British Columbia, Manitoba and other rival locales may gain as Ontario reviews its tax incentives for budgetary savings.

As indie producers and broadcasters gather at Prime Time in Ottawa, backroom talk is centering on Ontario reconsidering how much it wants to put into tax credits to sustain the provincial film, TV and digital industries.

The move follows a directive from the finance ministry to find $60 million in savings over two years to help Ontario balance its books by 2017-18.

The province has already decided to give a narrower scope to its Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit to focus on “interactive digital media” content.

That could exclude other Ontario companies, including broadcasters and newspapers, that create websites and tap the provincial digital tax credit to offset their costs, for example.

Here the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit is expected to follow the Canada Media Fund, which distinguishes between convergent and experimental streams when defining funding criteria for digital content.

Digital producers are now keen to see how the finance ministry, which sets tax credit policy for the OMDC, will define “interactive digital media” as it sets new parameters.

At the same time, indie producers met earlier this week with the Ontario finance and cultural ministries, and will do so again next week, to help hammer out a future formula for the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit for domestic producers.

As Ontario looks to collect more tax dollars, one option under discussion is grinding the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit, just as the federal tax credit does, if a project has assistance, including grants, from Telefilm Canada or other soft money sources.

Many Ontario-based producers, speaking to Playback Daily at the Prime Time conference on background, rely on such soft money to fill out their budgets.

And they warn many indigenous producers could be forced to shoot in rival provinces like B.C. and Manitoba if Ontario greatly reduces their savings from the provincial tax credit for local film and TV content.

“We don’t want to upset the apple cart while the province looks to trim its deficit,” said one veteran film and TV producer on background.

Officials at the OMDC, which administers Ontario’s tax credits, were not available for comment.