B.C. Finance Minister Joy MacPhail was wearing used suede loafers

instead of more traditional shiny new brogues when she walked into the legislature March 30 to deliver the 1999/2000 provincial budget.

That they were castoffs from the wardrobe department of Our Guys, an abc mow that wrapped March 17 in Vancouver, sent an unmistakable signal to the local production industry: The ndp likes you! It really likes you!

But if there was ever a time to reevaluate how you do your production financing in b.c., now is the time.

It was perhaps a function of the continuing and growing uncertainty of government support for Canadian film production in general that the domestic b.c. industry had for months been bracing for the worst – that in the new budget the b.c. government would eviscerate funding agency British Columbia Film at a time when local producers were making huge strides.

Now that the suede loafers are back in the closet, though, the b.c. industry can breath a sigh of relief. Doom sayers were proven wrong, at least for the short term.

Funding at B.C. Film has been maintained, investment will go on and the film industry continues to command the attention of a government that has a lot to be distracted by. What’s more clear in this budget is that the government realizes that the u.s. service business is something of a flickering image upon a screen – lucrative and self-sustaining at the moment, but an industry that would fade quickly should the Canadian and u.s. dollars ever reach parity. It appears government truly recognizes that a long-term industry is only viable in b.c. if the domestic filmmakers can make homemade production.

So take the government’s largesse this year as a confidence booster, but don’t get too high. B.C. Film’s influence will be subdued this year over last. Fewer productions will gain from it and the funder’s long-term outlook is far from bright. Reserves will be depleted. And lay bets that next year at this time, locals will be lobbying stridently once again for B.C. Film to be saved from the guillotine.

It is also a drama likely to be played out on the national stage when the political and fiscal heat finally become too much for Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund. There is little doubt that what you’ve witnessed in b.c. this year is an embattled government doing what it can to save its one bright economic story. In that regard, Clark, MacPhail and film minister Ian Waddell – who are known for their penchant for celebrities and klieg lights – have a lot to brag about.

In 1998, spending in b.c. by film production reached $808 million, about $60 million greater than Ontario’s spending levels. More importantly, in the same year, spending by Canadian production in b.c. increased 67% to $363 million, eating away at the overwhelming share of production maintained by the u.s. service work.

Much of the last year’s domestic volume was driven by DaVinci’s Inquest and Cold Squad, but breakthrough companies like Vidatron Entertainment, Forefront Entertainment, New City Productions, Studio B Productions and others are finally hitting the critical mass to eventually continue as companies outside the realm of B.C. Film.

Canadian production companies will do well to create sustainability from within. They should also admit, once and for all, that funding agencies are a dying breed unless they declare themselves for what they are: lotteries. In b.c., the demand for production financing is three times greater than what B.C. Film has to invest. The ctf and Telefilm are, likewise, overwhelmingly oversubscribed.

The b.c. government may have sidestepped a hardship for the domestic producers, but it’s only a warm-up for what’s around the corner.