Vancouver: b.c. producers can stop complaining about the woeful inadequacies of the B.C. Trade Corporation’s Export Loan Guarantee Program: the much-maligned program no longer includes the film industry.

Late last month, following months of haggling over problems with the elg, the Trade Corporation’s finance committee recommended to its board of directors that b.c.-produced feature films be dropped from the program.

Michael Francis, chairman of the Trade Corporation’s finance committee, says previously there were no alternatives for bridge financing of film projects in the province, now there are. He notes the Royal Bank has become more involved in film financing recently and Telefilm Canada has promised a similar loan guarantee program later this year. Francis promises b.c. will lobby to get ‘their fair share.’

He says the elg program was an expansion of an industrial program developed by the government for other industries such as agriculture and manufacturing. ‘We find that the vocabulary and method of conducting business in the film industry is totally different. In order to adequately service it, we would have to dramatically expand our staff, and it’s just not worth it.’

Francis says there has been no lack of confidence in the producers who have tried to make use of the program; the decision to eliminate the film industry from participation in the elg had more to do with B.C. Trade’s inability to manage it. ‘We are not in a position to manage risks, we just don’t know the film industry well enough. We are a fairly small government agency dedicated to increasing exports, and that’s a long way from being film financiers.’

Five films, including In Exile, Arctic Blue, Digger and Red Scorpion II, have made use of the elg since the program’s inclusion of the film industry in 1991.

Neal Clarence, a financial advisor to the industry with the chartered accounting firm of Ellis Foster in Vancouver, says it’s unfortunate the program will be discontinued for the film industry.

‘It’s a program that if structured the right way could have been extremely valuable to producers,’ says Clarence. ‘But given the way it’s been operating for the last few months since the Bank of Montreal backed out of providing loans on the government’s guarantees, it’s just as well.’

He explains: ‘When B.C. Trade was providing guarantees on unsold territories on the basis of sold territories and the bank was providing loans against that guarantee, the program was extremely useful to producers. However, without that element – where B.C. Trade was simply providing a loan guarantee based on presale paper – the program just turned into another expensive layer of bureaucracy.’

As for a long-awaited b.c. government film policy or tax-incentive scheme to encourage private investment in film, Francis, who is also chairman of British Columbia Film, says no word is likely before fall.

‘There’s going to have to be an awful lot of work done over the summer to get any tax-incentive type of program ready. We’ve been urging the government for over two years to move ahead on a film policy, but with cabinet shuffles there has been a delay.’

Clarence says the elimination of the elg program and the lack of an incentive program similar to what exists in Ontario or Quebec has put ‘b.c. at a distinct disadvantage now when competing to attract production to the province.’