as Sinew, a documentary by co-directors Melaw Nakehk’ho and Lesley Johnson that was greenlit for production this year. The film explores the disappearances of barren-ground caribou in the Northwest Territories, examining the impact on those closest to the caribou and the role of Indigenous knowledge in caribou conservation. The NFB also addresses environmental issues in its productions for Ocean School, an online learning experience offered to students throughout Canada, and strives to be an active catalyst for conversations around sustainable development across the country.
Sustainable Development Goal 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions: As described in the above section, the NFB made progress towards fulfilling its key commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion. Through its productions, the NFB continues to entertain and inspire, as well as foster a more engaged and empowered society through dialogue around contemporary issues of peace and social justice. For example, the online documentary series Maisonneuve highlights the importance, as well as the fragility, of le vivre-ensemble (“living together in harmony”) in Quebec. In depicting both the challenges and the richness of students’ conversations, Maisonneuve amplifies the underrepresented voices within a new generation of Quebecers.
More information on the NFB’s contributions to Canada’s Federal Implementation Plan on the 2030 Agenda and the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy can be found in our Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy.
Innovation
The innovation objectives outlined in the 2023–24 Departmental Plan were successfully achieved. Creation’s experimentation with artificial intelligence (AI) as a creative tool has yielded highly rewarding results. For example, Alex Boya’s Bread Will Walk, an animated short film that was greenlit in 2023–24, employed a new, inventive combination of three techniques—hand-drawn images, CGI and AI—to enhance and complement human creativity and expression. The producers also discovered that the use of AI as a tool accelerated an otherwise resource-intensive process. The Technology Branch explored and tested virtual sets for animation production but postponed launching this technology until it can be adapted and applied to other production formats as well.
In the 2023–24 fiscal year, the NFB announced that its innovation activities in the screen sector would be expanding thanks to its newly formed Innovation Lab, whose goal is to help the NFB stay at the forefront of new technologies and maintain its industry leadership. Through the reallocation of funds to these innovation activities, and to the extent that the NFB can continue to financially support innovation in support of its mandate, the Lab’s mandate will serve long-term innovation at the NFB, improving our production and distribution methods and increasing audience engagement. The Lab’s team is charged with doing analyses, tests, adaptive prototypes, implementation and, ultimately, ensuring the organization benefits from the most promising ideas as they emerge. In 2024–25, the NFB will deploy an action plan dedicated to innovation. The Innovation Lab marks a new chapter by implementing the changes required for the NFB to continue to be a trailblazer and better serve Canadians and the country’s audiovisual industry.
Program inventory
Audiovisual Programming and Production is supported by the following programs:
- Audiovisual Programming and Production
Additional information related to the program inventory for Audiovisual Programming and Production is available on the Results page on GC InfoBase.
Description
The National Film Board strives to ensure that Canadians from all regions have access to its works across a range of formats. Understanding audiences and their consumption habits, making content available on a variety of platforms, and calling attention to National Film Board productions are thus intrinsic to the organization’s mandate. The National Film Board’s rich collection of over 14,000 titles constitutes an essential component of Canada’s cultural heritage. Preserving these works for the enjoyment of Canadians and people around the world, both today and in the future, falls under the mandate conferred to the National Film Board under the National Film Act.
Progress on results
This section presents details on how the department performed to achieve results and meet targets for Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement. Details are presented by departmental result.
Table 3: Targets and results for Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement
Table 3 provides a summary of the target and actual results for each indicator associated with the results under Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement.
NFB works are accessible on digital platforms
| Departmental Result Indicators | Target | Date to achieve target | Actual Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of titles offered online | 6,100 | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 5,737 2022-23: 5,915 2023-24: 6,508 |
NFB works are viewed around the world
| Departmental Result Indicators | Target | Date to achieve target | Actual Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of views of NFB works | 50,000,000 | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 64,059,352 2022-23: 59,348,229 2023-24: 57,240,612 |
| Percentage of Canadians who confirm having watched a NFB production in the last year | 20% | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 31% 2022-23: Not available 2023-24: Not available |
The NFB forges relationships with its online audiences
| Departmental Result Indicators | Target | Date to achieve target | Actual Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of interactions between the NFB and its online audiences | 10,000,000 | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 12,534,943 2022-23: 12,324,680 2023-24: 7,448,259 |
NFB works are preserved and their longevity assured for future generations
| Departmental Result Indicators | Target | Date to achieve target | Actual Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of digitized works in the active collection | 99.9% | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 99.9% 2022-23: 99.9% 2023-24: 99.9% |
| Percentage of digitized works in the total collection | 88% | March 31, 2024 | 2021-22: 73% 2022-23: 76% 2023-24: 80% |
Additional information on the detailed results and performance information for the NFB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.
Details on results
The following section describes the results for Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement in 2023–24 compared with the planned results set out in the NFB’s departmental plan for the year.
