A group made up of advertising industry organizations and the union representing French-language performers in Canada have updated their collective agreement covering work done in TV and radio.

The agreement – which expired in 2015 and remains in effect until a new agreement is reached – has not been renewed, but L’Association des producteurs conjoints (APC, or Association of Joint Producers in English) and the Union Des Artistes (UDA) have agreed to adopt new and updated clauses, which came following mediation in 2017 and 2018.

The APC is a joint group made up of the Association of Creative Communication Agencies (A2C) and the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) – which represented APC at the table – as well as the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA). The UDA represents over 13,000 actors, singers and entertainers working in French across Canada.

The changes to the previous agreement can be found in full on the A2C’s website, and are described in a release as not including “major changes,” but “improvements for both parties.” Many of the new and updated clauses provide more detail and updated language around the responsibilities for things like usage rights, providing information to performers and who is to be granted and covered by work permits. The most significant changes are in a new section outlining how producers and talent can use commercials in their portfolios, as well as in the section pertaining to how performers under the age of 18 are to be paid (specifically, the portion of their payment that is to be transferred to a fund for young performers).

A separate collective agreement for digital and new media ads expired in March 2018, and has continued to remain in effect while a new one is being negotiated.

In addition to the new agreement, the APC and UDA have established a joint working committee that has been tasked with assessing the current state of advertising production in Quebec and make recommendations for improvements. Dominique Villeneuve, president and CEO of the A2C, says the group would look at strengthening the industry in Quebec as a whole and what potential improvements existed for agencies, production companies and performers. While it is still too early to say specifically what issues needed tackling or what the group would focus on addressing, Villeneuve says any recommendations would have an eye towards improving and increasing production in the province, which is a key part of the A2C’s ongoing mandate.

“This initiative has the potential to stimulate the industry, for the benefit of the entire advertising and cultural ecosystem, both for artists and producers,” she says. “We must think together about the solutions and above all implement them quickly to increase production in Quebec.”

A similiar deal between the ACA, ICA and ACTRA, which represents actors and entertainers performing in English, is set to expire in April of this year.