In an industry where the value of the Canadian dollar is always top-of-mind, the timing of the new Screen Actors Guild contract couldn’t be worse.

In mid-April, when Hollywood actors and studios first reached a tentative deal, the loonie swooned to 80 cents and the industry seemed poised for a rebound in local American movie and TV production.

That was before a lengthy mail-in approval by SAG’s 20,000 members and final ratification only this week — just as a weakening American dollar drove the loonie to over 90 cents and talk of eventual parity.

The result is one obstacle to increased U.S. location shooting in Canada has been replaced by another – the yo-yo-ing loonie.

‘If we could get the [Canadian] dollar to be stable and give people predictability, Toronto will be able to win out over U.S. jurisdictions,’ Jim Mirkopoulos, vice-president of facility management for Cinespace Film Studios in Toronto, says with an eye to renewed competition with U.S. tax-credit states as the major studios restart their production machines.

‘If the [Canadian] dollar is at 85 cents, we would see a substantial increase in production,’ ACTRA national executive director Stephen Waddell adds.

The long-running SAG-studio standoff never halted American production here — the rival AFTRA actors contract governs most TV series shoots — but it did fuel instability now ended with the latest U.S. actors deal.

Toronto, which enjoyed a strong U.S. pilot season, currently has U.S. features like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Casino Jack shooting locally, and U.S. TV series like ABC/Disney’s Happy Town and NBC’s Warehouse 13.

And Montreal is busy with mostly local English- and French-language production, with the Lionsgate/Varsity Pictures Blue Mountain State series shoot among the rare American projects in town.

But a major pickup in American production isn’t anticipated until the loonie weakens and the major and indie studios find it easier to finance their movies during the current economic slump.

Peter Leitch, president of Vancouver-based North Shore Studios and Mammoth Studios, says the SAG film/TV deal offers the industry peace of mind, more than anything else.

‘There’s a contract done, and that allows companies to not have that hanging over their heads,’ he explains.

Vancouver has snagged it own share of U.S. TV series shoots after the pilot season and network pickups, including Warner Bros. Television’s Fringe and Human Target, and Mammoth Studios will house back-to-back feature shoots for Percy Jackson and A-Team.

News that Disney/Pixar will open a new studio in Vancouver this fall has also fueled local optimism, Leitch adds.