Canada's performer union prices low-budget work by a sliding scale

The figure or the record

Canada's performers' union, ACTRA, states on its own Independent Production Agreement page that the IPA, running 26 January 2025 to 31 December 2027, 'covers the engagement of performers in all film, television and digital media production in Canada,' outside British Columbia, which bargains separately through UBCP/ACTRA. A vertical series shot in most of Canada would sign this single agreement rather than a format-specific one. Built into the IPA is a companion mechanism named CIPIP — the Canadian Independent Production Incentive Program — whose Appendix 18 states its purpose is 'to encourage low-budget Canadian' production by discounting the IPA's minimum fees for projects that meet a certified budget test.

What the documents establish

ACTRA's Other Agreements page frames the philosophy plainly: 'From low to big budget productions, ACTRA agreements fit every production.' CIPIP Appendix 18 shows the mechanics: a producer must certify the total production budget, or sign a statutory declaration where certification is not possible, and a series 'must resubmit for each production cycle or season.' Discounts are graduated by budget band across categories including television movies, features, and, closest to vertical drama's economics, 'TV Series on Tape' priced per half-hour of finished material — the smallest band running up to $40,700 per half-hour before the largest discount tier applies.

Scope and caveats

CIPIP discounts the IPA's own minimum fees; it does not replace them or set an independent vertical rate. Nothing in either document uses the word 'vertical,' and there is no separate micro-drama category — a vertical series is priced as a low-budget television series on tape, sorted by its declared per-half-hour cost into whichever discount band that figure falls under. The discount also varies by whether the cast is 'all-Canadian' or not, a distinction that has nothing to do with format and everything to do with separate cultural-content policy this record does not otherwise cover.

What to watch

Editorially, the number worth tracking is where a real vertical series' declared per-half-hour-equivalent cost lands on this schedule, since that single figure — not the format — decides the applicable discount.

• What per-half-hour cost does a Canadian vertical production certify, and which CIPIP band does that place it in?
• Is the cast composition all-Canadian, which changes the applicable discount percentage under the schedule?
• Does the production resubmit its budget certification each season, as Appendix 18 requires of a continuing series?

ACTRA's published structure treats a low-budget vertical shoot as a discounted instance of ordinary television, not as a new category with its own rate.