NFB works are accessible on digital platforms
Results achieved
- In 2023–24, the NFB focused on improving the user interface that is used most often on its nfb.ca viewing platform: the page for each individual work. Here are some of the improvements that the NFB made to this page, both on the nfb.ca website and in NFB mobile and smart-TV apps, to optimize the user experience and follow industry best practices: added functionalities for promoting and viewing series, added a rotating display of automated suggestions to make discovering works in the collection easier and redesigned the graphics for the interface and the header banner. In 2023–24, the NFB completed 60% of the planned redesign of this page, with the goals of maximizing the potential of each work, facilitating viewing and increasing the time that audiences spend on the viewing platform.
- As part of a national campaign to celebrate its online documentary offerings (see below), the NFB promoted its web, mobile and smart-TV applications, thus generating more than 14,000 app downloads during the campaign period.
- Over the past year, the NFB entered into significant partnerships with important distributors, thereby making its works more accessible and discoverable online. As of March 31, 2024, 63 NFB titles were offered on Roku channels and 50 on FAST channels on the Pluto TV platform. Work also began on creating an NFB FAST channel on Pluto TV.
- Lastly, an NFB channel was created on Letterboxd, the online social network for sharing opinions about films.
NFB works are viewed around the world
Results achieved
- As reaching audiences more effectively both in Canada and around the world is one of its main goals, the NFB revised its process for greenlighting (approving) new production projects. The new process is designed to align programming with distribution channels, which are determined at the very start of each project. The distribution and marketing team is actively involved in the approval process, in order to define the optimal distribution profile and make recommendations to filmmakers so that their works can be distributed as successfully as possible. This in-depth integration between production and distribution will be fully operational by the start of next year and will enable the NFB’s works to achieve their full viewing potential.
- The NFB also implemented a process for integrated collaboration between the production and distribution teams on co-productions. In 2023–24, the distribution team began participating in co-production projects from the concept stage, to maximize their success at the marketing stage.
- The NFB signed several major sales and distribution contracts this year. These included sales to the main Canadian channels and platforms (TVO, Documentary Channel, CBC Gem, TFO, APTN, LUMI); a distribution agreement with US distributor Kino Lorber for the documentary Ever Deadly (Chasseuse de son); an international (Canada, France, Germany, Australia) agreement with the Paramount+ streaming service for the documentary Anything for Fame (Célèbre à tout prix); and a distribution contract with the US company Submarine Distribution for 7 Beats Per Minute (7 battements par minute). The NFB also signed an agreement with Chilean broadcaster TVI for some 20 NFB titles delivered in Spanish.
The NFB forges relationships with its online audience
Results achieved
- During the past year, the marketing team deployed a national promotional campaign to celebrate the NFB’s documentary offerings on nfb.ca and to showcase the 12 new documentaries launched on NFB platforms last fall. The results of this campaign greatly exceeded expectations: over 562,000 complete views were recorded, demonstrating significant audience engagement with the NFB’s documentaries.
- The digital-platforms team launched a new tool that allows members of the public to search the NFB’s entire collection, comprising nearly 14,000 works. This tool, based on web-search best practices and the highest-performance search engines, lets users conduct searches using any keyword. It can be found at https://collection.nfb.ca/home.
- The results for the NFB’s social platforms show how tremendously attached Canadians feel to the NFB’s collection. A clip from the film the The Railrodder, posted to celebrate Buster Keaton’s birthday, generated a record 22,000 likes and 4.8 million views, and a clip from Canada Vignettes: Log Driver’s Waltz, posted to celebrate the birthday of Albert Wade Hemsworth, garnered 11,000 likes and 583,000 views. Among NFB French-language films, clips from the documentary Hubert Reeves: conteur d’étoiles (Hubert Reeves: Star Teller) generated 13,000 likes and 225,000 views, and a clip from Motoneige (Cold-Rodders) received 592,000 views. Also worth mentioning are the video Alanis Obomsawin Unboxes Her New DVD Box Set, shot by the NFB’s social media team, and the launch of the documentary The Colour of Ink (La couleur de l’encre) on Instagram, in response to the #Inktober challenge. Lastly, the Oscar campaign for the documentary To Kill a Tiger (Tuer un tigre) and the online launches of the series Maisonneuve and Étoile du Nord (North Star) also were among the most effective NFB initiatives on social media this year.
- The lower number of recorded interactions between the NFB and its online audiences was attributable to two main causes. First, the NFB’s transition to Google Analytics 4, which applies stricter rules for counting sessions, reduced this number considerably. Second, the ban on platforms owned by Meta Platforms Inc., such as Facebook, limited the NFB’s ability to engage audiences on these platforms.
NFB works are preserved and their longevity is assured for future generations
Results achieved
- As of March 31, 2024, the NFB had digitized more than 80% of its entire collection. The target set for this indicator in the 2023–24 Departmental Plan did not consider the change from the method previously used to calculate the number of works digitized: some titles that for technical reasons are digitized more than once are now counted only once, which reduces the total percentage of works digitized. Consequently, the target for this indicator has been revised downward for the coming fiscal year.
