Montreal: Inspired by existing mechanisms used to support European film and TV production, professional industry associations in Quebec are calling on the provincial government to secure new and stable sources of financing, including a direct tax on movie tickets and wholesale video revenues.

There was wide support for the proposals at public hearings held last month in Montreal and Quebec City to review Quebec’s cinema law and the state of the film and TV industry, including support from the APFTQ, CAFDE, STCVQ, ARRQ, UDA, the DGC Quebec Council and SARTEC.

Citing the system adopted in France, attendees told the committee, headed by Doris Girard, deputy minister of culture and communications, that redirecting Quebec sales tax revenues derived from theatre admissions would add $13.3 million a year to SODEC production resources, while the addition of sales tax on wholesale video distribution would generate $19.2 million in support of production.

Citing the U.K. model, the APFTQ says a 0.3% levy on Loto-Quebec’s annual sales of $3.6 billion would represent an additional industry benefit of $11 million.

‘It wouldn’t be bad for Loto-Quebec’s image, either,’ says APFTQ president and director-general Claire Samson.

Industry reps say the proposed revenue resources, which total $43.5 million, would be added to the existing $8.5 million in production funding currently managed by SODEC.

‘We have identified $43.5 million from different sources and now it’s up to government to decide the best way to proceed,’ says Samson.

Richard Paradis, president of distributor association CAFDE, says, ‘Everyone supported [the proposals] except the theatre owners, of course.’

CAFDE expects Quebec theatrical revenues to edge up towards $200 million in 2002 from $166 million in 2001. Paradis says a supplemental tax isn’t likely to undermine the theatrical market, which has seen a 6% hike in admissions this year, while revenues are up 16%.

The DGC Quebec Council is proposing an incentive for movie exhibitors in the form of a deductible tax credit, with the strategic goal of extending runs for homegrown movies.

The industry in Quebec told the ministerial committee that cultural funding agency SODEC is chronically underfinanced, with less than $9 million a year in available feature film funding (about 10% allocated for English-language films, or one film a year) and virtually no available funding for primetime TV drama. SODEC’s total film and TV resources are in the order of $17 million a year.

Intervenors told the committee the industry is confronted with a small market of seven million, a general lack of international presales and export markets for French-language production, chronically undercapitalized production companies and a serious lack of R&D (project development) resources.

Screenwriters in both SARTEC and the APFTQ said SODEC’s annual $1.2-million fund for screenwriting is completely inadequate.

Underpinning the entire review process is the fundamental political will of the Quebec government, and the role it will play in the future of the film and TV production industry.

Denise Robert, president of Cinemaginaire and head of the APFTQ feature film section, told the Girard committee government should aim to increase the average Quebec feature film budget to $5 million and increase the total number of films produced annually to 20.

(The current average feature budget in Quebec has stagnated over the past decade and is currently $2.1 million, compared to $5.6 million for France and $12.4 million in the U.K.)

In its submission, the STCVQ, representing freelance film technicians, points outs the average number of shooting days for feature films has declined in the past 10 years from 37 days to 30.

‘Even in English Canada production costs are higher than in Quebec, and one of these days this will catch up to us and we’ll no longer be competitive,’ says the APFTQ’s Samson.

DGC Quebec Council president Georges Mihalka says Quebec was a distant third to B.C. and Ontario in attracting foreign, mainly U.S., service shoots in 2001, and that the Quebec Film & TV Office needs an additional $1 million a year for promotion purposes. The guild told the hearing committee SODEC needs more funds for dramatic TV production, pointing out episodic production is down 50% compared to last year.

SARTEC recently produced a report stating there is no longer any original French-language development and/or writing in Quebec animation series coproduced with English Canada or Europe.

The APFTQ says the average cost of an animated half-hour is $461,538, but because this cannot be financed in the Quebec market alone, government should increase the tax credit for animation series to 22.5% from 15%.

The APFTQ also told the committee Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador are the only Canadian jurisdictions with imposed caps on their production tax credits, a maximum of $2.5 million per project in Quebec’s case. The producers say this undermines the industry’s ability to coproduce bigger-budget films and series.

The APFTQ is also opposed to the tax designation that private industry funds (Rogers, Bell, Fonds du Savoir, Harold Greenberg, IPF, Shaw, Cogeco, etc) are calculated as a form of ‘aid,’ which is deductible from admissible production expenditures. The designation costs producers $600,000 annually.

Quebec granted production tax credits totaling $95.1 million in 2000/01, $80.9 million for certified content production. Cumulative content production for the period was $630.4 million (378 projects), down from $834.3 million (378 projects) in ’99/00.

The Girard committee will report to Culture and Communications Minister Diane Lemieux, who earlier said she expects to conduct additional limited meetings towards the end of the year, before making recommendations to Cabinet.

The industry is hoping for concrete results, certainly by next spring, especially in view of the fact that many of the recommendations are administrative or regulatory in nature and do not require legislative consent.

Submissions to the MCCQ review process, ‘l’actualisation de la Politique quebecoise du cinema et de la production audiovisuelle’ are available at: www.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/minister/polsect/cinema/index.htm.