Film tax credit changes slash incomes for production staff in Nova Scotia

The Atlantic division of the Director's Guild of Canada (DGC) is blaming major changes made to Nova Scotia's film industry in the last year as reasons why its members have seen their salaries and working days cut in half.

On Wednesday, the national organization representing creative personnel and production staffannounced, overall, its Nova Scotiamembers made $2.8 million less in 2015 compared tothe previous year:

• 2014: $5,888,330 over 12,312 working days
• 2015: $3,110,880 over 6,509 working days.

Those measurements were taken from last April, when the industry's tax credit was nixed and replaced three months laterby an incentive fund requiring everydollar spent, to be accounted for.

The results are based on the number of projects that were shot in Nova Scotia during that period, says James Nicholson,business agent for the DGC's Atlantic Regional Council.

"It's a startling statistic," he told CBC News.

'An enormous amount of calculation'

There's a direct relationship, Nicholson says, between fewer scripted productionsshootingin the province, the westward migration of industry workers and the introduction of the incentive fund on July 1, 2015.

Using thefund is too time consuming to attract business, takingfive to six weeks from point of application to the day cameras start rolling, he says.

"It'san enormous amount of calculation, which not only takes more time in terms of figuring out what's eligible, but then that eligibility has to be approved by, in this case, Nova Scotia Business Inc."

• Nova Scotia's film industry faces 'a real exodus' after tax credit changes

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Minister of Business Mark Furey says 13projects have been approved under the fund, leaving $7 million for more productions.

That'sled to $10 million being allocated in the 2016-2017 provincial budget to replenish the fund if and when it's exhausted, Furey said. The budget is expected mid-April.

"It might be at the eight-month mark, it might bethe 10-month mark. I hope we don't get to the 12-month mark because I believe we can exhaust those funds and grow the number of productions in the province," Furey said.

Furey says the fund doesn't have to be emptied by its anniversary date of July 1. It will be reviewed whenever it's used up but the sooner its spent, the more of a success it will be.

"Well, that would be sweet," Furey said.

Changing the conversation

Furey will meet with industryrepresentatives on Thursday to talk about aproposal they submitted asking forchanges to the fund.

Conversation is important, Furey says, but so is changing the tone of that conversation.

"It's my hope,it's my desire;it's my belief we will see that fund exhausted. But it's going to takea change of discussion at restoring confidence in the industry."

But not all aspects need reworking.Furey says the average turnaround time for fund applications is not five or six weeks but just two or three.

"As we talked to industry reps across the country, two to three weeks is a very good return time from point of application to point of approval,"Fureysaid.

• Business Minister Mark Furey urges filmmakers to use Nova Scotia fund

Nicholson says the industry knows the old tax credit system ship has sailed, but change is required before the incentive fund reaches the end of its first year.

"We believe it will be important for turning the industry around in the province," he says, because the incentive fund "is really not functioning right now for the industry both at a local and on an international scale."

The Directors Guild of Canada does not represent all film industry workers in Nova Scotia. Across Canada, it has 3,800 members.