ACTRA's own contract text sets Canada's synthetic-performer terms

The shot

The Independent Production Agreement (IPA) between ACTRA, the Canadian performers' union, and the Canadian Media Producers Association and l'Association québécoise de la production médiatique (AQPM), covers the term 26 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. Its published text, posted by ACTRA as the agreement's official copy, contains an article the parties label 'G2 - Generative Artificial Intelligence,' governing what the agreement calls 'Synthetic Performers': digitally created assets intended to appear as an unidentifiable natural performer, in a role no actual performer was engaged to play.

What the documents show

The agreement's own text, in Article G201, states that for productions starting principal photography on or after 27 April 2025, a producer using a Synthetic Performer 'in a human role that would otherwise be performed by a human' must give ACTRA notice and 'an opportunity to bargain in good faith over appropriate consideration' for that substitution. Separately, if a producer builds a Synthetic Performer with a recognisable facial feature by naming a specific real performer in a prompt, the agreement requires that performer's individual consent and negotiation, without further ACTRA involvement under this article. The agreement states the parties will 'meet regularly... to discuss appropriate remuneration' for archival photography or sound used to train a generative system, and will begin new G2 negotiations six months before the agreement expires. ACTRA's own summary page confirms the agreement covers performer engagement across Canadian film, television and digital media production outside British Columbia, which bargains separately.

The workflow

A Canadian production replacing a human role with a Synthetic Performer under this agreement must notify ACTRA and negotiate consideration before proceeding, rather than treating the substitution as a purely technical decision; a production naming a specific performer's face in a generative prompt must secure that individual's consent directly. Neither path is automatic, and the agreement routes disputes through its existing grievance article rather than a new AI-specific tribunal.

What the tool does not change

The agreement's own text explicitly does not disturb Canada's existing digital-replica article or the Charter-based exceptions already recognised for comment, satire, parody, docudrama or biographical work; those categories permit use of a person's likeness without new consent under existing Canadian legal doctrine. This is ACTRA's own negotiated language with the CMPA and AQPM specifically, and nothing in the agreement states that it mirrors any comparable US union agreement's wording, a comparison this record does not make.

• Does your production's principal photography start date fall before or after 27 April 2025, when this article's Synthetic Performer terms take effect?
• If a generative system is trained on archival photography or sound from a prior ACTRA production, has remuneration been discussed under this article?
• Is a specific, identifiable performer's face named in any generative prompt used on the production?

What the agreement documents is a bargained notice-and-negotiate mechanism specific to this Canadian contract, not a blanket ban or blanket permission on synthetic performers, and reading it that way keeps the actual text's conditional language intact.