BC Liberal, NDP politicians: resist being seduced by Hollywood's subsidy hungry hype
 |
| Hollywood sign over the movie business capital in Los Angeles |
Tuesday January
21, 2013
By Bill Tieleman
"Free
is too much!" -- Desk sign at Hollywood film producer's office, 1998
If
there's one thing that both BC Liberals and New Democrats can agree on it's
this: giving money to Hollywood is almost irresistible!
So
if you want to get literally hundreds of millions of tax dollars to subsidize
your already highly profitable $1.2 billion
industry, just send a few movie stars and producers up to British
Columbia, smile sweetly about how you love the place and then threaten to
leave.
Works
every time.
And
when over 1,000 rightly worried film and television workers meet tonight at
North Shore Studios for a Save BC Film information session
that will get blanket media coverage, and an online petition
hits 25,000 signatures, watch the pressure build on both parties to outbid each
other with your money.
But
things don't change when it come to film moguls milking the government like a
prize dairy cow while promising to make politicians look like stars.
Adventures
in Hollywood
In
1998 I went on a "fact finding" mission to Hollywood representing
labour, along with a B.C. government deputy minister and film industry
representative.
The
trip was needed because Ontario had just introduced an 11 per cent tax
credit on labour used in film and television production -- excluding
foreign actors and crew -- and B.C. was under pressure to match it or the
industry would die hard with a vengeance.
We
spent two days meeting movie executives and in one producer's office was a big
sign at his desk that epitomizes the whole situation: "Free is too
much!"
The
penny -- and a several million dollars -- dropped for me then.
The
same producer said his firm would shift a $2 million television movie of the
week from Vancouver studios to Toronto if it could save just $10,000 in total
from Ontario tax credits.
"Seriously?"
we asked incredulously. "Even with more experienced crews, the time zone
difference, better weather, the extra distance from Hollywood, the variety of
locations and sets?"
"Yes,"
was the straight answer back.
And
it may be true.
Scripting
a bidding war
B.C.
paid up then even when the dollar hit as low as 63 cents U.S.
and kept jacking the tax credit
from 11 per cent to an astonishing 33 per cent today
on all local labour costs, plus additional credits for shooting outside
Vancouver, spending around $285 million a year to keep up to 25,000 jobs here.
Currently the industry says the unemployment rate is about 90 per cent.
But
Hollywood has a good script and we now see the results of Ontario and Quebec
starting a shameless bidding war for film industry jobs and investments with an
incredibly generous tax credit hike to 25 per cent of
total costs that puts B.C. 10 per cent to 13 per cent behind them.
Better
investments
Just
think for a minute about that -- would the restaurant or forest products or
construction industry like to get a one-third tax credit on all its labour
costs?
A
tax credit that really means you get all tax paid back and then a cheque from
the government for the remaining value of that cost?
You
bet! Would they invest that money in B.C. to create more jobs? Sure!
Would
spending $300 million a year building 1,000 or more units of housing for the
homeless create lots of great jobs and put a needed roof over people's heads
too? You bet!
But unlike
the film business, other sectors can't easily get up and leave town.
Movie
and TV shoots, unfortunately can and do.
And
they're not shy about making that clear.
Movie
production manager Warren Carr
made it clear in an interview with CKNW radio's Sean Leslie on Sunday.
"Yes,
we need a little help on the tax credit," said Carr, who helped produce
The Bourne Legacy and Diary Of A Wimpy Kid.
The
movie moguls were also big fans of B.C.'s outgoing Harmonized Sales Tax, which
also put more money in their pockets at consumers' expense, advocating strongly
for it in 2011's binding referendum when I was strategist for Fight HST, the
group that successfully opposed the tax.
Today
the industry's Save BC Film online petition also puts it
plainly -- give us tax money:
"Vancouver's
ability to remain a competitive film market relies heavily on the support of
the provincial government and their enthusiasm for maintaining an attractive
taxation scheme.
"With
a strong Canadian dollar, this is the only way to ensure and build upon the
long-term success that has been established."
Fair
enough from the film industry perspective -- and no one wants to see workers
unemployed -- but the rest of us may not agree that ever-rising levels of tax
rebates from the public coffers are a good way to save jobs.
Let's
direct our own fate
No
matter what B.C. does, other jurisdictions in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere
have engaged in an unlimited bidding war for Hollywood's favour, with tax
credits as high as 35 per cent
in Louisiana.
So
what's the solution if throwing more money at Hollywood isn't?
There
has to be a sustainable plan for B.C.'s film and television industry; one that
isn't completely dependent on massive tax credits or a depressed Canadian
dollar to survive and grow.
But
it won't be developed in the heat of a panic campaign or with advice from
self-serving movie moguls.
And
Hollywood's love of whip-sawing province against province, as well as American
states and foreign countries, for the biggest, fattest tax credits imaginable
has to hit the cutting room floor at last.
Premier
Christy Clark and her government have done a pretty miserable job with the
industry, considering how much money they spend on it, alienating both workers
and bosses with their indifference to what really is a very difficult situation
of high unemployment and fewer productions in B.C.
But
both parties would be smart not to jump when Hollywood yells: "Action!
Throw us big bucks and make it look sincere!"
With a
sensible strategy, B.C.'s film and television business won't fade to black and
the hit movie "Tax Credit Bandits" won't keep producing expensive
sequels.
