No financial help for film, TV and video game industries
Posted January 16, 2013 3:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – BC’s struggling film, TV, and video game industries should not expect more financial help from the provincial government. The premier says they already get plenty of assistance.
Christy Clark admits strong entertainment sectors are important to BC’s economy.
She says, however, that those industries already get $285-million in tax credits.
“That’s a very substantial benefit for a specific industry,” Clark notes.
She admits there have been many requests for help. “In British Columbia, where we are also going to balance our budget, we don’t have a bottomless pit of decisions to be able to make,” she says.
Still, critics are baffled by the move to leave film, TV, and video gaming out of her BC Jobs Plan.
It comes as places like Ontario, California, and New York work harder to attract entertainment producers through incentives, chipping away at opportunities for BC.
The talent pools are draining
Those tax credits in place help but are not competitive with back east and parts of the US, according to Shawn Williamson with Brightlight Pictures.
Right now the unemployment rate in the local industry is 95 per cent — and he says, it will only get worse unless the Liberals take action.
“With a high Canadian dollar and higher incentives in other jurisdictions, we will see a continued erosion of the industry. We told them that the industry would start to leave and talent pool would start to leave and it has been happening.”
In two weeks, he along with a dozen other producers will go to the UK to learn some tricks as that country is now introducing a new tax break.
