PS Atlantic and SIM Digital are closing their Nova Scotia offices, prompting industry organization Screen Nova Scotia to call an emergency meeting with Premier Stephen McNeil.

Screen Nova Scotia chair Marc Almon called the companies’ departure a “devastating blow.”

“Business is down sharply, and investor confidence in Nova Scotia’s film industry has been shaken,” he said in a statement. “We’re asking for the province’s political leadership to acknowledge the problem is real, and to help us to fix it.”

Both PS Atlantic and SIM Digital fall under the umbrella of Toronto-based SIM Group. A sharp decline in Nova Scotia following the elimination of the film and TV tax credit this past spring led to the decision to close the offices, said SIM Group COO John DeBoer.

“There hasn’t been a slowdown of work – there is absolutely no work in the film industry in Halifax. I believe there is only one show shooting here – Mr. D – and normally we’d have four to five shows going at this time, and we see very little coming down the pipeline,” DeBoer told Playback Daily. He said the company will return to the region if business picks up again, and will continue to ship in equipment as needed. The Halifax offices of PS Atlantic and SIM Digital employed six people in total.

The province’s other main service and equipment provider, William F. White, has no plans to close its Halifax office, said chairman and CEO Paul Bronfman.

“Business is way down this year, and we are subsidizing the operation…but we will continue to do that because we do believe next year the market will rebound with some stability,” Bronfman said. As interprovincial coproductions increase in volume, it’s important for Whites to have a national presence, he added.

“Realistically we are never going to make a ton of money – we don’t expect to. But it is important for a national company like White’s to be in Halifax,” Bronfman said.

Until this past April, Nova Scotia’s labour-based film tax credit was fully refundable, for up to 65% of all eligible Nova Scotia expenditures. That tax credit was replaced by the Nova Scotia Film and Television Production Incentive Fund, which officially opened on July 2.

The fund includes two streams: one for indigenous and coproductions, and the second for service and foreign productions. Under the indigenous/coproduction stream, productions can receive a base funding amount of 26% of all eligible Nova Scotia costs, while foreign shoots can receive a base amount of 25% of all eligible Nova Scotia costs.

As of Aug. 24, a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia government said the new Film and Television Production Incentive had received five applications since it opened on July 2. Those five applications, combined with 19 applications the old tax credit program received between April 1 to July 1, is consistent with the number of applications the province saw in previous years around this time, the spokesperson said.

Earlier this week, members of Nova Scotia’s film and television industry launched a promotional website to showcase film locations, talent and companies. The website, the group announced, is intended to replace some of the services that were provided by the now-shuttered Film & Creative Industries Nova Scotia office. The creation of the site was spearheaded by locations manager Shaun Clarke and the Directors Guild of Canada-Atlantic Region.

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