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Film production spending falls 42%
Industry In 'Crisis'
Kelly Patrick
National Post
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Even as tickets go on sale today for the Toronto International Film Festival, the city's film board has released a dire new financial snapshot of the local movie and television industry that shows production spending has plummeted by 42% since 2003.
"The last few years we've actually seen a crisis develop in the film industry in Toronto," Susan Murdoch, the co-chair of the Toronto Film Board, told a meeting of council's executive committee yesterday.
"Our talent is leaving, going to other jurisdictions, particularly in Canada. Other levels of government have promoted regional incentives that encourage production to go to other provinces."
Toronto's film and television industry has been in a free fall since early this decade, when the double whammy of SARS and the rising Canadian dollar dealt the sector two critical blows.
The Toronto Film Board hired a consulting firm, Economics Research Associates, to analyze the industry's woes.
ERA found that total production spending in Toronto has fallen from $1.2-billion in 2003 to $700-million in 2006; feature film spending has dropped by 35%; and commercial production has slid by 65%.
Whereas Toronto used to account for more than 30% of foreign film work in Canada, now it accounts for only 9%, ERA found.
In a bid to reverse the sector's decline, Ms. Murdoch asked the executive committee to endorse an 18-point plan to prop up the film industry.
The committee agreed and asked staff to study other ways to pump up the sector.
However, Ms. Murdoch acknowledged the city can do little more than act as a "cheerleader" for the industry and lobby upper levels of government to change policies that reward film productions for locating outside the Greater Toronto Area.
Peter Finestone, the city's acting film commissioner, said the municipal government could theoretically provide tax incentives to the industry -- possibly by allowing some players to defer their property taxes for a few years -- but he said that was not necessarily the best way to restore Toronto to its former perch as Hollywood North.
"Is it able to [offer tax incentives?] Yes. Is that imperative for the city to do? I don't think it is imperative for the city to do," he said. "What I think we need to do in the city is bring the industry together. They've already demonstrated a capacity but they're still not fully co-ordinated."
Film production spending falls 42%
Industry In 'Crisis'
Kelly Patrick
National Post
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Even as tickets go on sale today for the Toronto International Film Festival, the city's film board has released a dire new financial snapshot of the local movie and television industry that shows production spending has plummeted by 42% since 2003.
"The last few years we've actually seen a crisis develop in the film industry in Toronto," Susan Murdoch, the co-chair of the Toronto Film Board, told a meeting of council's executive committee yesterday.
"Our talent is leaving, going to other jurisdictions, particularly in Canada. Other levels of government have promoted regional incentives that encourage production to go to other provinces."
Toronto's film and television industry has been in a free fall since early this decade, when the double whammy of SARS and the rising Canadian dollar dealt the sector two critical blows.
The Toronto Film Board hired a consulting firm, Economics Research Associates, to analyze the industry's woes.
ERA found that total production spending in Toronto has fallen from $1.2-billion in 2003 to $700-million in 2006; feature film spending has dropped by 35%; and commercial production has slid by 65%.
Whereas Toronto used to account for more than 30% of foreign film work in Canada, now it accounts for only 9%, ERA found.
In a bid to reverse the sector's decline, Ms. Murdoch asked the executive committee to endorse an 18-point plan to prop up the film industry.
The committee agreed and asked staff to study other ways to pump up the sector.
However, Ms. Murdoch acknowledged the city can do little more than act as a "cheerleader" for the industry and lobby upper levels of government to change policies that reward film productions for locating outside the Greater Toronto Area.
Peter Finestone, the city's acting film commissioner, said the municipal government could theoretically provide tax incentives to the industry -- possibly by allowing some players to defer their property taxes for a few years -- but he said that was not necessarily the best way to restore Toronto to its former perch as Hollywood North.
"Is it able to [offer tax incentives?] Yes. Is that imperative for the city to do? I don't think it is imperative for the city to do," he said. "What I think we need to do in the city is bring the industry together. They've already demonstrated a capacity but they're still not fully co-ordinated."
