While on the campaign trail for the Toronto mayoralty, David Miller had a film crew following him every step of the way, shooting a documentary for CBC Newsworld about his unlikely run for City Hall. He drew up strategies and policies with his aides while on camera, fumed at his opponents, and waved his personal emblem, a broom, before crowds of cheering supporters. Eight months and one surprise win later, the city’s seventieth mayor says the experience taught him a few things about movies.

For one thing, he laughs, he’s not an actor. ‘But I also learned the diligence – the thoroughness with which you have to prepare a film,’ he says.

It’s early July and we’re talking in his office, on the second floor of Toronto City Hall. It’s a big room, thick with plants and decorated with the front pages of newspapers from the election. A photo of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani peers at us from the far corner.

‘[The director] filmed hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours to get 45 minutes,’ Miller continues. ‘It gave me more of an understanding, when you see a production on the street, why it’s so complicated.’

It’s his job, now, to get rid of some of those complications. Miller campaigned on an arts-friendly platform and has pledged to breathe new life into the Toronto production scene by clearing away – presumably with the broom, also mounted on the wall – its many rivers of red tape.

To turn around their recent run of bad luck – production in Ontario dropped 11% because of SARS and the annus horribilis of 2003 – filmmakers say they need better promotion of Toronto as a film-friendly location for both domestic and foreign shoots, more access to the subway, and faster turnaround on permits.

Producers have long complained that since Toronto and its neighbors amalgamated in 1998, getting permission to shoot anything in the new city has been a hassle because every department (‘Each one a nightmare fiefdom unto itself,’ says one filmmaker) has a say in the process. The city’s transit system – a key attraction for projects, given that Toronto is one of only six cities in North America with a subway that draws major projects – has also often been criticized for taking too long to approve too few shoots. In 2002, the Montreal transit system permitted 116 shooting days, compared to 50 for the TTC. Approvals often take as long as six weeks, too slow for the blink-and-you-miss-it schedules of pilots or commercial spots.

Miller says he’ll change all that, and for starters is working to bring the city’s film office under the direct control of the mayor’s office, creating a one-stop shop for permits. He has also put the city’s Film Liaison Industry Committee under review and, in March, stepped in to get a Toronto-shot, UPN pilot (Summer of ’77) its long-delayed permission to shoot at a TTC train yard. The TTC was also asked to review its film policies and, recently, has been acting more film-friendly.

‘I give credit to [chief general manager] Rick Ducharme,’ says Miller. ‘I said to him, ‘I’ll back you up on safety issues but can you review [them] and see what realistically can be done to make filming easier,” such as improving access to the train yards and improving technical coordination between the system and filmmakers.

‘That’s what the mayor’s office can do,’ he says, ‘cut across departments and solve problems.’

The moves have scored quick, high points with stakeholders, who like what they see so far with the media-savvy Harvard grad and former city councillor.

Miller is ‘like a breath of fresh air,’ says Andy Sykes, VP sales and marketing at post house Toybox, and his people have been very receptive to complaints from producers, according to Sue Murdoch, VP of development at Toronto’s Pebblehut Productions. Both are board members of the lobby group Film Ontario.

The number of new projects shot in Toronto in the first six months of 2004 is up 5% over the same period in 2002, although actual shooting days are down sharply by 25%.

‘We’d always like to see things move faster,’ says Murdoch, ‘but we’re aware how hard it is to move any proposition through city council.’

The film office is expected be under Miller’s control by fall, although some say its current master, the Economic Development Office, is putting up a fight. ‘Ec Dev’ has close ties to the city’s neighborhood business groups, the Business Improvement Areas, which, although unpopular with producers, want a hand in shaping film policy.

But Miller says things are going smoothly, and waves off talk of a struggle. ‘I don’t think that’s accurate. It’s taken some time for my office to consult with people,’ he says. ‘We want to make sure the change works, so it hasn’t moved quite as quickly as I’d hoped, but it’s nothing to do with the civil servants.’

The BIAs may not be shut out, however. ‘We have to remember that the city is there for everyone and the small businesses are really important,’ says Miller. ‘Their success matters, so they’re entitled to a say. We don’t have a problem with that and I don’t believe it will create an obstacle.’

After it is repositioned, the film office will be run by a board, with the mayor as the symbolic head. Film-friendly politicians thought to be in the running as members include deputy mayors Mike Feldman, Sandra Bussin and Joe Pantalone, and councillor Paula Fletcher, whose territory includes the eastern lakeshore, where Toronto’s two megastudios are under construction.

The studios are expected to boost service production in the city, but Miller seems to put equal weight on domestic projects. He frequently works the ‘tell our own stories’ slogan into his remarks, and commented more than once on the need to keep homegrown shows in Toronto.

‘I’m very concerned when I hear about a movie about Toronto that’s being shot in Regina or Winnipeg,’ he says. ‘It’s bad enough that My Big Fat Greek Wedding had to pretend to be in Chicago – that’s a Toronto story – but for [domestic] movies to be shot elsewhere simply because of tax credits isn’t acceptable.’

‘I think Canada would be better off having Toronto succeed as a number-two destination in North America, after L.A., than it is at creating multiple production centers. I think that’s an unwise strategy.’ *