Vancouver: On Nov. 3, b.c.’s Minister of Finance Joy MacPhail declared the province’s new tax credits for domestic and foreign production unqualified successes in stimulating film and television production.

‘The tax credits are working and working huge,’ said MacPhail, speaking at a press event held on the Burnaby soundstage of The New Addams Family series.

According to the Ministry of Small Business, Tourism and Culture, 63 productions have taken advantage of the new tax credits and are responsible for $430 million in direct spending in the province.

‘While there is a downturn in the resource sector, there are a couple of incredible bright spots in the economy,’ said MacPhail. ‘The film and television industry is one of them.’

She adds that the production sector’s ability to create jobs and spin off investment makes it a ‘good place to invest’ when the government’s financial resources are thin.

Tallies for the five-month period since the domestically inclined Film Incentive b.c. came into effect suggest that Canadian production is claiming a larger share of the local industry

There have been 37 Canadian productions – including Cold Squad, Poltergeist and Outer Limits – shot in b.c. since April 2. Collectively, direct spending from Canadian productions has reached $200 million.

Since the production services tax credit came into effect June 2, 26 foreign productions – such as Double Jeopardy, Atomic Train and Viper – have used b.c. as a location and spent $230 million.

The healthy foreign spending, says b.c. Film Commissioner Pete Mitchell, goes a long way toward allaying fears outlined in a pre-incentive Coopers & Lybrand report, which suggests that without a production services tax credit b.c. would lose $290 million in foreign production.

Says James Shavick, executive producer for Addams Family: ‘We would not be this far along and creating these productions without the tax credits introduced by the government.’

And Lance Robbins, the l.a.-based president of Fox Family Channel, which commissioned Addams Family, says his long relationship with b.c. will continue ‘as long as the tax credits are beneficial and b.c. remains open and available.’