Producers and studio owners are keeping an eye on the Canadian dollar, which is once again holding at unusually high levels against the U.S. greenback.

The loonie has been trading well above the 80-cent mark since late summer and, since September, has been hovering around 85 cents.

A high loonie is bad news for the service industry, which relies on low prices to attract features and shows from the U.S. The 80-cent mark is often thought to be the point at which Americans take their business elsewhere, often to eastern Europe.

‘We’re certainly paying lot of attention to it,’ says CFTPA president and CEO Guy Mayson, although production levels in southern Ontario, B.C. and the regions all look healthy.

‘In general, we’re very busy. We’re getting a lot of calls,’ says Jim Mirkopoulos of Cinespace Film Studios in Toronto. Cinespace is currently hosting the U.S. feature Killshot, among others. ‘[The dollar is] not something we can control, but there are other things we can control.’

The loonie made a very similar jump this time last year, spooking stakeholders and fueling calls in B.C., Ontario and Quebec for improved tax credits.

This time around, the wave of new credits in those and other provinces has helped to soften the blow. They ‘took a lot of the pressure off this year,’ says Mayson.

‘The potential impact is next year… especially on the TV side, because the economics of TV are so tight.’

The loonie has been unpredictable over the past 18 months, dropping to the 70-cent range as recently as the spring, before its summer-long rebound. This makes the long-term planning required for most shoots difficult. ‘Some stability would be nice,’ says Mayson.

He insists that an 85-cent loonie is workable, although anything higher may call for ‘different strategies.’

Better promotion of Canadian crews and locations, pegging the dollar and an across-the-board lowering of labor and equipment rates have been suggested in the past.