“I think the numbers are difficult to understand,” said finance minister Diana Whalen when asked by reporters to confirm figures from the department’s press release. “Twenty-five percent of 50 percent, of this, of that.”
Over the past several weeks, the Liberals have done a remarkable job of passing a budget with very drastic cuts, all the while confounding the public and making any opposition seem to be a matter of opinion rather than economics. Of these cuts, the one receiving the most backlash has been that to the film industry tax credit. Come July 1, what was once worth $24 million will become a $10 million incentive fund, with $4 million for digital animation.
Since the initial cryptic announcement in early April that changes were coming, reporting on the issue has been all over the map. All Stephen McNeil and Diana Whalen have had to do is throw out some vague statements and contradicting figures and watch the opinions fly. We’ve heard off-the-cuff remarks from Marco Navarro-Génie, CEO of a right-wing think-tank, and from billionaire public-fund leech John Risley, who support the cuts. Even a recent report from CTV claimed to have uncovered new information about inequality in the tax credit distribution, but amounted to only a few misleading infographics.
Screen Nova Scotia has tried its best to provide lucid arguments, creating a series of animated educational videos, releasing point-by-point rebuttals of the finance department’s statements, and writing an open letter to Nova Scotia’s MLAs in advance of the Financial Measures Act vote. Despite these efforts, the cut is now a done deal. What this means for the film industry going forward is still unclear, particularly since the implementation date of the new fund is mere weeks away with many details yet to be ironed out.
“This date is unreasonable, unrealistic, and is causing havoc in the industry,” says Screen Nova Scotia. “Projects have been put on hold. Some have been cancelled. No one can restructure an entire industry on such short notice. It’s not that it’s difficult. It’s impossible.”
The one thing the film industry and the government appear to agree on is the lack of cohesive data to justify the cuts. “There’s a simple way to fix this,” said McNeil. “Show the production and show the cost. Show who’s earning what. Show where the money is being spent.”
Scott Simpson of Screen Nova Scotia says all this data is submitted to the government when film budgets are being approved. McNeil insists: “We’re saying to the industry: you tell us if we’re wrong.” In an attempt to do just that, a study is now being commissioned from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The government has shown no interest in waiting for the results of the study, however.
Those involved in productions that have been postponed or called off are remaining tight-lipped, but Screen Nova Scotia is “working on a comprehensive list of productions that we can say in all certainty have been lost for this 2015 production season.
“Our work does not end here,” as the organization works “diligently to rebuild critical programs and institutions our industry relies on. And pressure on the government to fix their mistakes will continue as well.”
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This article appears in May 21-27, 2015.
The worst cut in the Liberal budget is directed to those on welfare – no more free bus pass if you do not have 12 medical appointments per month.
Kicking the poor in the nuts and little media coverage,
All the cuts are bad. Let’s not do what the liberal government hopes we do by turning on each other. You don’t need to kill the film industry to save health care, or slash bus passes to save tuition. It doesn’t work that way and please don’t let the governments verbal diarrhea have us turning on each other. We all need to work together to kick these inept bums out of office, just remember in two years time when they are promising the sky again that they lie.
The contemporary artist may evermore be impoverished.
Not sure I agree with you Holly, we don’t have infinite money. Don’t take that as a “we must cut these things”, as I see value in these investments even if the government doesn’t fully recover their investment in the form of taxes, but the governments do have financial limitations. So the two things most certainly are related.
As Michael has pointed it out in this article, it’s economics.
‘…”I think the numbers are difficult to understand,” said finance minister Diana Whalen when asked by reporters to confirm figures from the department’s press release. “Twenty-five percent of 50 percent, of this, of that.”…’
So…are you saying ‘Math is hard?’…
It all apart of a deal made with China last may a MOU was signed to allow China Film Tourist and developmen. Made a deal with company call DDI they agreed to invest 3 Billion over 10 years. Nova Scotia GOV. want you out of the way to fulfil the requirements to China. Google for yourself DDI MOU and DDI Crystal City a new land to be developed just next to Halifax.
The business is living in the past. CRTC mandated Pick and Pay (coming March 2016) will kill Discovery, History, National Geographic, etc. No subscribers, no channel; no channel, no distribution deal; no distribution deal, no Media Fund money. The model of funding is changing as Canadians finally get to pay for what they want. That is on the cable side; internet content delivery is the elephant in the room. Canadian tv in its current form is dead, and video entertainment generally is going to be subject to a repricing. The music industry stuck it’s head in the sand and got slaughtered by the internet. TV is next. It just took a little longer.
Maybe the subsidies work, maybe they don’t. I don’t know. The industry needs to plan for what things will look like in 5 years and beyond. The cable cartel is going away, and with it a lot of traditional content. Canadian Content TV subsidized up to 60%?? Are we insane? Keep the credits for foreign productions that have a sound financing model, if anything is to be kept. I know people in the business who do not have cable; get everything on Netflix, iTunes, from the actual networks (with ads), or watch some other form of free tv. Why? Because it costs too much and it is full of channels they don’t watch. Mostly CanCon. The very thing that keeps the Media Fund financed they don’t want to pay for. Or they are sitting around on Facebook or some other website entertainment. TV’s are sitting there, not even used, and the cable bill is being paid just because they have not gotten around to cutting it off. Apple is sitting there, waiting for exactly the right time to blast a hole in traditional TV. It may be a few more years, but it is coming. Perhaps the government is showing some foresight in cutting aid to a dying business.
All just my opinion, of course.
In October don’t vote Liberal.