HALIFAX – Screen Nova Scotia and the the province’s finance department have reached an agreement on an new incentive system for the film industry in Nova Scotia.
Marc Almon, chair of Screen Nova Scotia, announced the deal on Thursday afternoon.
“Today, there’s been a general consensus and agreement on basically a new system for what is now an incentive for filming here in Nova Scotia,” he said.
“There’s still a lot of details to be worked out, but basically the system will be moving to a model that we feel will allow for many projects to remain competitive with other jurisdictions in the country.”
Almon says the new base rate will be 25 per cent refundable for all production costs, while there will be an additional two per cent bonus for shooting outside of Halifax, another two per cent for indigenous producers who are shooting their own work, and one per cent for series production.
Screen Nova Scotia vice-chair Scott Simpson said while the previous model was based solely on labour, the new one will be based on a percentage of money spent on “any Nova Scotia-eligible expense.”
The full details have not yet been worked out on paper, but Almon said the final agreement will be included in the Financial Measures Act, which is yet to be tabled in the legislature.
Simpson said there are still elements of the new plan his organization does not endorse.
“There are some concerns and as we said before, our industry is diverse. There’s a lot of different interests and some of the mechanisms in this new plan will be beneficial to some, and some may be not so fair to others,” he said.
Tensions between the film industry and Stephen McNeil’s Liberal government have been high since the provincial budget was tabled early in April. Finance Minister Diana Whalen announced Nova Scotia would slash the existing film tax credit by 75 per cent on July 1.
Critics said such a move would result in job losses and deal a severe blow to the province’s film industry.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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