Dissatisfied with the cftpa’s inability to take a position on a proposal to scrap the foreign tax credit and buoyed by its own successful Ottawa lobby to stave off overtaxing foreign actors, Canada’s usually inconspicuous service production sector has become politicized.

A large collective of producers, service companies and film unions is contemplating the formation of a new association to give a political voice to the film service industry. Top-of-mind issues include opposition to the proposed elimination of the federal production services tax credit and the continuation of efforts to have the foreign actor withholding tax issue resolved.

The new association is to be called the Motion Picture Production Industry of Canada, and if chartered, would ‘properly represent the production sector, especially in the regions,’ says Paul Bronfman, Comweb Group president and one of the driving forces behind the proposed association.

‘This would be [an association of] real nuts and bolts production people,’ says Bronfman, ‘producers, studio facilities, infrastructure and unions all at the table with the main goal of increasing the number of jobs and people employed in our industry.’

The idea for mppic was born out of the successful lobby effort to have Revenue Minister Herb Dhaliwal grant a one-year reprieve against stepped-up taxation on foreign actors working in Canada. The lobby committee which traveled to Ottawa to meet with Dhaliwal last month was made up of film commissioners, unions and producers and was co-chaired by b.c. producer Fitch Cady and Toronto’s Patrick Whitley of Dufferin Gate

‘A lot of people would like to see this broad coalition continue into the future so there is momentum for it,’ says Cady.

Cady, a Vancouver-based producer and industry veteran, whose role if any in mppic has not yet been determined, says the proposed service association would be well funded and could raise the money needed to start up ‘without a blink.’

Some insiders have described the service industry’s desire for its own association as a ‘schism’ within the cftpa membership. The alleged rift pits domestic producers – beneficiaries of government support and incentives who are positioned front and center as the cftpa public face – against service producers who despite making up close to half of the cftpa membership, according to some sources have little pull within the organization and are only eligible for the production services tax credit incentive.

The cftpa has taken no position on the proposal made in a report by the advisory committee to Heritage’s Feature Film Policy Review suggesting the elimination of the federal production services tax credit and putting the estimated $55 million towards an indigenous feature film fund. While the cftpa represents both domestic and service producers, the fence-sitting on the issue has angered some service-based members.

‘We all know who pulls the chains of that organization [the cftpa] – the big boys,’ says one service producer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. ‘There’s an elite group of producers in this country who are dictating the film policy and it’s not going to go on any longer.

‘We’ve left them alone, they’ve gone off and taken advantage of all these incentives, the Cable Fund and Telefilm and we’ve turned a blind eye. Now you’re suggesting taking away the one incentive for me? Not on your life. It could get very ugly if they don’t take a stand.’

cftpa president and ceo Elizabeth McDonald says the production association has never lobbied to have the foreign tax credit cut and that the cftpa sent a note to its members in December saying so.

McDonald would not, however, give a firm statement on whether the cftpa supported or opposed the tax-credit proposal.

‘While there are individual members of the cftpa who believe in that approach [eliminating the foreign credit],’ says McDonald, ‘we also have other members who feel this could be a disastrous situation.’

cftpa members on the advisory committee which made the tax credit recommendation include Tom Berry (Filmo Bandito), Michael Donovan (Salter Street Films) and Tom Rowe (Pacific Motion Pictures).

Despite the Canadian producer version of ‘two solitudes’ with service vs. domestic that seems to be forming, both mppic supporters Bronfman and Cady say the intention is for the new service association to work in tandem with the cftpa and have cross-membership.

‘I think that such an association could work in conjunction with the cftpa,’ says Cady. ‘It [mppic] might have union membership while the cftpa doesn’t.’

Cady says that ‘every single film union in Canada’ supports the idea of such an association.

Calls to actra and iatse’s national office seeking comment were not returned by press time.

While wishing mppic well and hoping that cross-membership could occur, McDonald warns that ‘two lobbying voices will hurt both groups. All you have to do is look at the precedent of Stentor [a lobby group representing the interests of provincial phone companies]. . . the whole thing broke up and now the government doesn’t know who to talk to.’

McDonald maintains that the cftpa is well positioned to represent the mixed interests of its broad membership, and says that service producers have for the most part failed to voice their specific concerns to the cftpa board in the past.