Open letter to Ontario Minister of Culture Madeleine Meilleur

I am writing to express my concern about the possible elimination of or cuts to the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit.

Remarks by the Ontario minister of finance, the Honourable Greg Sorbara on Jan. 27, quoted in the Toronto Star and elsewhere, have alarmed Canadian film and television producers, and rightly so.

The Liberal Party Platform for cultural industries clearly promised an increase in film and television tax credits. I quote from p. 13 of Arts and Culture Matter: the Ontario Liberal Plan for Strong Cultural Industries: ‘We will boost the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit from 20% to 33%… We will introduce a new feature film component of the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit and increase this credit from 20% to 40% of eligible expenditures.’

Now Finance Minister Sorbara is saying that scores of tax credits may be cut to avoid a budget deficit. In the Star article he was explicitly quoted as saying: ‘I don’t want to get into specific credits, but you know what they are. Film and television [production] is one of the ones that is most top of mind.’

Minister, if such cuts are implemented it will be yet another body blow to the City of Toronto.

The film industry is extremely important not only to the expression of our heritage but to Toronto’s economy. Toronto is North America’s third largest film and television production center. Our pool of top-quality creative talent has attracted production to Toronto, but without provincial investment in this industry, it faces collapse with a potential loss of 50,000 jobs.

I am not reassured by your speech of Jan. 30 to the Canadian Film and Television Production Association. In your speech you stated that you had spoken to Minister Sorbara many times about this issue. You also stated that the rumors about changes to the tax credit are not true (despite Mr. Sorbara’s published comments), but you made it clear later in your address that no decisions have been made and that everything is up for review.

Minister, I have heard from a number of my constituents in the film and television industry, who have stressed to me that they need the tax credit to be implemented now if they are not to lose out to other jurisdictions, such as Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, that can provide greater incentives.

We need to keep these jobs in Ontario and foster our industry. I urge you and the Liberal government to keep your promise.

Rosario Marchese, MPP, Trinity Spadina,
NDP Culture Critic, Toronto.

Open letter to B.C. Film head Rob Egan and Telefilm Canada

The following is an open letter written by Vancouver director Carl Bessai and sent to Rob Egan, president and CEO of British Columbia Film and to Telefilm Canada. The letter laments how Bessai’s feature film Emile lost screen time in a local theater to a pair of Hollywood films it had outperformed. Egan read the letter to attendees at the recent CFTPA conference in Ottawa.

Dear Rob,

I just thought you might find my recent experience with Emile interesting and revealing.

As you know, we opened the film theatrically on Jan. 9 in Vancouver. Seville is our Canadian distributor and they decided on the one-city, one-screen approach. I got involved with the First Weekend Club and Anita Adams here in Vancouver and we worked really hard to open as well as we could.

After the opening weekend we were in sixth position out of 12 – clearing $5,500 and in no danger of being dropped from the slate. We were given the second week commitment, which we had worked hard for.

Not only did we have a good opening weekend, we used some good PR stunts to bring seniors groups into the theater for some weekday matinees (the story was picked up by Citytv – a bunch of seniors having afternoon tea with the filmmaker). It was very successful and there was good energy going into our second weekend. Word of mouth through CBC Radio interviews and our grassroots campaign was beginning to take hold.

On Jan. 15, I looked at the Georgia Straight and noticed that, in fact, Emile had been given only two shows daily (reduced from the original five) and now we had screenings at 7:45 p.m. and 10 p.m. only. I called Seville immediately and they had no idea this was happening and got on the phone to the exhibitor. They apologized to Seville, explaining that a U.S. distributor refused to let them mess around with two of their titles (two titles that we had outperformed on the crucial opening weekend) and therefore they claimed had no choice but to split our screens.

So the long and short of it is, even when you beat them fairly at the ‘free enterprise’ game, and kill yourself to get the ‘bums in the seats,’ you can still get moved out of the theater… proving once again that ‘nobody wants to see Canadian films’ (this last quotation is meant to be read with sarcasm).

Finally, as we add up the numbers from our second (and last) weekend in Vancouver, is it any wonder that with reduced screenings, and no presence in the lobby or on the marquis above the cash register, that we did not outperform the Hollywood machine? As it is, Emile came off the screen on Thursday, Jan. 22.

Carl Bessai,
Ravenwest Films, Vancouver.