A labor-based tax credit for the Prince Edward Island film and tv industry has made it through a first sitting of the provincial legislature and will likely be implemented by April of 2000, says Enterprise PEI film commissioner Berni Wood. Specifics, such as the level of the credit, are still under discussion, however, Wood is confident the rebate will be commensurate with other programs in the Atlantic region.

‘Film is in the mandate of the p.e.i. government, and we certainly encourage production and coproduction,’ says Wood. p.e.i. is currently the only Atlantic province without a film and tv tax credot, although the province does offer some rental incentive and marketing programs for local producers, as well as an equity investment fund.

The province is also making strides in other areas vital to the industry. As yet, there is not a full crew available on the island, however, several training initiatives have been implemented to address the shortage. With funding from Human Resources Development Canada, Enterprise pei has put together training packages for crew members working on Emily of New Moon and The Awesum Adventures of the Aftermath Crew.

Enterprise pei is also working with the other three Atlantic provinces on a series of professional development workshops for new producers. The first of these workshops took place in May in Charlottetown and Fredericton, and was attended by Telefilm Atlantic, cavco, Fundy Cable and the Royal Bank, as well as entertainment lawyers, completion guarantors and chartered accountants.

The combined efforts of local producers and the funding agencies have boosted production activity in the province to $20 million last year. As Berni Wood points out, this figure represents a significant achievement, considering that, in 1995, the province’s film industry was close to nonexistent.

gretha Rose’s Cellar Door Productions has grown up alongside the p.e.i. film industry. Since the incorporation of her company in 1997, Rose has seen the local industry take shape with the development of new government policies to foster expansion, the growth of coproduction activity, and, now, the approval of a tax credit for the province.

‘At the beginning, you would go into a funder and ask them to fund a portion of your project, and they would have no parameters in which to deal with it,’ she says. ‘So, it started with the ABCs of `how does this work?”

For Gretha Rose, there are still major issues that need to be addressed if p.e.i.’s film community is to continue to grow. Rose contrasts her positive experience in dealing with local government agencies with the bureaucracy of the Licence Fee Program. ‘It is unfortunate that a process like the lfp makes things less personal,’ she laments. ‘Right now, it is a system that supports larger producers, and I’d say it doesn’t deliver on its mandate with regard to economic development.’

Red tape, however, has not prevented Cellar Door from having a full production slate this summer. The company is starting production on a 13-part, half-hour series based on its animated special The True Meaning of Crumbfest. The one-off program, a coproduction with Catalyst Entertainment in Toronto, aired on Teletoon in December, and has subsequently sold to every major territory in the world. The $6-million Crumbfest series, also for Teletoon, will be distributed by Catalyst.

Cellar Door is currently in production on the 26 x half-hour second series of The Inn Chef, a coproduction with Ocean Entertainment from Halifax. Rose is also shooting a demo for another 26-episode, half-hour cooking show, this time with a comedy element.

Future projects for Cellar Door include an adult animated series called Mary 2.5 D, which is in development for ctv. The program will be a combination of live action and animation, featuring a talk-show host called Mary who turns out to be a hologram created by a washed-up cartoon character. Rose calls Mary 2.5 D ‘a spoof on new-age thinking.’ The series’ writers include members of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and the series will go into production in spring 2000.

Also in development is a feature film called Strathspey, about a young musical prodigy growing up in the ’50s in rural p.e.i. ‘Strathspey’ refers to a kind of reel, one that is somewhere between a fiddle piece and a violin piece. According to Rose, the term captures the theme of the film: finding a balance in life between frantic energy and slow deliberation.