Filmmakers push for provincial incentive boost

Alberta at risk of losing highly-skilled, high-paying industry jobs, they suggest

EDMONTON Local film industry professionals want the UCP government to rethink its new tax credit before the release of the budget on Feb. 27 to ensure Alberta’s screen industry can compete with other film-centric provinces.

“There is a gold rush of videoon-demand content being produced North America-wide,” said Calgary’s Damian Petti, a vice-president with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the U.S. and Canada (IATSE).

“This industry has been seeing rapid growth and in the two primary production hot spots — Ontario and B.C. — both are reporting astronomical jobs and growth as a result of incentives administered by the provincial governments.”

Petti met last week with Alberta government officials to argue that the province needs to change its recently reorganized system or risk losing highly-skilled, highly-paid jobs in the screen industry.

Meanwhile, one Edmonton filmmaker has already decamped to B.C., based on its government incentive programs.

“You have to have certainty you’ll get the funding in our industry,” Mosaic Entertainment’s Camille Beaudoin said in a phone interview from Vancouver, her home since the fall. “The way the funding is set up right now, there is no way we feel comfortable shooting in Alberta, which is really unfortunate.”

Beaudoin and her husband and business partner, Eric Rebalkin, are producers of the APTN sketch comedy series Caution, May Contain Nuts, as well as the award-winning teen movie, #ROXY (shot in Glenora and St. Albert).

“For someone like us, so committed to Alberta, but has to leave because we don’t feel comfortable here ... anyone outside Alberta would definitely not be comfortable coming here,” said Beaudoin,

noting Mosaic did $30 million worth of work in Alberta over the last 13 years.

A report released last week by the Alberta Federation of Labour said the UCP government’s new Film and Television Tax Credit program has two big problems.

The program, outlined in the 2019 budget, operates as a rebate of up to 30 per cent for eligible production expenses for shows shot in Alberta. It replaces a grant-based system.

From the perspective of the AFL and people interviewed in the film industry, the program is capped at $10 million per production, and has a maximum of $15 million for the entire industry for 20202021. The total rises to a maximum of $30 million industry-wide the following year and $45 million in 2022-23.

The government says its program is funded at $45 million a year for every year in its mandate, but the industry says that figure includes money owed to past film productions (it can take several years for the government to audit and pay back filmmakers), meaning only $15 million is available in 2020-2021 for new productions.

“Of course, we’ll be monitoring it closely,” said Economic Development Minister Tanya Fir in an interview about the program. “We have a mandate that we’re elected on and we’re on a path to a balanced budget.”

Ontario and B.C. have labour-based tax credit systems to attract screen content producers, but neither has a cap.

The AFL’S report, titled Time to Get Rolling: Growing the Screen Industry in Alberta, notes film and television production in Alberta in 2017-2018 totalled $255 million, compared with $3.5 billion in B.C. and $2.8 billion in Ontario.

The report says Alberta’s screen industry employs 1,850 people and created more than 5,300 spinoff jobs in 2017-2018. B.C.’S screen business employs 28,140 people.

The AFL report says that for every dollar invested in the film industry, $3.50 is returned to the Alberta economy.

“The screen industry is the poster child for diversification,” said Emmy-award winning Edmonton producer Michael Jorgensen, the chairman of the Alberta Media Production Industries Association (AMPIA).

“Long gone is the time when you stuck a pipe in the ground and oil gushed out. This is an industry that can help us get another industry going that’s green, has good-paying jobs and we can keep these highly qualified and talented people in this province.”

But for that to happen, said Jorgensen, the cap on the tax credit must be raised or eliminated.

A second problem is that Alberta’s program features a jury — overseen by the minister of economic development — to determine which productions get support. The government guidelines say financial support could be denied for productions that “in the opinion of the minister,” are contrary to public policy.

“The purpose of (the guidelines) is to make sure we’re not funding productions that could incite hatred against identifiable groups,” said Fir.

But Petti is concerned that when the pot of available money is so small, “the potential for picking winners and losers is there.”

The way the funding is set up right now, there is no way we feel comfortable shooting in Alberta, which is really unfortunate.