Prime Minister Stephen Harper will excise the controversial film financing clause in Bill C-10 that caused an industry firestorm if his Conservative Party is returned to power next week.

Harper’s climb-down on film and TV tax-credit eligibility was made Tuesday as he unveiled his party’s re-election platform at the Canadian Club in Toronto.

Faced with widespread protest over Bill C-10 this past summer, and with culture suddenly an election issue in recent weeks, Harper said he will abandon plans for bureaucrats to screen film and TV projects and to deny tax credits to any deemed offensive and ‘contrary to public policy.’

Harper told a press conference that his government always intended to amend the offending Bill C-10 clause. But with no input from the film or TV industry, or opposition parties in Ottawa, the Conservatives will discard the audiovisual tax-change proposals buried deep inside its omnibus bill.

‘Although these proposals were approved unanimously by the House of Commons, we will take into account the serious concerns that have been expressed by film creators and investors,’ the Conservatives added in their re-election policy book, released Tuesday.

Bill C-10 died on the order books when Harper dissolved Parliament to call the current federal election.

Harper’s surprise concession brought immediate cheer to the film and TV industry, which lobbied hard against the offending Bill C-10 provisions over the summer.

‘Clearly, we’re pleased that Harper appears now to be listening to the artists of this country. He should also reinstate the culture cuts,’ ACTRA national executive director Stephen Waddell said Tuesday.

The controversial tax changes would have given the federal heritage minister unprecedented powers and discretion to deny tax credits to domestic producers whose projects were deemed offensive.

The industry also complained to Ottawa that tampering with the film and TV tax credit threatened to remove a lynchpin in the financing model for indie production Canada.