The Nova Scotia government is providing up to $475,000 in funding to support Screen Nova Scotia’s efforts to address location services and other industry infrastructure, the province’s business minister Mark Furey announced Friday.

The funding, to be distributed over two years, will have to stretch pretty far to meet its mandate, which is to support location services through Screen Nova Scotia, build a web portal, hire additional staff, provide marketing support for the industry and go towards the development of a long-term strategic plan.

“This agreement will help us better promote Nova Scotia as a place where talented crews make top quality productions,” said Marc Almon, chair of Screen Nova Scotia, in a statement. “It will give producers a single place to turn to for support and information. Screen Nova Scotia is looking forward to further dialogue with government in the weeks ahead to address the remaining issues facing our industry.”

The funding comes about seven months after Nova Scotia’s labour-based and fully refundable film tax credit was eliminated. That tax credit was replaced by the Nova Scotia Film and Television Incentive Fund, which officially opened on July 2.

The fund includes two streams: one for indigenous and coproductions, and a 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.

In a release distributed Friday the government said Nova Scotia Business Inc., the agency which administers the new fund, has received 11 applications to date. Five of those projects have been approved for more than $1.1 million in government support.