It’s been a month since Saskatchewan’s Conservative government said there was no room in its tight budget for the Saskatchewan Film Employment Tax Credit (SFETC), yet the backlash from a surprised film and TV industry hasn’t died down.

While the industry has all but given up on having the SFETC reinstated, last weekend industry members launched a door-to-door petition for an alternative tax credit.

“It was important for both the industry and the government to know what kind of support there was for a new initiative that would bring support for our film industry,” Ron Goetz, Saskatchewan Motion Picture Industry Association (SMPIA) and Partners in Motion president, tells Playback Daily.

“So far we’re getting a pretty good return,” he adds, noting that the number of signatures received in just a few days was in the thousands.

When the government axed the SFETC in late March and announced a deadline of March 31 to apply for the outgoing credit, the industry responded with equal parts shock and outrage.

To the industry, that the $100 million in tax breaks since 1998 has helped lure $623 million in productions to Saskatchewan indicated that the SFETC was a sound investment.

But Premier Brad Wall disagreed. He argued that the credit was a financial drain on the province’s coffers, allowing outside producers to make money in the province then leave without the province seeing a single cent of additional tax revenue.

Instead, he wants a non-refundable tax model, whereby outside producers receive tax credits based on taxes paid within the province.

“It’s something very new for us, a non-refundable tax credit. I don’t know if it’s ever been done before, so we’re just trying to understand that ourselves and see how that might work,” says Goetz.

In response to fears the industry may collapse without some sort of tax incentive program, the government has since backpedaled, if only slightly.

Bill Hutchinson, minister of tourism, parks, culture and sport, recently said the deadline to apply for the SFETC would be pushed back to June 30. The deadline change is seen as an attempt to secure the industry through the rest of 2012.

In the meantime, says Goetz, the industry and the government are in the midst of negotiations on what a new tax incentive program might look like.

“Over the next few weeks we hope we’ll be able to get together and compare some notes and come up with a plan that works for the industry, the government and the people of Saskatchewan,” he insists.

The industry is looking at tax-refundable models elsewhere for inspiration.

“There’s a good program in Alberta that has possibilities. So we’re looking at Alberta for some guidance. There are also some models in the U.S. where there are some tax-refundable credits that might work and be more sustainable,” says Goetz.

Despite the impasse, Goetz remains hopeful the government and industry can reach a compromise, but he insists that the clock is ticking.

“What we’re trying to do is find that happy medium, but we’ll need to know within the next month or so whether we’ll be able to find that,” he says.

“After that, I think you’re going to start to see the industry slowly run into problems here,” he adds.

For now, the industry will continue its petition blitz in the hopes of reaching at least 5,000 signatures.

This week also sees the launch of a “money card” campaign, wherein industry professionals will be handing out awareness-raising postcards to businesses from which they purchase goods and services.

The business owners are then encouraged to mail the postcards to the government.

“It’s an opportunity to see how widely our business supports the province on an industry-wide basis besides just our immediate needs,” says Goetz.