From its earliest days, filmmaking has been a powerful form of cultural and artistic expression, and a highly profitable commercial enterprise. From a practical standpoint, filmmaking is a business involving large sums of money and a complex division of labour engaged, roughly speaking, in three sectors: production, distribution and exhibition.

The history of the Canadian film industry has been one of sporadic achievement accomplished in isolation against great odds. Canadian cinema has existed within an environment where access to capital for production, to the marketplace for distribution and to theatres for exhibition has been extremely difficult. It has experienced a concurrent history of struggle against an entertainment monopoly (Hollywood) and a search for an audience that remains largely unaware of a domestic industry. The lack of domestic production throughout much of the industry’s history can only be understood against this economic backdrop, where the major distribution and exhibition outlets have been owned and controlled by foreign interests.

See the history at:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-history-of-film-in-canada/