B.C.’s film and TV industry is worth over $1 billion dollars a year, but industry insiders say other provinces and states are are luring production companies away by offering better tax incentives.
Filmmakers, animators and film commissioners from across the B.C. Interior met in Kelowna on Wednesday with a representative of the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development. Deputy Minister Don Fast heard suggestions about how the province can help the industry.
“It’s show business. It’s fickle,” says movie producer Connie Dolphin. “It all comes down to the dollar.”
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Movie producers have to pay PST in BC, which makes it more expensive to film here. They would like the same tax breaks that manufacturing companies enjoy.
“The motion picture industry is basically a manufacturing industry,” says Vicci Weller, from the Thompson-Nicola Film Commission. “We manufacture a product. It’s called entertainment and it is exported all over the world.”
The industry would also like the government to support more film and animation training programs for students. Animation studios, including Disney Studios Club Penguin of Kelowna, find it difficult to get the people they need.
“We currently have 385 people,” said Disney’s Lynn D’Albertanson. “About 50% of the people we hire have to relocate from other places, because we can’t find the talent here.
The B.C. Film Commission estimates that more than 35,000 people are employed in the film industry in this province. Only New York and Los Angeles have bigger film and TV production industries.
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