The Canadian film and TV industry is by now used to local producers partnering with foreigners, where doing a co-production or co-venture to share risk and resources is the new normal.

The Profile 2011: An Economic Report on the Screen-Based Production Industry in Canada report, released Wednesday by Canadian indie producers and Heritage Canada, suggests foreign location shooting and service production is now the sweet spot for the Canadian industry.

Canadian film and TV production volume grew by 8.9% to $5.49 billion in total expenditures last year.

The biggest growth driver was rebounding foreign location and service production, jumping 24.3% to $1.87 billion in total production volume.

And broadcaster in-house production was also up 10.3% to $1.23 billion.

Those gains offset Canadian indie film and TV production falling by 1.4% to $2.39 billion, based on data from Heritage Canada’s CAVCO division, and taking into account Canadian TV production certified by the CRTC.

The biggest fall was in indie film production, which was off 11.1%, or by $38 million, to $306 million in 2011.

Canadian indie TV production managed a $3 million bump up to $2.08 billion, as increased one-hour drama production offset falling production volumes for TV movies and miniseries, kids and youth programming and documentaries.

Back to foreign location shoots and service production.

The 2011 Profile report points to the benefits of stable film tax credits in Canada for foreign producers, with most, or around 87%, coming north from Los Angeles or New York City to shoot north of the border.

U.S. producers increased the number of foreign location shoots done in Canada to 194 last year, against 139 in the 2010 calendar year.

Another 16 projects completed in Canada last year by Canadian producers amounted to foreign location shoots because, according to the 2011 Profile report, they were done for foreign audiences as part of international co-ventures, outside of traditional co-production treaty arrangements.

Provincially, British Columbia continued to receive the lion’s share of foreign location shoots last year, or 73% of the national share, as the western-most province enjoyed its second year of rebounding activity following a collapse in 2008-09.

B.C.’s level of foreign location shooting rose 25% to a new all-time high of $1.36 billion last year, according to the report.

At the same time, Ontario and Quebec enjoyed rebounding Hollywood shooting last year, after both provinces introduced 25% all-spend tax credits.

Ontario’s share of foreign location shooting jumped to $224 million last year, against $122 million in 2010, while Quebec saw its foreign location shooting expenditure come to $224 million in 2011, against a year-earlier $225 million.

Last year, most of the high-profile U.S. network TV series were shot in British Columbia, while Ontario and Quebec drew more Hollywood film production to their locales.

On the broadcaster in-house production front, production volume last year rose 10.3% to $1.23 billion.

In that segment, $730 million was spent on conventional TV expenditures, and another $502 million went to specialty and pay TV channel production.

And most of that spending took place in Ontario, which last year saw total local production volume rise 6.3% to $2.06 billion — the first time it crossed the $2 billion mark.

The strength of local foreign location and service shooting led British Columbia to second place in the provincial league table in 2011, with total production volume jumping 20.8% to $1.71 billion.

That got British Columbia just ahead of the $1.68 billion in production volume posted in 2007-08, just ahead of the production collapse a year later.

And Quebec, with its own indigenous production sector, saw total production volume rise 5.5% to $1.33 billion, helped by a sharp rise in foreign location shoots offsetting a 3% decline in French-language production to $673 million.

On the English language indie production front, scripted Canadian fiction programming, including dramas like Combat Hospital, Rookie Blue and The Listener, rose by 2.8% in total production volume to $1.29 billion, according to the 2011 Profile report.

That increased drama production, stemming in large part from broadcaster benefit package expenditures, helped offset steep declines in other programming genres.

Children’s and youth production plunged 22.9% to $322 million last year, according to the report, while documentary production dropped 11.3% to $336 million to total expenditures.

And Canadian animation production plummeted 38.2% to $136 million.

On the theatrical film front, total production volume fell 11% last year to $306 million, according to the report.

Canadian producers made 96 films in 2011, against a year-earlier 107.

The volume of theatrical production in English Canada fell to $205 million last year, while theatrical production volume in French and other languages rose 8.6% last year to $101 million.