Tax breaks for the Canadian film industry: the good news and the bad
Excerpts from an article from the Globe and Mail".

Jean Chrétien won't be bullied by Hollywood entertainers or U.S. politicians who want to blame Canada for stealing film production work.

The federal government has decided to raise incentives for foreign movie productions in Canada, a move sure to anger some U.S. politicians and film workers further.

At the same time, in Tuesday's budget, the government slashed funding for homegrown TV production, cutting the Canadian Television Fund by $25-million a year for the next two years. That's a 25-per-cent reduction.

Foreign film and TV producers saw their production tax credits jump to 16 per cent from 11 per cent of eligible Canadian labour expenses Tuesday.

So lets get this straight, shall we? Despite the fact that Crétien is raising the tax breaks for foreign film, he's doing it at the ire of the American film industry. If he continues to piss them off, they're not going to come to Canada, tax break or none. Secondly, by taking out 25% from the CTF, he's hurting producers all over Canada. With a loss of that much money, it's going to kill a *lot* of pure Canadian projects. It seems to me that Crétien's plan is looking at the short term gains instead of long term benefits. Hopefully the next Canadian PM takes a long hard look at the Canadian film industry and appreciates it for what it is.