Vancouver: With an expected cost-slashing provincial budget announcement just 15 days away, a delegation from British Columbia’s Community Marketing Group will be in Victoria Feb. 4 to ‘suggest’ ways the Liberal government can reduce its interest in the local film industry.

However, the CMG – which is a coalition of B.C. unions, studios, suppliers and producers – is reluctant to discuss what it calls an ‘informational discussion’ about industry goals because of sensitivities within government and the coalition itself.

The Liberal government is currently on a drastic across-the-board cost-cutting core review that will reduce the size of B.C.’s government by 35% within three years. About 1,500 provincial civil servants have been handed pink slips in the last month and another 10,000 government jobs will be cut over the next three years.

So while Rick Thorpe, the cabinet minister overseeing the film industry and overall government deregulation, is on record wanting the film industry to grow to $2 billion by 2004, the industry is wondering what’s going to get chopped.

‘We need the government as a partner,’ says Peter Leitch, GM at Lions Gate Studios and a CMG delegate. ‘We need their support about what is the best mechanism to meet our common goals. And we have common goals. We need to put forward a real positive [face] to our friends in the U.S.’

He maintains the government won’t abandon the film industry Feb. 19, but the delegates will have options to propose should the government representatives need an industry-minded course of action.

Leitch declined to elaborate on the options at press time since the delegation was still preparing its presentation.

However, the proposals will be designed to maintain existing film services such as The Bridge Studios, British Columbia Film and the BC Film Commission while cutting the government’s financial obligations.

Much depends on how quickly the provincial government wants to unload some of its direct, operational assets such as the profitable Bridge Studios, which is unofficially for sale.

If the government keeps The Bridge Studios, its profits can be used to fund domestic funding agency British Columbia Film, which expects substantial cuts and is recommending to local producers to plan their next projects without B.C. Film assistance. However, this proposed cash-flow merger is politically sensitive since The Bridge Studios currently falls under the Crown-owned BC Pavilion Corporation, which is reluctant to give up its control of a moneymaker to B.C. Film’s Ministry of Competition, Science and Enterprise.

If the government sells The Bridge Studios, CMG will propose there be an ‘assessment fee’ for productions accessing the provincial service production and domestic tax credits, which are expected to survive the Feb. 19 budget unscathed.

Proceeds from the user levy would go to B.C. Film, but the CMG is unsure how the idea of a ‘door charge’ will fly with the AMPTP and the unions believe they will end up bearing the cost of the user fee because U.S. producers will demand they absorb the expense.

‘There is no consensus about what to do with The Bridge,’ says Leitch.

The CMG is also expected to offer to take over the BC Film Commission, the chief marketer of B.C. to U.S. and foreign producers. The CMG already funds a portion of the Commission’s $830,000 annual budget and will assume its management if the government provides free operating space and commits to a schedule of declining funding, say, over 10 years.

At the end of the day, says Leitch, the local film sector is a positive cash generator that the B.C. government recognizes as an industry for the future.

‘If you cut production, you lose jobs and you lose [tax] revenue,’ says Leitch.

The Liberal government’s first full budget is due Feb. 19. A report from the BC Film & Television Summit 2001 that took place Oct. 30 and 31 was supposed to be filed with the provincial government prior to the budget announcement, but the strategic plan has not been given a publication date.

Another provincial asset on the block is The Knowledge Network. While the CMG delegates will not deal with the fate of the B.C. broadcaster in the Feb. 4 meeting with Victoria, there are at least two Canadian groups trying to purchase it.