TIMELINE

Since its first steps in the 1970s, the B.C. film industry has grown so much that it stands alongside traditional resource sectors like forestry and mining when it comes to economic benefits

The B.C. film industry shoots to the the economic forefront

In January 2015, when Postmedia closed its Kennedy Heights printing plant in Surrey, which produced the Vancouver Sun and The Province, the costcutting measure was a blatant sign of the troubles facing the newspaper industry. Enter Skydance Media, the producer of Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, which moved into the 220,000-square-foot facility and opened Skydance Studios this past September.

Film studios have been taking over industrial spaces since the late 1970s, when crews filmed in unused parts of the closed-up Dominion Bridge steel plant in Burnaby. By 1979, when Hollywood began to decentralize production and the exchange rate favoured Canadian locations, B.C. hit a “breakthrough,” according to Hollywood North author Mike Gasher. That year, the province was the backdrop for 16 films that created $50 million in direct spending. Just a few years later, B.C. was dubbed Hollywood North when productions starring some of Tinseltown's biggest names, such as Sylvester Stallone and Mariel Hemingway, set up camp.

Today the B.C. film industry generates $4 billion in annual GDP and supports 85,000 jobs. Creativebc has declared that the industry is now shoulder-toshoulder with other industrial sectors such as mining, agriculture and forestry.

The new Surrey studio is expected to generate 400 jobs and inject $100 million into the local economy. As for Skydance Media, the facility will play a key role in the company's plans for new film and television production, CEO David Ellison said in a statement: “We are incredibly excited about putting down new roots in Surrey and becoming a part of the community's future growth.”