Filmmaker calls budget good first step to recovery for film industry

It won’t fix the damage done years ago, but Layton Burton thinks Wednesday’s budget is a good first step.

The Saskatchewan filmmaker called the news of an $8-million increase to the Creative Saskatchewan film production grant “terrific.”

“It’s proof to me and my colleagues who are no longer with us in the province as filmmakers that we are and have always been relevant and viable and sustainable,” he said.

“This is really good news that the government is admitting to the fact that we are good for the province and we are good for the economics here.”

He remembered seeing funding for the industry disappear a decade ago in 2012 when the province slashed its film tax credit.

“I felt a bittersweet feeling because 10 years ago that day, I stood there and watched all of those careers disappear with the snap of a finger,” Burton said.

Before that happened, in 2007, the credit was frozen and was a sign of things to come.

“It sent everyone who was a professional filmmaker 24/7 out of the province,” Burton recalled. “That was almost 2,000 people who were told to ‘Get out, get packing, move on because we’re not interested in you,’ ” Burton said. “There was no industry. There was a film here, a film there, there was nothing. It was a barren landscape.”

For a decade, the industry has suffered as a result of that decision. But in the latest budget, the province’s increase in funding for grants for film and television productions put the industry at a total of $10 million in funding.

“At some point in time I want to see a Hallmark movie made in Saskatchewan because those things, they spit them out, like an incredible amount of Hallmark. I swear my daughter watches every one of them somehow,” Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said ahead of delivering the 2022-23 budget.

“Specifically what it will do remains to be seen. The devil is in the details there. We will work through that as we go but it opens the door for films coming back to Saskatchewan in a more plentiful number,” Burton said. “I don’t think there can ever be a fix for what happened. Those people are gone.”

He said he wonders where the industry would be if those cuts didn’t happen 10 years ago.

“That’s all water under the bridge now. I’m happy that the government recognizes us again, I’m happy that the film industry is back on the radar but let me stress: This is not a fix. This is a first step,” Burton said.

“They saw how busy Alberta is, how busy Manitoba is. B.C. and Ontario and Quebec have always been — they saw the light early. At one point, Saskatchewan was the busiest film jurisdiction in Canada and that was between 2005 and 2007.”

Burton pointed out that with so many streaming services out there, a move like this only made sense.

“You can’t ignore it. All of the streaming services that have come along in the last 15 years are proof of how steady and how sustainable and how busy the film and television industry can be globally,” Burton said.

“I think it got to a point where they could not ignore that any longer or they could not find a dogma that they could continue to try and sell the people of Saskatchewan that the film industry wasn’t what we purported it to be. It was.

“This is a very long and slow climb to get us back to where we were in 2007.”