Nova Scotia putting its film tax credit up for review has prompted an outcry from the East Coast film and TV industry, with cast of the Trailer Park Boys taking to YouTube in character to appeal to fans to help save the key production incentive.

“If they do that, then the camera people who come and film us, and put us on the TV, they’re not going to be able to do that anymore. So they’ll be no more show, unless we move away,” Bubbles of Trailer Park Boys said in the video plea released online.

Mike Smith, Robb Wells and John Paul Tremblay appear in the YouTube video after finance minister Diana Whalen in a March 25 pre-budget speech said the province’s film tax credit, which costs around $24 million a year currently, was up for review.

Smith, Wells and Tremblay urged their fans to contact Whalen, and displayed her contact information prominently. The “boys” also took to Twitter to urge people to sign a Change.org petition to save the credit, a chorus that was joined by East Coast filmmaker Jennifer Liao (The End of Days at Godfrey Global Inventory) and Canadian actor Jay Baruchel. The lobbying effort even crossed borders, with American actor Michael Rapaport posting a plea in support of the tax credit to his 57,900 followers.

The question mark over the film tax credit in Nova Scotia has pit a film industry arguing it needs the production incentive to assure its future locally against the provincial government insisting it borrows to fund the tax break for mostly out-of-province producers.

On Monday morning, the YouTube video had been viewed more than 80,000 times and the Change.org petition had over 16,000 signatures.