FILMMAKING IN NOVA SCOTIA

UNCLAS HALIFAX 000015 SIPDIS FOR WHA/CAN STATE PLS PASS USTR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD EINV EIND CA SUBJECT: FILMMAKING IN NOVA SCOTIA ¶1. Summary: The issue of intellectual property rights (IPR) does not rank high on the agenda of the Nova Scotia film industry. Rather, the key issue is attracting increased film production to the province. Film Nova Scotia is the provincially owned development corporation through which the province has been assisting and encouraging the development of a local filmmaking industry for almost twenty years. Successive provincial governments have seen this assistance--mainly in the form of tax credits and small production grants--as an economic development tool akin to those for any other industry. While these efforts have produced some positive results, Nova Scotia lags far behind the established Canadian film centers in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. END SUMMARY. ¶2. Consul General and Pol-Econ Specialist met with Anne MacKenzie, President and CEO of Film Nova Scotia on April 7 to discuss IPR issues concerning copyright legislation and the local film industry. On the former, MacKenzie noted that the issue was not a high priority and offered no opinion on the likelihood of the Harper government actually passing copyright legislation other than a brief comment that any development in this area would likely take a long time. ¶3. MacKenzie then described the mandate of Film Nova Scotia, explaining that it was set up in 1990 as an economic development tool. Its mandate is to grow Nova Scotia's film, television and new media (CD, DVDs and internet) industry and also to promote the province and its worker force in global production markets. Through direct assistance the corporation annually invests in the range of C$15-20 million in programs for such things as training and loans and grants for would-be filmmakers. ¶4. In addition to this assistance, the province offers a film tax credit that Film Nova Scotia administers on behalf of the provincial finance department. This provides for a fully refundable corporate income tax credit based on labor costs. The credit is designed to encourage the development, training and hiring of Nova Scotia film workers (which amounts to some 2,000 to 3,000 individuals). The tax credit currently ranges from 50 to 65 percent, with the higher percentage going to films shot outside the Halifax region. In the province's 2007-2008 fiscal year, local producers received C$8.10 million in credits while visiting (i.e., non-resident) producers received C$2.64 million. MacKenzie pointed out that the various incentives have helped grow the industry to where it is now the fourth largest in Canada, coming in behind Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. In its 2006/07 fiscal year, the industry saw over C$100 million in production spending in the province, but that figure dipped to C$76 million in 2007/08 due to increases in the value of the Canadian dollar, labor unrest in the industry and increasing competiveness among other jurisdictions. ¶5. COMMENT: While Film Nova Scotia has succeeded in carving out for local production companies a small niche in the Canadian and global film industry, the prospects of displacing Canada's traditional production centers remain remote. END COMMENT. FOSTER