February may be a significant month for Western producers as ongoing efforts of the Saskatchewan and Alberta film industries to institute new financing strategies move into critical stages.

The Saskatchewan industry, through a subcommittee of the Saskatchewan Motion Picture Industries Association, has been lobbying the provincial government since last summer to institute a tax-incentive program to support indigenous production.

The committee, comprised of members of smpia and Saskatchewan producers including Stephen Onda, Kevin DeWalt and chair Gail Tilson, presented an Employment Incentive Program as part of a Strategy for Success document outlining several initiatives designed to support the growing film and tv industry in the province.

The provincial government, presently in budget deliberations, is expected to indicate its position on the tax-credit program by the end of February, in advance of issuing its budget in March.

The proposed Employment Incentive Program is a fully refundable tax credit, calculated as a percentage of costs for Saskatchewan labor for wages or up to a percentage of total production costs. smpia president Ron Goetz says the provincial government has been relatively supportive of the industry and is ‘looking seriously’ at the proposal.

As part of its lobbying effort, the committee presented the results of an analysis of 40 provincial productions to demonstrate the effects of a tax credit on those projects and on government, the effects of a continued absence of a tax credit, and recommendations on how the credit should be implemented.

Saskatchewan producers had previously identified the importance of instituting continued and updated funding initiatives to support the industry, which grew from $5 million in production in 1992 to an estimated $26 million in 1996.

Another Saskatchewan program, the mipcom fellowship, is heading into its third year and has been expanded to include producers from across the country. The program, spearheaded by smpia with sponsorship from Telefilm Canada and Reed Midem, sent 15 producers from five provinces, supported by regional film bodies, to mipcom to provide experience in making deals in the international marketplace.

Goetz says smpia has proposed a four-year run for the program, and with interest from Ontario and b.c. anticipates the fellowship will become a truly national program.

Moving westward, the Alberta film and tv industry is continuing its own lobbying efforts toward instituting a tax credit in that province.

A committee supported by the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association and comprised of some of the province’s prolific producers will make a presentation to the executive of the Alberta Economic Development Authority before the end of February to present its well-documented case.

The committee has been lobbying since the closure of the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation in March 1996 and released an economic impact study by Price Waterhouse in December.

‘Revenue-negative’

‘We know a deferred tax credit would be revenue-negative for the province and would allow Alberta producers to create jobs within the province and positive cash flow for the Alberta treasury,’ says Leon Lubin, executive director of ampia. The industry is aiming to procure funding decisions before the provincial election, likely in late March.

Lubin says Alberta producers are at a severe competitive disadvantage and there is grave concern about the future of the indigenous film industry in the province if no funding initiatives are put in place. He says there may already be up to $30 million in productions leaving the province this year.

‘If this goes unchecked, production dollars will be sucked out of Alberta faster than they sucked the cod off the Grand Banks in Newfoundland,’ he says.