SEE Magazine
Copyright © 1998. All Rights Reserved.
NEWS FRONT
BY ADRIAN LACKEYWhen the Alberta Government's "Blue Ribbon Panel" on the possibility of a tax credit for Alberta's film industry recently dissolved without any resolve or results, it left many in what's left in Alberta's once-booming film industry shaking their heads yet again.
Instead of a tax credit, a new committee, headed by Lorne Taylor, Minister of Science and Technology, is discussing the dispersal of a proposed $81-$91-million fund for "incentives encouraging the development of . . . investment capital, a limited tax credit program targeted at small companies that spent 13 to 15 per cent of gross sales on research and development." Of that proposed fund, there's no guarantee what the film industry will get, if they get anything at all.
"As I understand it, it's supposed to include the film industry as well," said Margaret Mardirossian, co-producer for Mentors Alberta's last remaining weekly television series, currently being shot by ITV studios in Edmonton. "It almost sounds like what they're trying to do is put back in place what the AMPDC (Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation) was, but for a broader base.
"(The film industry) would prefer a tax credit: it's clean, it's efficient, it requires less administration. In the end, it doesn't cost the taxpayers anything," she continued. "We can grow very quickly as an industry with a tax incentive program."
Until this past year, Mardirossian also served as president of he Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association (AMPIA), Northern Section, where she estimated the Alberta film industry lost $50-$85 million in production to other provinces as a result of the collapse of AMPDC two years ago. Still at AMPIA is Leon Lubin, executive director. He confirmed that government talk about tax credits will remain just talk.
"It appears as though they have killed any thoughts of tax credit and prefer to set up a fund of money. (Taylor) has been instructed to come up with a different fund to include the film and video industry in some fashion, but we don't know for how much and in what fashion.
"Until we see something put down in writing, it's pretty hard to bank on anything," Lubin continued. Still, he insisted on being optimistic: "We're hopeful that there is some way that this government can do something to discourage people from leaving and to encourage them to bring productions into this province."
Both Mardirossian and Lubin pointed out that many of Alberta's film technicians have joined an exodus out of the province in order to find work. "We have to bring in a lot of people from Vancouver and Regina and there's a cost factor to that. What's happening in other provinces is that producers are saying, 'yeah, you're a crew member, but I can't claim a tax credit on you for labor unless you're a resident of this province.' So, you're finding that a lot of crew are having to move, to work and pay taxes in those other provinces."
"The frustrating part of it all is we were hoping something would be in place by now," said Mardirossian. "Producers are starting to think about next year's programming and productions. Budgets are being put together, so if nothing's in place, you're obviously going to be looking elsewhere. There was a lot of pressure on us to move Mentors to Saskatchewan. It's costing us an extra $300,000 (in tax credit losses) to shoot it here."
What of the future of Mentors (if not the entire Alberta film industry) once these four episodes are shot? Mardirossian gave the bottom line: "If there are more shows ordered, then we're really going to have to sit down and think about this. If something is not put in place, it will be impossible to do Mentors here. And once we take it to Saskatchewan, there will be no bringing it back."
No one at Taylor's office was available for comment.
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