- In 2023–24, the NFB restored the image component of 128 titles in its active collection, preserving their original appearance for future generations.
- The NFB continued its partnership with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). In 2023–24, the NFB conservation team converted more than 315 hours of content recorded at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings into formats suitable for archiving and for streaming on the web.
Key risks
As was the case last year, the risk associated with a decline in distribution revenues did not materialize but remains a reality: in addition to the distribution issues described below, it is associated with the plan to democratize the NFB’s educational offerings in 2024–25.
The risk of a mismatch between the organization’s workload and its ability to achieve its institutional priorities also did not materialize but remains present. As planned, during the course of the year the NFB Operations Committee became fully operational, thus providing a clearer overview of all of the NFB’s projects and making it possible to establish a national programming vision while effectively allocating the NFB’s human and financial resources to its institutional priorities.
Lastly, there is a very real risk with regard to the NFB’s distribution models: they are obsolete but have yet to be replaced, while the discoverability of content is becoming more and more complex. It is necessary for the NFB to redouble its efforts so that this content will be seen. To continue to reach Canadians, the NFB absolutely must increase its financial resources for distribution and marketing.
Resources required to achieve anticipated results
Table 4: Snapshot of resources required for Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement
Table 4 provides a summary of the planned and actual spending and full-time equivalents (FTEs) required to achieve results.
| Resource | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Main Estimates | 19,391,305 | 23,041,297 |
| Revolving fund | 713,000 | 201,755 |
| Total Spending | 20,104,305 | 23,243,052 |
| Full-time equivalents | 157 | 160 |
Complete financial and human resources information for the NFB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.
Related government-wide priorities
Gender-based analysis plus
Year after year, the NFB strives to attain inclusive results in the distribution and marketing of its works, for the benefit of Canadians. In 2023–24, the agency engaged in a wide range of online activities to promote works created by or representing members of diverse communities. Examples of these activities include discussions with filmmakers, blog posts and promoting themed film channels. In these ways, the NFB celebrated Asian Heritage Month, Pride Month, National Indigenous History Month, Black History Month and several other events. The NFB’s thematic online programming reached more than 100,000 people. Similarly, the Audience Development team held several in-person screenings of NFB works for people from diverse backgrounds or with an interest in diversity issues, including organizations promoting the rights of women, ethnocultural and religious communities, official-language minority communities, Indigenous communities and organizations, and 2SLGBTQI+ groups. For example, the NFB worked closely with the Down Syndrome Resource Foundation to present Marie Clements’ feature documentary Lay Down Your Heart (Laissez parler votre cœur) at the very first edition of the Down Syndrome Film Festival. The warm welcome that this film received from the audience reflects the undeniable potential of this kind of representation, both in and beyond the communities most concerned with matters of disability and inclusion.
United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals
In 2023–24, the NFB contributed significantly to Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Education. The NFB Education team produced 11 mini-lessons and five study guides, designed to accompany classroom screenings of NFB films and available in both official languages. In addition, three professional development sessions, open to all Canadian teachers, appeared on the NFB Education website. Lastly, the agency continued to present educational playlists—selections of films that tie in with Canadian curricula, accessible for free online and updated weekly. We must also mention the performance of the educational project Ocean School, a free environmental-education resource that contributes to the advancement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 and Sustainable Development Goal 14 – Life Below Water. In 2023–24, Ocean School published 32 pieces of new content—each of which combined a media clip (such as a video, a 360-degree video, or an interactive experience) with a teaching activity designed to enhance knowledge—and welcomed 154,000 students. Lastly, the NFB promoted The Green Channel, which presents NFB films about the environment and ecology, and relaunched Fernand Dansereau’s 2001 documentary Les porteurs d’espoir (Hope Builders) to mark Earth Day 2023.
More information on the NFB’s contributions to Canada’s Federal Implementation Plan on the 2030 Agenda and the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy can be found in our Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy.
Innovation
To increase interest in and knowledge of animated films among the Canadian public, the NFB has deployed an innovative strategy for launching its animated films online: a channel entitled “The Best in Animation” that presents both classic NFB animated films and NFB animated films released during the year. Accompanied by a major advertising campaign, the launch of this channel was strategically synchronized with the run-up to the Oscars. This new approach has improved the performance of the NFB’s animated works online and enabled them to reach a wider audience. Having proven its effectiveness, this strategy will be repeated in coming years.
Program inventory
Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement is supported by the following programs:
- Distribution of works and audience engagement
- Promotion of works and NFB outreach
- Preservation, conservation and digitization of works
Additional information related to the program inventory for Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement is available on the Results page on GC InfoBase.
Description
Internal services are the services that are provided within a department so that it can meet its corporate obligations and deliver its programs. There are 10 categories of internal services:
- Management and oversight services;
- Communications services;
- Legal services;
- Human resources management services;
- Financial management services;
- Information management services;
- Information technology services;
- Real property management services;
- Materiel management services;
- Acquisition management services.
