Vancouver: A bid by b.c. filmmakers for a provincial film investment program has been sidelined by a number of events, including Bingogate, the financial scandal currently rocking the province’s ndp government that forced b.c. Premier Mike Harcourt’s resignation last week.

The b.c. branch of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association spent the summer waging an earnest campaign to persuade legislators of the merits of a bcfip. But the lobbying effort has been hit with several blows.

First, the new Ontario government froze the Ontario Film Investment Program, which b.c. filmmakers pointed to as a model. Then Bingogate – an ongoing scandal involving charity fundraising, political payouts and government cover-ups – sent the ndp’s popularity plummeting.

Now the government is cutting jobs across its operations. This new spirit of ‘cost containment’ bumps bcfip off the funding priority list – if it was ever really there at all.

Proponents of a bcfip promise to redouble their efforts despite word from the government not to waste their time.

Television producer Helena Cynamon, for one, says she isn’t about to start waving a white flag or to abandon the bcfip.

‘We wouldn’t be fighting so hard for (a bcfip) if it weren’t good for everyone,’ explains Cynamon, a partner in Forefront Entertainment Group and a member of the b.c. branch of the cftpa. She says she’s lost three u.s.-based mows in the past year because Forefront didn’t have the same fip arsenal as producers in other provinces.

But Cynamon says her meeting with Minister of Social Services Joy McPhail proved to her that the politicians are impressed with a fip’s potential to create jobs, increase investment and provide substantial spin-off benefits.

‘The multiplier effect is an argument we need to be more rigorous about,’ she says.

Her meeting with Finance Minister Elizabeth Cull, who is facing much of the heat in the bingo scandal, was canceled.

Julia Keatley, chair of the local cftpa’s government relations committee, says she’s very disappointed in the ndp and its lack of understanding about the benefits of a bcfip. The politicians are being reactive, she charges, rather than taking the lead in the situation. ‘We will continue lobbying until we get something,’ she promises.

Meanwhile, the communications manager for the Ministry of Small Business, Tourism and Culture indicates filmmakers may yet have a long wait to see any action on a bcfip.

‘Yes, we are aware and impressed with the case of the (film) industry, but government is in a period of cost containment and this is not the time to take the proposal forward,’ says John Matters. ‘But we remain very supportive of the b.c. indigenous film industry.

‘What about money for next fiscal year (beginning April 1)? We can’t say. We have to see what the budget looks like at that point in time.’

By then, however, as Keatley points out, there may be another government in place.