Mayor Gregor Robertson is asking Ottawa to throw Vancouver’s floundering film and TV industry a life preserver.
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Robertson announced he plans to introduce a resolution two weeks from now that will call for “a national approach that would see a level playing field across Canada in the film and TV industry.”
Film and TV is a $1.19 billion industry in B.C. and employs 25,000 people. But like the console game industry, it has seen jobs draining to Ontario, thanks to the generous tax incentives offered there.
As reported by Business in Vancouver last week, more than 4,000 actors, directors, producers and technicians converged at North Shore Studios January 22 under the #SaveBCFilm banner to lobby for help.
Robertson said yesterday, “We need to crank up our pressure from the city side. We need to see action in the very near term.”
The mayor said it is estimated that B.C.’s film and TV industry has lost 40% of its business to Eastern Canada.
