While much of B.C.’s film industry is scoffing at the B.C. government’s just-announced creative industries funding package, which fails to improve B.C. tax incentives and attract Hollywood productions, the initiative is drawing some support from B.C.’s domestic film industry association.
Yesterday, the B.C. government announced a $6.25 million package to fund various education initiatives, set up “Creative BC” to drive a strategy for the province’s creative industries and support an expansion of Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
Many voices in B.C.’s service film industry, including a vocal contingent among the Save BC Film campaign supporters, have criticized the announcement, which fails to respond to the service film industry’s call for higher tax credits amid plummeting local employment.
However, the announcement has received some support from the BC Producers’ Branch of the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) for the creation of Creative BC – a non-profit society to create an overarching strategy to cultivate the province’s creative industries.
Last year, the local CMPA branch was one of a group of associations from B.C.’s creative industries that called on the B.C. government to take a cue from the Ontario Media Production Corp. and set up an organization to build B.C.’s creative industries forward as a cluster.
Yesterday, following the government’s funding announcement, the chair of the local CMPA branch, Brian Hamilton, welcomed the establishment of Creative BC.
“The strategy announced today to work with film, TV, digital media, music, book and magazine industries lays the groundwork to help us better compete with other jurisdictions,” he said.
Republished from Business in Vancouver