Progress on results
This section presents details on how the department performed to achieve results and meet targets for internal services.
Improve governance and planning processes
Like the other stakeholders in the audiovisual sector, the NFB must not only adapt to the major changes that this ecosystem has undergone in recent years, but also try to anticipate changes that are on the horizon. Since spring 2023, the agency has therefore been actively participating in discussions the Department of Canadian Heritage has been holding on the modernization of the audiovisual sector. While many organizations experienced some instability in fiscal year 2023–24, the NFB managed a number of achievements, guided by the collaboration of its various teams and made possible by supplementary funding that was essential, though only temporary and insufficient. Here are some of the steps that the NFB took in 2023–24 to improve its planning processes and deal more effectively with ongoing changes in the audiovisual sector:
- Developed its 2023–25 Action Plan as a continuation of the main strategies and priorities of the 2020–23 Strategic Plan. Defined the main priorities for the future 2025–28 Strategic Plan and deployed a strategy for consultations on this subject. These consultations began in winter 2024 with the NFB’s Board of Trustees and will continue over the coming year in Canada-wide consultations with the industry and the NFB’s main partners, as well as in strategic-planning exercises with the NFB management team and all employees.
- Established the Operations Committee to find solutions to operational issues and improve planning and prioritization of cross-functional projects not related to production, so that they can also take EDI requirements into account. In 2023–24, this committee implemented its mode of operation and began and completed various projects, including the implementation of the NFB’s first accessibility plan and the On-screen Protocols & Pathways guide, whose purpose is to introduce best media-production practices in collaboration with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.
- Prioritized the review and simplification of the NFB’s main operational processes and the improvement of its workflows, as a continuation of work done by the Operation Reboot Committee. In 2023–24, in addition to implementing ShotGrid project-management software, which allows the various teams to obtain an overview of all projects and, eventually, a single organizational vision, these teams collaborated on developing dashboards and planning tools for activities related to the launch and deployment of new works.
- Created a crisis-management plan that includes the revised institutional business-continuity plan, the revised IT business-continuity plan and a communication plan, all of which will enable the NFB to respond more effectively to various types of emergencies. We reviewed and prioritized the list of the organization’s critical activities, established a chain of communications, and wrote pre-approved messages to improve the response time to certain potential situations.
One of the other major projects completed in 2023–24 was the NFB’s 2023–27 Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy, submitted and published in November 2023, in which the NFB makes some concrete commitments, including the following two targets, which were supposed to be met by March 31, 2024:
- 30% of all employees with procurement authority will have taken the Canada School of Public Service course on green procurement, thus enabling the organization to achieve one of its targets related to FSDS Goal 12, Reduce Waste and Transition to Zero-Emission Vehicles.
- Indigenous professional-learning sessions on Inuit perspectives were provided to some employees and will continue in 2024–25. The target of 99%, related to FSDS Goal 10, Advance Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and Take Action on Inequality, is well on its way to being met.
Be an agent of change in the areas of equity, diversity and inclusion
To help meet its EDI commitments, the NFB appointed a Senior Advisor, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, who assumed this position on January 15, 2024. This senior advisor serves as a consultant on EDI and an agent of change supporting the organizational transformation efforts to ensure that EDI continues to be an NFB priority. In 2023–24, many steps were taken, both by this new Senior Advisor and by the organization as a whole, which again testifies to the NFB’s commitment to the values of equity, diversity and inclusion both in its works and as a Canadian employer.
- Provided professional-development sessions to members of the Executive Committee to enable them to develop their skills with regard to EDI.
- Prepared initiatives that will be launched next year: wrote an EDI plan, created a survey to learn more about the NFB’s EDI culture, and acquired tools to democratize the development of EDI competencies among all employees.
- Completed steps toward the implementation of pay equity, the plans for which comply with the Pay Equity Act. Over the past year, the Pay Equity Committee identified predominantly female and predominantly male job categories and began work on the NFB’s job-evaluation calculator, the modified evaluation plan and the components of remuneration.
- Pursued the objectives of the Indigenous Action Plan launched in 2017. In 2023–24, various Indigenous professional-learning sessions were offered to all employees, as well as a training session on recruiting Indigenous talent, designed especially for managers. Through the NFB Indigenous Circle, the agency also established an onboarding committee to foster better integration of new recruits from First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.
- Renewed the NFB’s commitment to official-language minority communities. In addition to participating in various meetings on the implementation of the new, modernized Official Languages Act, the NFB took steps to enhance the vitality of the English and French linguistic-minority communities by holding bilateral meetings and actively participating in meetings on the renewal of the Collaboration Agreement for the Development of Arts and Culture in the Francophone Minority Communities of Canada. With regard to the amendments to the Act, the NFB has begun an update of its action plan, for which consultations and deployment will take place in 2024–25.
Ensure the well-being of staff and those who work with us
The quality of life and mental health of our staff continued to be a priority for the NFB. Over the past fiscal year, we took various steps to maintain cohesion between the values of our organization and the behaviours and decisions of all of our staff.
