It hurts. That’s how one of BC’s top film executives is describing the Premier’s refusal to consider increasing tax breaks for the billion-dollar industry.
Pete Mitchell –who heads up Vancouver Film Studios– says he just spent two days in Los Angeles trying to drum up more business for what used to be called ‘Hollywood North.’
“Everywhere we go, they’re like, ‘We love Vancouver. We would love to be there, but we didn’t shoot there last year because Louisiana had this tax credit or we went to Montreal because of that.
There’s been a three year timeframe between when Ontario made the change and now. The impact takes a few years to work through. Similarly, even if we change the tax credits today, it’s going to take another two to three years to get back to where we should be.”
Premier Christy Clark says she has no plans to increase tax credits currently worth $ 285-million because her priority is balancing the budget.
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