Montreal: the Quebec producers association, the apftq, has withdrawn from Initiative Quebec, a service and producer umbrella group established to promote Quebec as a shooting location.

The apftq says it can no longer participate in promotional activity because foreign production has reached a level where it is now adversely affecting the service and manpower costs of local production.

In a letter to the apftq, Stephane Lestage, president of Initiative Quebec (Societe pour la promotion de la production etrangere de cinema et de television du Quebec), says the apftq’s concerns are ‘understandable’ but based on an ‘incorrect analysis.’ According to Lestage, bigger-budget foreign production makes it possible for Quebec service and post-production companies to invest in state-of-the-art technology and personnel specialization.

‘Thanks to foreign shoots, Quebec is talked about everywhere in the world,’ says Lestage.

Lestage says the development of the industry in Quebec cannot be tied solely to domestic film and tv production, which he says is chronically underfunded.

Montreal film commissioner Andre Lafond is projecting $600 million in independent production in Quebec in ’98, $200 million or more in foreign production investment, largely American. Foreign production was $130 million ’97.

The city uses an industry standard ‘doubling’ formula to calculate total economic benefits derived from film and tv production activity, a figure Lafond pegs at $1.2 billion this year.