Hello ACTRA Maritimes members:

Moving into the warm days of summer is always an exciting time of the year here in the Maritimes, as we anticipate the upcoming film and television production season. Our ACTRA Maritimes Branch Rep Gillian Everill and our Business Rep Sian Morris Ross are doing wonderful work at our office, and there are currently a number of projects that will be filming soon, including new and returning series for Bell Fibe, and Canadian feature film projects. Our office is also carefully monitoring the events in our industry, including the Writers Guild of America strike, and more recently the SAG-AFTRA strike.  While we support SAG-AFTRA performers in their fight for an equitable agreement, ACTRA members here in Canada continue to work.   We are hopeful that many of the projects in our region will be moving forward as planned.  As more casting calls start rolling out, it’s also a perfect time now to update our headshots and freshen up our ACTRA online profiles.

Our ACTRA Awards were held as part of the Nova Scotia Screen Awards gala held at Casino Nova Scotia on May 13^th.  Huge congratulations to our award winners:  Taylor Olson, Marlee Sansom, Briar Mosher and Pheobe Rex.    

Dues invoices for 2023-2024 were sent by email to all ACTRA Full Members in March (ACTRA Apprentice members have renewal dates based on the calendar month when you joined so watch your email throughout the year for your dues invoice). If you have not been receiving email from ACTRA National or ACTRA Maritimes, be sure to reach out to the office and Gillian and Sian will make sure ACTRA has your current email address.

Please also join me in welcoming five new members to our ACTRA Maritimes Council, and some of the many committees that they are leading – Christie Carter (Communications committee, Co-chair of the Stunts committee, Co-chair of the Constitution and By-Laws committee, Co-chair of the Women’s committee), Dale Willman (Co-chair of the Training committee, Communications committee, Co-chair of the Women’s committee), Nancy Kenny (Chair of the Stand-In committee, Co-chair of the Training Committee), Liise Keeling (Communications committee, Co-chair of the Stunts committee) and Kathleen Dorian (Background Performers committee). Our new Councillors are already enthusiastically beginning this new Council term with new initiatives to enhance training and other great opportunities for our membership, so stay tuned!

Our new Council also includes our returning Vice President Koumbie (Co-chair of the Diversity committee, Co-chair of the Sponsorship committee, and currently touring with the feature film Bystanders, and with many exciting upcoming film projects as director and writer!), our returning Recording Secretary Gil Anderson (Chair of the Special Events committee, Co-chair of the Sponsorship committee), Kevin Gerrior (Co-chair of the Constitution and By-Laws committee) as our Treasurer, and Bob Mann as the Chair of our Discipline committee and Co-chair of our Constitution and By-Laws committee. Our Diversity committee Co-chair Sandrella Mohanna, also joins Matt Lumley as they Co-chair our Awards committee.

We also say a fond farewell to our past Councillors Kirsten Howell, Frietzen Kenter, and David Christoffel and we sincerely thank them for their tremendous service, dedication and impressive work for so many years for our branch!  You can also find a list of ACTRA Maritimes committees on our webpage. If you are interested in being involved with a committee, let us know by emailing maritimes@actra.ca  

Also launching soon on our website, is the new ACTRA Maritimes stunts portal.  With this new online portal, you can learn more about how to get involved or more actively involved, with stunts, and there is also information on equipment and training, and a list of helpful resources for our stunts community.  This is a joint initiative between ACTRA Maritimes, and ACTRA Newfoundland, spearheaded by our National Stunt Rep Liise Keeling, with time and efforts from ACTRA Maritimes Business Rep Sian Morris Ross, Carol Taverner and the Communications team at ACTRA National.  

ACTRA Maritimes has also launched a new Facebook page: ACTRA Maritimes Member Information. If you are a member of ACTRA Maritimes and you have not been added yet, please request to join. 

In June, ACTRA ratified and implemented the renewed NCA agreement with the ACA for 2023 – 2024!  But it isn’t over.  We are now past the one-year mark of being illegally locked out by advertising agencies who are members of the ICA. ACTRA continues to fight for the rates and benefits you deserve, and there are actions you can take to help support the National bargaining team. Keep your eye on  email from ACTRA National on ACTRA’s negotiations with the ICA, and visit News You Can Use here.

Thank you once again for supporting the work of our union, and from our ACTRA Maritimes Council, and our ACTRA Maritimes office, we wish you a great filming year!

In Solidarity,

Chris Cuthbertson
ACTRA Maritimes President 

Updated: July 20, 2023