- NFB Human Resources worked with the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada on the process of approving the new collective agreement. The HR team also reached an agreement in principle with the Syndicat général du cinéma et de la télévision and began the process of approving it.
- The NFB took further steps toward implementing its integrated talent-management strategy. Also, in 2023–24, the agency defined the fundamental values and core and cross-functional competencies that will be associated with training and development tracks for all staff.
- Prepared and published the 2023–25 Accessibility Plan for people with disabilities. This first plan of its kind at the NFB bears witness to its commitments not only toward its staff, but also toward its partners and its audiences.
- Reviewed the agency’s internal communications with a view toward improving them. An evaluation of best practices and an internal survey to measure the status and effectiveness of communications led to the first draft of an internal communication plan that includes processes and tools to improve two-way communications.
- Provided sessions run by the Canadian Mental Health Association to all staff.
- Asked managers to attend a mandatory training course entitled “Workplace Mental Health: How Managers Should Respond.” The purpose of this course was to equip managers so that they can respond confidently and effectively to mental-health problems in the workplace.
- With the help of the NFB Respect Committee, coordinated a discussion group on the anxieties and concerns raised by armed conflicts. This event was facilitated by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and held in January 2024, in response to staff members’ desire to express themselves on these alarming issues in a respectful setting.
Resources required to achieve anticipated results
Table 5: Resources required to achieve anticipated results for internal services this year
Table 5 provides a summary of the planned and actual spending and full-time equivalents (FTEs) required to achieve results.
| Resource | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Main Estimates | 11,042,592 | 11,936,115 |
| Revolving fund | 229,000 | 21,287 |
| Total Spending | 11,271,592 | 11,957,402 |
| Full-time equivalents | 73 | 77 |
Complete financial and human resources information for the NFB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.
Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses
Government of Canada departments must meet a target of awarding at least 5% of the total value of contracts to Indigenous businesses each year. This commitment is to be fully implemented by the end of 2024–25.
The NFB is a Phase 3 department and is aiming to achieve the minimum 5% target by the end of 2024–25.
To achieve this target, the NFB took the following steps in fiscal year 2023–24:
- Identified current contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses and associated exceptions;
- Reviewed the various contracting instruments available through SSC and PSPC in order to identify Indigenous sources for commonly used goods and services.
In 2024–25, the NFB plans to continue implementing a further set of measures to achieve the minimum 5% target. Here are some examples:
- Continue the discussions begun in 2022–23 with Indigenous Services Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat so that NFB Indigenous suppliers (creative personnel) can qualify as Indigenous businesses even if they are not registered in the Government of Canada’s Indigenous Business Directory or included on a list of beneficiary firms for contracts for which final delivery is made in an area covered by a modern treaty or self-government agreement containing economic provisions;
- Continue to deploy the self-identification process for Indigenous businesspeople, among others, to improve the quality of the data;
- Continue to develop tools and reports to monitor the quality of the data in the financial system, given that the information currently entered relates to transactions rather than to suppliers;
- Develop a dashboard to monitor the progress of contracts awarded to registered Indigenous suppliers;
- Following an update of the NFB procurement policy in 2022–23, operationalize processes related to Indigenous procurement and provide training on this subject to the employees concerned.
Spending and human resources
In this section
Spending
This section presents an overview of the department’s actual and planned expenditures from 2021–22 to 2026–27.
Budgetary performance summary
Table 6: Actual three-year spending on core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)
Table 6 presents how much money the NFB spent over the past three years to carry out its core responsibilities and for internal services.
The NFB authorities include budgetary expenditures voted by Parliament on an annual basis.
The NFB has also been granted the use of a revolving fund (non-lapsing authority) for working capital and capital acquisitions. The fund is reimbursed through the voted authorities on a periodical basis as directed by the Treasury Board.
In line with its investment plan, the NFB is progressing with the renewal of its technological equipment for audiovisual production and completed the move and upgrade of its digitization and conservation facility in 2020. Financing for these major investments was drawn from the revolving fund and reimbursement is planned over five years from the main authorities.
| Core responsibilities and internal services | 2023–24 Main Estimates | 2023–24 total authorities available for use | Actual spending over three years (authorities used) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main voted authorities | |||
| Audiovisual Programming and Production | 35,473,094 | 38,191,153 |
|
| Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement | 19,974,519 | 24,323,925 |
|
| Subtotal | 55,447,613 | 62,515,078 |
|
| Internal services | 11,042,592 | 12,170,038 |
|
| Total | 66,490,205 | 74,685,116 |
|
| Revolving fund authority | |||
| Audiovisual Programming and Production | - | 7,187,971 |
|
| Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement | - | 4,047,470 |
|
| Subtotal | - | 11,235,441 |
|
| Internal services | - | 2,237,579 |
|
| Total | - | 13,473,020 |
|
| Total authorities | |||
| Audiovisual Programming and Production | 35,473,094 | 45,379,124 |
|
| Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement | 19,974,519 | 28,371,395 |
|
| Subtotal | 55,447,613 | 73,750,519 |
|
| Internal services | 11,042,592 | 14,407,617 |
|
| Total | 66,490,205 | 88,158,136 |
|
Analysis of the past three years of spending
Main estimates, at $66.5 million, include a reduction of $1.2 million for the repayment of funds advanced for the relocation of the Montreal head office. The reduction of $1.2 million began in 2020–21 and is planned for 12 years, for a total repayment amount of $14.4 million. The NFB headquarters relocation project took place mostly in 2018–19 and 2019–20.
