The Ontario tax credit for foreign production will remain at 18% for at least another year, but hopes that the province would return to direct funding of film and TV projects went unanswered following an announcement by Culture Minister Madeleine Meilleur.

Some producers had hoped that the Ontario Media Development Corporation would return to active project funding, after recently distributing $1.5 million among filmmakers including Clement Virgo and Jeremy Podeswa in a pilot initiative.

Not just yet, says Meilleur.

‘That was a one-time [initiative],’ she says. ‘It was a pilot project and it will be very telling. [The OMDC] will do an evaluation and a report on the impact, recognizing it is a small amount but a step in the right direction.’

Direct funding by the group, then called the Ontario Film Development Corporation, was cut gradually in the mid-1990s.

Meilleur admits that she and the OMDC are looking at the Quebec production model, in which SODEC contributes about $26 million worth of annual funding to provincial production, and where Quebec films had nearly a 26% market share in 2005, according to Telefilm Canada. Meilleur says she will be meeting with SODEC reps within the next month to learn more about their successes.

The extension of the tax credit is in response to the positive results the local service sector has enjoyed since the province upped the incentive from 11% to 18% in December 2004, at the same time it raised its domestic credit from 20% to 30%. According to Meilleur, foreign film and TV shoots in Ontario were up 63% in 2005.

The announcement of the credit extension – which comes on the heels of B.C. announcing the extension of its credit to 2008 – met with positive response from production lobby group FilmOntario and its cochair Susan Murdoch, who says the news was not unexpected.

‘We’re pleased that the government has seen fit to renew the tax credits, and we’re confident they will continue to increase production in the province,’ says Murdoch.

Meilleur made the announcement at the OMDC’s Six Degrees of Integration conference. She also announced a new Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, given to a person or group that has contributed to the betterment of culture in Ontario, and which is open to those in film, TV and digital media. The prize is $35,000, and the recipient will choose a promising newcomer in their field to receive an additional $15,000. The first Premier’s Award will be presented in the fall.

­-With files from Marcus Robinson

www.omdc.on.ca