Five years ago, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal faced the ultimate challenge: rising competition to woo Hollywood from rival U.S. locales as the Canadian dollar rose in value.

So Quebec and Ontario juiced their tax credits to become 25% all-spends, while British Columbia bet on its proximity to Los Angeles as it kept its own tax incentive at 33% and based on labour expenditures.

But today, as the loonie falls in value along with the global oil price, Canadian film and TV players insist they don’t have to tout the currency savings in their sales and marketing pitch to Hollywood.

“The Americans are bringing it up,” Comweb Group CEO and chairman Paul Bronfman told Playback Daily.

The Canadians, mindful that Hollywood film and TV production levels rebounded in recent years even when the loonies and American greenback were mostly at parity, mostly continue to tout tax credit stability, talent and infrastructure to keep Los Angeles producers coming north.

The loonie at 85 cents and change has also taken some of the edge off of worries earlier this year that California boosting its tax credit regime would siphon business from Canada.

“The reality about the dollar is it’s nice to have it around the 85-cent mark. But we also have to remember it’s still a tough thing to get the Americans out of their own beds and to leave Los Angeles,” Bronfman said.

Getting Americans onto planes bound for Vancouver and Toronto then calls for pointing to this country’s reputation for quality talent, crews and production infrastructure as ongoing positives.

“They’re looking at the total bottom line, when they factor everything in, including the exchange rate,” OMDC manager of industry development Donna Zuchlinski argued.

Besides the “attractive” tax credit, she points to Ontario as a one-stop shop for film and TV production. “You don’t have to bring in any services, or people, unless you want to, which maximizes the tax credit impact,” she said.

And unlike a decade ago when U.S. indie and studio production activity represented a big chunk of business for Hollywood North, domestic production, much of it destined for the world market, increasingly keeps soundstages countrywide busy.

Zuchlinski points homegrown TV series, co-ventures like Reign and Beauty and the Beast, and coproductions like the Netflix-based Between series for City, as underpinning Ontario production.

“We have 25 productions on our list, either shooting or about to shoot in the New Year,” she added.