The main voted authorities available for use in 2023–24, at $74.7 million, include $5.3 million in temporary funding for critical operating requirements as confirmed in Budget 2023, as well as a $2 million carry-in from prior year. Main voted authorities available for use include a frozen allotment in the amount of $0.6 million for the repayment of the revolving fund for capital investments made in 2019–20. Repayment is planned over five years and began in 2021–22. These investments were part of an initiative to update technological equipment serving audiovisual production, as well as the relocation and modernization of the NFB’s digitization and conservation facilities.
Actual spending from main authorities totals $71.4 million for 2023–24 and is lower than the prior year, which included retroactive payments for the increase in executives’ salaries.
The NFB was able to finance technology investments for 2023–24 at $1.8 million, for 2022–23 at $0.6 million and for 2021–22 at $1.7 million.
More financial information from previous years is available on the Finances section of GC Infobase.
Table 7 Planned three-year spending on core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)
Table 7 presents how much money the NFB plans to spend over the next three years to carry out its core responsibilities and for internal services.
| Core responsibilities and internal services | 2024–25 planned spending | 2025–26 planned spending | 2026–27 planned spending |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main voted authorities | |||
| Audiovisual Programming and Production | 37,079,225 | 35,478,420 | 35,606,751 |
| Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement | 23,093,384 | 19,709,935 | 19,974,604 |
| Subtotal | 60,172,609 | 55,188,355 | 55,581,355 |
| Internal services | 11,388,473 | 11,173,755 | 11,173,755 |
| Total | 71,561,082 | 66,362,110 | 66,755,110 |
| Revolving fund authority | |||
| Audiovisual Programming and Production | - | - | - |
| Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement | - | - | - |
| Subtotal | - | - | - |
| Internal services | - | - | - |
| Total | - | - | - |
| Total authorities | |||
| Audiovisual Programming and Production | 37,079,225 | 35,478,420 | 35,606,751 |
| Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement | 23,093,384 | 19,709,935 | 19,974,604 |
| Subtotal | 60,172,609 | 55,188,355 | 55,581,355 |
| Internal services | 11,388,473 | 11,173,755 | 11,173,755 |
| Total | 71,561,082 | 66,362,110 | 66,755,110 |
Analysis of the next three years of spending
NFB planned spending is estimated at $71.6 million in 2024–25. These expenditures include temporary funding for critical operations that was confirmed in Budget 2023, in the amount of $5.3 million for 2023–24 and 2024–25. The critical operating requirements will persist in the coming years because of a structural deficit. The planned spending for 2025–26 and 2026–27 does not include these critical operating requirements.
The NFB is currently developing its next strategic plan. The need for drawdowns on the revolving fund to finance capital investments will be identified based on the outcome of the new plan.
It is important to note that the NFB’s annual reference level has been reduced by $1.2 million for the repayment of funds advanced for the relocation of the head office in Montreal. This reduction, which began in 2020–21, is planned for 12 years, for a total repayment amount of $14.4 million.
More detailed financial information from previous years is available in the “Finances” section of GC Infobase.
Funding
This section provides an overview of the department's voted and statutory funding for its core responsibilities and for internal services. For further information on funding authorities, consult the Government of Canada budgets and expenditures.
Graph 1: Approved funding (statutory and voted) over a six-year period
Graph 1 summarizes the department’s approved voted and statutory funding from 2021–22 to 2026–27.
The graph excludes spending financed from the NFB revolving fund. This fund is used to finance working capital and capital acquisitions; it is reimbursed periodically from the Main voted authorities presented below.
Long Description
Long Description for the graph Approved funding (statutory and voted) over a six-year period
| Year | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statutory | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Voted | $69,247,111 | $72,441,400 | $71,378,568 | $71,561,082 | $66,362,110 | $66,755,110 |
| Total | $69,247,111 | $72,441,400 | $71,378,568 | $71,561,082 | $66,362,110 | $66,755,110 |
Analysis of statutory and voted funding over a six-year period
The NFB received $14.4 million in funding for the relocation of its headquarters in Montreal, which took place in 2019–20. The agency is reimbursing this amount by reducing its allocation by $1.2 million per year over 12 years, starting in 2020–21.
Expenses include funding for critical operating requirements in the amounts of $5.1 million in 2021–22 and $5.3 million in 2022–23, 2023–24 and 2024–25.
