Head Tale

So it’s not a secret that a big part of the booming Saskatchewan economy is due to our massive non-renewable sector – potash and oil mainly but also natural gas and other similar resources at the expense of developing the renewable industry in any meaningful fashion.

When we say “renewables”, most people think of things like solar, wind, hydro and the like.  But there are also other renewable industries that can continually generate new, saleable products for the world market year after year.  Agriculture is the most obvious  example but there are also the cultural industries – books, music, visual art and movies.

So it was a massive shock to many in the province, in the national media as well as some pretty big names in Hollywood when the latest provincial budget included the elimination of the extremely common, popular and useful Saskatchewan Film Employment Tax Credit.

(As an aside, some genius on Twitter tried to claim that “The Hunger Games” didn’t need tax credits and it was a monster smash…except they were wrong and that blockbuster got its tax credit in North Carolina, just as it would’ve in pretty much any jurisdiction in North America.)

The justification for cutting the SFETC, directly from the Premier’s Twitter account, was that the film industry was in need of perpetual subsidy so that wasn’t good business – but that line of reasoning was disingenuous at best when every other major Saskatchewan sector also receives incentives of one kind or another.

There’s also the strange math of saying that cutting the SFETC saves $8 million a year – both because that’s a drop in the bucket in a multi-billion dollar provincial budget and also, another piece of disingenuous language since a tax credit isn’t money saved because it’s not money the provincial would’ve collected anyhow (and are now much less likely to collect *any* tax revenue from film productions directly or indirectly which, industry stats show, actually bring in $6 for every $1 invested via the tax credit.)

The SFETC is not a grant. It is a business incentive designed to reward businesses for bringing investment into Saskatchewan.

Further to that producers include the tax credit in the financing structure of the individual productions so that money is spent directly in Saskatchewan not put in the producers pockets.

And a final point the supposed money that the government will save by eliminating this credit is a myth. There will be no savings because those tax dollars are earned directly off of the money brought into Saskatchewan by producers using the Tax Credit.

Finally, there’s the impact this will have, not only on the 1200 people directly employed by the industry but the many economic spin-offs across the province in all sectors that come from the industry – often in the rural ridings that are the core of Wall’s support (the tax credit is structured so that companies get a higher rate if they shoot a certain distance from major centres – which is how Jennifer Jason Leigh and Drew Barrymore came to be shooting a film in my hometown along with other productions including “Little Mosque on the Prairie” and more.)

Perhaps it’s not that Brad Wall hates renewables. Perhaps he’s simply on a mission to destroy any decent program the NDP put in place, logic and business sense be damned.

I’ve got a personal dog in this fight.

One of the half dozen majors I declared during my first year was Film.  Through that (and living in dorms) many of the people I hung out with in undergrad twenty years ago were film majors – and most of those people are still in Saskatchewan.  When I went on exchange to England, two of the three courses I took during my semester abroad were film related (and a third on creative writing was indirectly related to film.) When the contract for my first “real job” out of University ran out, I got some temp work in the offices of the Saskatchewan Motion Picture Industry Association (SMPIA) where I got to know even more people from the filmmaking community, learn about the issues and see directly the impact these folks had on our province.

(Another aside – Brad Wall should realise that picking a fight with people who make their living dealing in media and storytelling is a bad idea – especially if the people defending you definitely *don’t* have those types of skills!)

To end, I’ll mention one last thing.  I have lots of little theories about life, the universe and everything.

And one of those theories is that the current Sask-a-boom didn’t start when oil prices started going through the roof in the mid-2000’s.  Or when the Sask Party got elected in 2007.  Or when the Riders won the Grey Cup, also in that same year.  I think the current boom was in large part inspired by the success of “Corner Gas” which debuted way back in 2004.

Think about it – the first hit Canadian sitcom in forever is set in…Dog River, Saskatchewan?  And it’s a hit all across Canada?  Suddenly people in this province had an excuse to have a bit of a swagger in their walk, a bit of pride in their talk in a way they never had before.  As much as the show made fun of our quirks, it also allowed us to be proud of those quirks.  And that was because of the reach and impact of the film industry.  Even a jackass knows that!

And now, any Corner Gas reunion movie is much less likely to be shot in Saskatchewan.

I’ll end with one last thing – I’m not sure if it helps but it can’t hurt – please sign the online petition against the cuts to the film tax credit.