With the allure of its abundant tax credit, equity and development funds, versatile locations and other emerging infrastructures, New Brunswick is pushing to become one of Canada’s hot spots for film and television production.

Over the last three years, the province has seen the total value of its production volume soar from a mere $3 million in ’96/97 to $12 million in ’97/98, and jump to $31 million in ’98/99.

‘We have more development going on here now than ever before, which will translate into significantly higher numbers for 2000,’ says Ray Wilson, executive director of Film nb.

One of the province’s most attractive features is its 40% labor tax credit, for which a foreign producer can qualify without partnering up with a New Brunswick producer.

And unlike other jurisdictions in Canada, where the gst and pst are separate and producers can only receive the gst back, n.b. has a harmonized sales tax of 15% and producers can get a full refund on all the consumer tax they pay.

‘They have the best tax credit in Canada,’ says Victor Solnicki, cochairman of The Film Works in Toronto, who is currently working on a handful of projects in n.b.

To make the situation even more rosy, a task force that was set up last fall to review the province’s tax credit has recommended that the limits on the credit be lifted. Currently, says Wilson, there is a limit of $1 million for any one production and $2 million for any one prodco within a 12-month period, but the provincial government has adopted the task force’s recommendation and is expected to make the changes in the fall session of the legislature.

Although the limits have not hurt the industry, Wilson says they could become a problem as producers get busier, and removing the limits will help facilitate growth of production in the province.

‘There is a strong provincial government commitment to the industry in n.b., evidenced by the substantial increases in budget this year,’ he adds.

The Film nb budget, administered by the provincial government, has grown from $1.2 million in ’98/99 to $2 million for the new year.

However, because the industry in n.b. is still so young and relatively inexperienced, funding and labor resources are relatively limited.

Many n.b. producers are dissatisfied with the Canadian Television Fund.

‘It isn’t meeting the needs of smaller productions, and the general feeling here is that it favors larger, more established producers,’ says Wilson. ‘Even some ongoing projects that were funded in the past have been rejected.’

Training, however, is the province’s biggest challenge. ‘There is a drastic shortage of trained professionals here,’ says Barry Cameron, vp of the New Brunswick Producers Association and president of Cinefile Productions.

As one of its new initiatives, the producers association is in the process of coming up with a set of recommendations to enhance the province’s training programs, which will include a heavy emphasis on academic- and government-supported mentorships.

The association also takes issue with Telefilm and the Canadian Television Fund. ‘We think there was a problem with the Feature Film Fund [administered by Telefilm] because producers who didn’t have eip [Equity Investment Program, also administered by Telefilm] and those who did were slotted in the same category, and producers who didn’t have it lost an automatic 40 points,’ says Cameron, adding, ‘there should have been two separate categories to give everyone a level playing field.’

However, the producers association in New Brunswick is not as influential as it could be, since last year’s formation of another New Brunswick producers organization – the Professional Producers Association of New Brunswick.

‘Politically and in terms of efficiency, the industry is better off having one voice,’ says Cameron, but the two groups have had no communication since they split over different perspectives on where the province’s film and tv funding should go. ‘It was a matter of coproductions versus indigenous productions,’ says Frank Savoie, president of the Professional Producers Association and Connections Productions. While some members of the producers association believed Film nb should primarily fund local producers, others, who later left to form the Professional Producers Association, believe that funding should go to coprods with outside producers to enhance the expertise of n.b.’s film industry.

‘But there’s a good possibility that the two groups will soon become one again because they haven’t been able to represent producers’ interests in this way. It’s been totally ineffectual,’ says Wilson.

In spite of these difficulties, there are an estimated six tv series, seven feature films and 10 docs slated to be shot in n.b. this summer and fall.

Among them, Lunatiques, a 13-part science anthology series, produced by Cecile Chevrier of Les Productions Dupharest in Moncton, starts shooting in and around Moncton on June 14. Budgeted at close to $1 million and airing on tfo in September, the series was cowritten by n.b. natives Chris LeBlanc and Paul Bosse. LeBlanc is also directing.

In Troubled Waters, a coprod through The Film Works in Toronto and New York-based Fred Berner Films, is set to start shooting in n.b. in August. Fred Berner and Victor Solnicki are exec producing, Paul Stephens and Elaine Bryant are producing, Heather McDonald is director and screenwriter and Bruce Dennis of Millbrook Atlantic Studios in Fredericton is production manager. Budgeted at $5.7 million, the dramatic feature has not yet been presold.

Julie Walking Home, on the other hand, has been presold to TMN-The Movie Network, Superchannel and Super Ecran. Another Film Works production, the $8-million feature, set to start shooting in n.b. in early fall, is coproduced with Tor Production in Poland and was cowritten by Canadian Arlene Sarner (Peggy Sue Got Married) and Polish-born Agnieshzka Holland (Europa Europa, Washington Square, Third Miracle), who will also direct. The film stars Donald Sutherland.

Jack Mize, an mow produced by Jean Mark Felio of Malagro Films in Montreal and coproduced by Bruce Dennis of Millbrook in association with Cinefile, budgeted at $2 million, will start shooting in n.b. on July 15.

The Rust Kings is a $1.4-million feature film production of Cinefile, which will start shooting in and around Fredericton by early fall. Barry Cameron is the producer, Andre Bennett of Cinema Esperanca in Toronto is the exec producer and n.b. native John Mcfetridge is the writer/director.

Coproducers Connections Productions in Moncton and Barna Alper in Toronto are heading into their third season of the docuseries Turning Point of History, which airs as one of highest-rated shows on History Television. The series has been sold in eight countries worldwide, and among its international venues, one episode will be shot in n.b. this year. The 13 x one-hour series, budgeted at $1.6 million in total, is exec produced by Laszlo Barna and Frank Savoie.

A new studio is slated to open that will house some of this new production. Millbrook Atlantic Studios, n.b.’s first all-purpose studio, which has been in the works for more than two years, may be just months away from opening its doors. A joint venture between Film Works, Bruce Dennis and Barry Cameron, the studio will house an 18,000-square-foot soundstage, production offices, a carpenter’s shop, equipment and supplies, post-production facilities and a film production training school on a 400-acre lot, owned by Dennis, who initiated the project, in Fredericton. The wide-ranging menu will also provide fixed below-the-line deals, financing, tax credit processing, as well as hotels and transportation services.

‘It is specifically designed to attract foreign producers. With our tax credit system, we have the incentive, but we don’t have the infrastructure. That’s why we’re doing this,’ says Dennis, who is in the final stage of financing and hopes to see the studio up and running by the fall.