Repayment of the revolving fund for investments made in 2019–20 began in 2021–22 through a frozen allotment and is planned to take place over five years. The frozen amounts are $1.7 million in 2021–22, $1.5 million in 2022–23, $0.6 million in 2023–24 and about $0.5 million in future years.
Actual spending in 2022–23 and 2023–24 is higher than in 2021–22, mainly because of salary increases and retroactive payments for the increase in executives’ salaries.
For further information on the NFB’s departmental voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada.
Financial statement highlights
The NFB’s complete financial statements (unaudited or audited) for the year ended March 31, 2024, are available online.
Table 8 Condensed Statement of Operations (unaudited or audited) for the year ended March 31, 2024 (dollars)
Table 8 summarizes the expenses and revenues for 2023–24 which net to the cost of operations before government funding and transfers.
| Financial information | 2023–24 actual results | 2023–24 planned results | Difference (actual results minus planned) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total expenses | 81,766,000 | 73,200,000 | 8,566,000 |
| Total revenues | 5,630,000 | 4,635,000 | 995,000 |
| Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers | 76,136,000 | 68,565,000 | 7,571,000 |
Revenues
Revenues projected for and recorded in 2023–24 were higher than those for the preceding year, mainly as the result of the billing of revenues from partnerships on projects.
Charges
Expenses are stated using the accrual accounting method.
The increase between the actual results achieved in 2023–24 and the projected results comes mainly from the following items:
- The funds received in 2023–24 for critical operating requirements, in the amount of $5,298,220;
- The adjustment in the provisions for statutory increases arising from the upward revision of rates;
- The provisions made for the workforce reductions announced in 2023–24.
The 2023–24 planned results information is provided in the NFB’s Future-Oriented Statement of Operations and Notes 2023–24.
Table 9 summarizes actual expenses and revenues which net to the cost of operations before government funding and transfers.
| Financial information | 2023–24 actual results | 2022–23 actual results | Difference (2023-24 minus 2022-23) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total expenses | 81,766,000 | 77,994,000 | 3,772,000 |
| Total revenues | 5,630,000 | 4,232,000 | 1,398,000 |
| Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers | 76,136,000 | 73,762,000 | 2,374,000 |
Revenues
Revenues projected for and recorded in 2023–24 were higher than those for the preceding year, mainly as the result of the billing of revenues from partnerships on projects.
Expenses
Expenses are stated using the accrual accounting method.
The increase between the actual results achieved in 2023–24 and the projected results comes mainly from the following items:
- The adjustment in the provisions for statutory increases arising from the upward revision of rates;
- The provisions made for the workforce reductions announced in 2023–24.
Table 10 Condensed Statement of Financial Position (unaudited or audited) as of March 31, 2024 (dollars)
Table 10 provides a brief snapshot of the department’s liabilities (what it owes) and assets (what the department owns), which helps to indicate its ability to carry out programs and services.
| Financial information | Actual fiscal year (2023–24) | Previous fiscal year (2022–23) | Difference (2023–24 minus 2022–23) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total net liabilities | 17,397,000 | 13,869,000 | 3,528,000 |
| Total net financial assets | 6,221,000 | 6,005,000 | 216,000 |
| Departmental net debt | 11,176,000 | 7,864,000 | 3,312,000 |
| Total non-financial assets | 20,840,000 | 22,401,000 | (1,561,000) |
| Departmental net financial position | 9,664,000 | 14,537,000 | (4,873,000) |
The increase in total net liabilities resulted mainly from the adjustment in the provisions for statutory increases arising from the upward revision of rates, as well as from the provisions made for the workforce reductions announced in 2023–24.
The increase in total net financial assets resulted mainly from the increase in the amount of accounts receivable.
The departmental net debt represents the difference between total net liabilities and total net financial assets.
The decrease in total non-financial assets was due to amortization of the capital assets acquired under the investment plan.
The departmental net financial position decreased mainly as the result of the increase in the provisions and the decrease in the capital assets.
Human resources
This section presents an overview of the department’s actual and planned human resources from 2021–22 to 2026–27.
Table 11: Actual human resources for core responsibilities and internal services
Table 11 shows a summary of human resources, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for the NFB’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for the previous three fiscal years.
| Core responsibilities and internal services | 2021–22 actual FTEs | 2022–23 actual FTEs | 2023–24 actual FTEs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audiovisual Programming and Production | 157 | 151 | 147 |
| Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement | 155 | 159 | 160 |
| Subtotal | 312 | 310 | 307 |
| Internal services | 75 | 71 | 77 |
| Total | 387 | 381 | 384 |
Analysis of human resources over the last three years
The level of human resources remains relatively stable. Human resources in Audiovisual Production and Programming are decreasing in preparation for the reduction of work structures that will ultimately allow reinvestment into Programming and Production at the heart of the NFB's mandate. Human resources allocated to internal services are increasing compared to the previous year following the filling of vacant positions.
