At the risk of being accused of being Toronto-centric, I’d like somebody to explain to me the value of having seven production centers in Canada.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not ignorant of the excellent work coming out of places like Winnipeg, Regina and Calgary. Corner Gas is a monster success for CTV, drawing 1.5 million viewers, and it’s shot in Rouleau, SK.

But it does occur to me, having just finished reading Pauline Couture’s shelved report to the OMDC regarding indigenous production in Ontario, that while the idea of creating a broad and diverse national production sector was a fundamentally worthwhile idea when production in this country was booming, it is clearly undermining the entire national infrastructure now that production has slowed.

According to the study, Ontario producers developed and then exported $710 million worth of production activity, accounting for 19,000 jobs, to other provinces in the years 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Couture’s report details how a series of initiatives, including CTF regional bonuses, the CRTC’s recognition of regional non-news shows as priority programming, plus Ontario’s uncompetitive 20% tax credits and lack of equity investment programs, have conspired to force Ontario producers to go elsewhere in the country to shoot Ontario-originated shows.

‘Canada is the only country in the world that has seven film centres. The policies were designed to encourage indigenous production in the regions, where production centres were non-existent. Well, now they exist and they have become major competition: the policy requirement has long vanished. We are so disadvantaged now as producers that there is no logical reason for us to be in business here,’ one Ontario producer told Couture for her report.

Likewise, the B.C. government recently removed any equity investment from B.C. Film’s mandate. It too has a 20% tax credit. But at least B.C. continues to get support through CRTC-mandated commitments by CHUM and Global, among others.

Montreal, because Quebec has a more competitive tax credit, and producers can access regional and French-language development and equity investment, does not suffer under the same kinds of pressures.

In Canada’s two other traditional production centers, there are major issues undermining the well-being of the industry as a whole, not the least of which is that service work is dropping through the floor.

Ontario and B.C. account for $3 billion out of $5 billion in total production in this country. As Couture points out in her report, economic theory tells us that such strength should be rewarded by success. Instead, thanks in part to political considerations, these regions are under threat.

Canada spent years developing in Toronto and Vancouver what is recognized as the best crews and production services outside of southern California. Now, instead of nurturing these critical centers, we are putting up walls, in a misguided attempt at balancing the scales. In doing so, Canada is undermining the very infrastructure essential to a vibrant national production sector.

There is an irony in the fact that an industry so dependent on foreign production is now at risk of creating its own runaway production crisis.