Sadly, it turns out that comments made by finance minister Diana Whalen last week denouncing the Nova Scotia film tax credit weren’t just woefully off script, the Liberal government did indeed decide to cut the Nova Scotia film industry tax credit from 100 percent refundable to 25 percent, beginning July 1, as announced in today’s 2015/16 budget reveal. Despite Whalen happily accepting a petition with over 25,000 signatures just yesterday, the cut went ahead as planned and people are none too pleased.
Now the tax credit will depend on how much film production companies pay out in taxes, meaning some companies can retain the 100 percent tax credit if they pay enough in provincial taxes.
Despite extensive warnings from industry professionals that a change in the tax credit will result in a mass exodus from the province, taking with it millions in revenue for local workers, restaurants, equipment, car rentals, hotels and effectively gut the industry, the Liberal government seems to be playing chicken, choosing instead a $18 million reduction in payouts next year, dropping the expected amount of payouts to be $6 million. In addition, Film and Creative Industries Nova Scotia has also been axed and will be absorbed by Nova Scotia Business Inc. No one is learning the important lesson that refusing to invest in creative culture is a huge mistake. The Liberal budget sounds short-sighted, but don’t take thousands of industry professionals’ word for it, why not ask Saskatchewan how their tax credit cut went?
Here’s the budget if you want to have a read, you’d better believe there are some gems in here.
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This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3cevI9RJ4…
To be fair, Saskatchewan didn’t reduce their tax credit, they eliminated it entirely. They also never had the built-in film infrastructure we have here.
This is bad, but it’s apocalyptic. And it’s reversible come the next government. I also think the warnings from the industry that cutting the credit will result in a “mass exodus” is a huge exaggeration: Those are the words of an industry association trying to keep a pretty sweet tax benefit. Threatening to move away is a tried-and-true way to get what you want in Nova Scotia, and I’d be very surprised to see a real “mass” outmigration.
There will be a hit though, and it was a very stupid decision on the government’s part.
From what I’ve seen on Twitter, besides TPB being the linchpin that holds all of Nova Scotia together: restaurants will close, condos are going to be boarded up, and the gentrification of Agricola St will be reversed 10-fold in less time than it took to get where it is now. The end is nigh, hang yourselves from the rafters before you have to see it. The Mary Walsh show is still a go, though.
I’m not making this up. People are actually saying this industry is THE major driving force in our economy. Hobnobbing with those fancy pants execs in The Big Smoke will do that to your ego, I guess.
We are one of 4 large animation studios in Halifax that will be closing our doors and offering jobs to our NS crew to move to our Hamilton studio. 99% of our animators are under the age of 30.
We make the shows your kids watch on treehouse like Bubble Guppies, Mike The Knight, Inspector Gadget, Super Why.
hey pigeon … You have no idea what you are talking about.
Me … my GF … and 10 of my closest friends are already looking for sublets and new apartments in other provinces. Its not a threat … we are artist people… we dont want to work in call centers or retail which is all nova scotia has. Nova scotia has made it very difficult to be a creative and stay … its not a threat .. its a unfortunate circumstance that none of us want to go through.