Table 12: Human resources planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services
Table 12 shows information on human resources, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for each of the NFB’s core responsibilities and for its internal services planned for the next three years. Human resources for the current fiscal year are forecasted based on year to date.
| Core responsibilities and internal services | 2024–25 planned FTEs | 2025–26 planned FTEs | 2026–27 planned FTEs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audiovisual Programming and Production | 158 | 158 | 158 |
| Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement | 159 | 159 | 159 |
| Subtotal | 317 | 317 | 317 |
| Internal services | 73 | 73 | 73 |
| Total | 390 | 390 | 390 |
Analysis of human resources for the next three years
The NFB is currently developing its next strategic plan, continuing to optimize its new structure and evolve alongside the modernization of the Canadian audiovisual landscape. Furthermore, the NFB is continuing initiatives to streamline internal processes and develop decision-making information tools in order to be an agile and efficient organization. The impact of these initiatives will result in a reduction in human resources of approximately 10%, which will be reflected in the next departmental plan. The funds freed up by the streamlining of work structures will be reinvested in Programming and Production which are at the heart of the NFB's mandate.
Corporate information
Departmental profile
Appropriate minister: The Honourable Pascale St-Onge, P.C., M.P., Minister of Canadian Heritage
Institutional head: Suzanne Guèvremont, Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Film Board
Ministerial portfolio: Canadian Heritage
Enabling instrument: National Film Act, R.S.C., c. N-8
Year of incorporation / commencement: 1939
Other: The NFB Board of Trustees is composed of eight members: the Government Film Commissioner, who acts as the Board’s chairperson, the Executive Director of Telefilm Canada (ex-officio member) and six other members appointed by the Governor in Council. With the exception of the Commissioner and Executive Director of Telefilm Canada, Board members serve three-year terms. The Board’s primary role is to define the NFB’s broad strategic directions and monitor its results. It approves its strategic plans and budgets, among other items.
Departmental contact information
Mailing address:
National Film Board of Canada
1501 De Bleury Street
Montreal, QC
Canada H3A 0H3
Telephone: 1-800-267-7710
Email: reports@onf-nfb.gc.ca
Website(s):
www.nfb.ca
www.canada.ca/en/national-film-board.html
Social Media
www.facebook.com/nfb.ca
www.twitter.com/thenfb/
vimeo.com/thenfb
www.youtube.com/user/nfb
www.instagram.com/onf_nfb/
Supplementary information tables
The following supplementary information table is available on the NFB’s website:
Federal tax expenditures
The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures. This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs as well as evaluations and GBA Plus of tax expenditures.
Definitions
appropriation (crédit)
Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)
Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, departments or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.
core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)
An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in one or more related departmental results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.
Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)
A report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a 3year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.
departmental priority (priorité)
A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Priorities represent the things that are most important or what must be done first to support the achievement of the desired departmental results.
departmental result (résultat ministériel)
A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments’ immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.
departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)
A quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.
departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)
A framework that connects the department’s core responsibilities to its departmental results and departmental result indicators.
Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)
A report on a department’s actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.
fulltime equivalent (équivalent temps plein)
A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full personyear charge against a departmental budget. For a particular position, the fulltime equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person’s collective agreement.
gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS Plus])
An analytical tool used to assess support the development of responsive and inclusive how different groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and policies, programs, and other initiatives. GBA Plus is a process for understanding who is impacted by the issue or opportunity being addressed by the initiative; identifying how the initiative could be tailored to meet diverse needs of the people most impacted; and anticipating and mitigating any barriers to accessing or benefitting from the initiative. GBA Plus is an intersectional analysis that goes beyond biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) differences to consider other factors, such as age, disability, education, ethnicity, economic status, geography (including rurality), language, race, religion, and sexual orientation.
government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)
For the purpose of the 2023–24 Departmental Results Report, government-wide priorities are the high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the November 23, 2021, Speech from the Throne: building a healthier today and tomorrow; growing a more resilient economy; bolder climate action; fight harder for safer communities; standing up for diversity and inclusion; moving faster on the path to reconciliation; and fighting for a secure, just and equitable world.
horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)
An initiative where two or more federal departments are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.
Indigenous business (entreprise autochtones)
For the purpose of the Directive on the Management of Procurement Appendix E: Mandatory Procedures for Contracts Awarded to Indigenous Businesses and the Government of Canada’s commitment that a mandatory minimum target of 5% of the total value of contracts is awarded to Indigenous businesses, a department that meets the definition and requirements as defined by the Indigenous Business Directory.
non‑budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)
Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.
performance (rendement)
What a department did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the department intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.
performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)
A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an department, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.
plan (plan)
The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how a department intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead to the expected result.
planned spending (dépenses prévues)
For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in Main Estimates.
A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.
program (programme)
Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.
program inventory (répertoire des programmes)
Identifies all the department’s programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department’s core responsibilities and results.
result (résultat)
A consequence attributed, in part, to an department, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single department, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the department’s influence.
statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)
Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.
target (cible)
A measurable performance or success level that a department, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.
voted expenditures (dépenses votées)
Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an appropriation act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.