Burnaby council on board with #savebcfilm

Photo by  Maximino C. Fuentes

If Burnaby council has its way there will be a whole lot more "lights, camera, action" in the city after the upcoming provincial election.

Council tabled an extensive report on the film industry Monday night and voted to send letters to the leaders of the campaigning provincial political parties, stating the value of the film and TV industry to Burnaby.*

The report states that the industry is "a key economic driver in Burnaby" supplying at least $408 million directly and indirectly into the local economy in 2012.

"We can't afford to lose this industry and we can't afford to be bullied by other provinces," said Mayor Derek Corrigan.

According to the report, and to the Save BC Film campaign by film and TV insiders, B.C. has been losing productions to other key players in North America, including Ontario, which offer richer tax incentives and do not apply the PST to the industry.

The report suggests that "carefully reasoned and timely steps be taken to maintain" B.C. as an attractive place to do business.

Coun. Colleen Jordan said that 73 Burnaby businesses are directly involved with the film industry and many of those have seen their revenue go down by some 40 per cent.

Jordan said it doesn't make sense that provinces are fighting each other to win productions, however, "we didn't start this war," she said. "This is no way to run a country. We should have free trade within the country," said Jordan.

Corrigan agreed. "This same kind of dumping would not have been tolerated between other countries, but for some reason between provinces it is OK," he said.

Coun. Nick Volkow, who is himself a member of Teamsters Local 155 — the film drivers local union — said he was surprised by the variety of businesses which are impacted by the industry. He said he was picking up clothes at the dry cleaners on Canada Way in Burnaby and noticed they had a costumes ready for pick up. "They told me they do most of their business for the film industry," he said.

Volkow said he rejects the argument that giving tax incentives to the film industry is supporting the one percent. "It isn't. It is giving to the 99 per cent. Grunts like me and other grunts moving stuff around," he said. He said the small majority of the wealthy will always get more than their share, unless people rise up. Until then, tax incentives will help the local economy, he said.

Coun. Dan Johnston supported the motion, but said that productions are also being lost to other countries such as Australia.
"We need a national directive or policy on this one," he said.

Coun. Sav Dhaliwal agreed. "We need to take very decisive action, " he said, but eventually we should work with other provinces, "better for all of us if we pay attention to better ways to deal with this," said Dhaliwal.

So far the big two political parties seem to be listening. Adrian Dix of the NDP has said his government would raise B.C's film tax incentive to 40 per cent from its current 35 per cent.

The Liberals, led by Christy Clark, have also said they would take steps to help the film industry. Former Liberal finance minister Mike De Jong has called for consistency in tax incentives across the country.

Voters go to the polls May 14.

*Full disclosure, my husband is involved in the film industry — though he isn't a supporter of the save film campaign.