What a difference a year makes. Last summer business was down in Canada’s production centers. The dollar was high, tax credits were low, and the anti-runaway lobby in the U.S. was at its most vocal, making life unpleasant and not very profitable in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. One Hollywood star – speaking at no less a venue than the Democratic National Convention in Boston – went so far as to call runaway shoots ‘criminal.’

And yet, some eight months later, the loonie has settled, tax credits are higher and even Ben Affleck has again come to Canada – to star in (Oh, the irony) no less an all-American project as Truth, Justice and the American Way, a biopic of TV’s original Superman, George Reeves.

A good omen? Apparently so, because as the production slates now show, Hollywood shoots are back in force this year, making for what looks to be a very busy spring and summer season at studios in Toronto and Vancouver, although business is still sluggish in Montreal.

‘We’re seeing very strong feature film activity right now, the strongest for this time of year we’ve seen in a number of years,’ says Donna Zuchlinksi, film manager of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, pointing to 38 shows that were shooting or in prep as of the first week of May, on par with the numbers for 2002. There were 24 shows shooting in the region this time last year and 23 in ’03, the year of SARS.

‘It’s really encouraging,’ she says. ‘June and July are going to be very busy.’

Several are sure to be high spenders. 20th Century Fox is shooting Cheaper by the Dozen 2 on the same Toronto lot as Tim Allen’s superhero spoof Zoom, just as Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland start work on The Sentinel. Sixteen Blocks with Bruce Willis, the videogame adaptation Silent Hill and the MTV-backed biopic of rapper 50 Cent are also underway.

Out west, the much-anticipated and mega-budgeted X-Men 3 has finally pitched its tent at Vancouver Film Studios, ending months of ‘will they or won’t they?’ in B.C. Production is also set for the Jennifer Garner picture Catch & Release, the Robin Williams and Barry Sonnenfeld vehicle RV, and Samuel L. Jackson’s action pic Pacific 121. The $60-million fantasy pic Dungeon Siege will roll cameras in early July just as the $15-million Whisper wraps for Universal.

There are 18 features shooting or in prep in B.C., plus a healthy set of sci-fi series, including second runs of The 4400, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica.

‘The studio facilities are basically full in town,’ according to Peter Leitch, president of Lions Gate Studios in Vancouver. ‘We’re starting to turn away business when, in the months from November to February, we were desperate for business.’

‘The increased tax credits are a big part of it and a lot of shows are being greenlit. We’re getting some TV pickups this week.’

One union rep in B.C. guesses that levels are up 50% over last year, but concedes that such things are hard to estimate.

Stakeholders in Ontario and B.C. are quick to credit the booms, in part, to the improved tax credits that were introduced late last year after lengthy lobby efforts. Both provinces now offer an 18% break to foreign shoots, up from 11%.

‘Increased tax credits and investment in the film and TV industry are already showing results,’ says Sarah Ker-Hornell, managing director of the lobby group Film Ontario.

‘They’ve definitely made a difference,’ agrees Crawford Hawkins of the Directors Guild of Canada branch in B.C. ‘It’s made us competitive with the U.S. states,’ such as Louisiana and New Mexico, ‘and that’s where the big difference is being felt.’

But part of the credit also goes to the Canadian dollar now that it has steadied at about the US$0.80 mark. The loonie spent much of the winter bouncing erratically around the mid-80s, playing havoc with budgets and production schedules. Now that it has settled, stakeholders don’t mind that it’s still well above its previous US$0.70-something value.

‘The dollar is not a great concern’ now, says Howard Storey, president of the Union of BC Performers.

He says the unions and other stakeholders now ‘have to look at everything we can do to maintain the infrastructure’ to stay competitive with other territories, especially those in the U.S.

‘A hell of a lot of production has stayed in L.A. of late,’ he says. ‘But we built our careers on doing productions that could not afford to shoot in L.A., and it’s still the same. If we offer a competitive package, we get the work. I think they’re filled up right now or over-filled because of all the stay-at-home ideas.’

But while service shoots are up, the domestic scene is not as positive, notes ACTRA Toronto head Stephen Waddell. ‘Canadian indigenous production is still a problem because broadcasters are still not putting in money,’ he says. Depending on one’s definition of ‘domestic,’ there are only five such series shooting in Ontario. The series in B.C. are mainly service shoots. That could change soon, however, with a new round of domestic dramas just given the go-ahead by the Canadian Television Fund.

The picture is also not as rosy in Montreal, which has been slow to attract new business after a very slow 2004. But it’s not for lack of trying, says film commissioner Daniel Bissonnette.

‘It’s the busiest year ever for number of projects we’ve been asked to bid on,’ he says. ‘We bid on more than 100 projects, but I have to admit, so far, the results are not as encouraging as we’d hoped.”

The city usually attracts at least one major Hollywood shoot per summer – something on the scale of The Sum of All Fears or The Day After Tomorrow. Montreal recently hosted The Fountain and Lucky Number Slevin, making for a better-than-usual winter, but still lacks a big summer shoot. Bissonnette isn’t sure why. Quebec has better studios than Toronto and its tax credit also got a recent boost.

‘We seem to be very competitive. If we were not they wouldn’t be in discussions with us for two months. They would simply go somewhere else,’ he says. He wonders if disagreements at the Hollywood end are the problem, noting that there are ‘no obstacles’ on his side.

B.C. is expecting a second wave of business to arrive shortly, now that the U.S. networks have unveiled their plans for the coming season. The WB, for one, is said to be eyeing the province for as many as three series.

‘Right now we’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop,’ says Hawkins.