Amid rumours of sale of Soundstage, NDP urges new film tax credit

Ken Cheveldayoff said REGINA Monday he has had no specific discussions about selling the Soundstage.

This came after his announcement last week that the government is reviewing 660 government-owned buildings, “to just make sure that they’re reaching their maximum utilization rate and that the occupancy is as high as possible,” in order to “ensure that taxpayers’ dollars are well spent.”

Cheveldayoff, minister of central services, did not have numbers about the Soundstage’s rate of occupancy and use. He said in general “there are some anomalies where there is a large vacancy rate.”

The review has sparked murmurs among film industry stakeholders and the NDP of a further blow to the film industry, after the Saskatchewan Party ended the film employment tax credit in 2012.

“At that time there were people that said, ‘This is a purpose-built piece of infrastructure for the film industry,’” said NDP MLA Warren McCall. “But if you take away the film employment tax credit, that invariably you’ll get around to a point where the government says, ‘Well what do we do with the Soundstage?’ ”

A June 2016 report by the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport determined “that key spaces be retained for film and television production,” and that “policies and plans to guide strategic use, operations, development and marketing for the Soundstage be developed.”

McCall said that “fire-sale-ing the purpose-built critical infrastructure piece for the film industry” would be a “tremendous waste.”

While condemning the rumour of a Soundstage sale, McCall also called on the government to reinstate a film employment tax credit.

A 2012 report developed for the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce and SaskFilm found that the program generated $44.5 million in economic activity, $6.5 million in taxes and 851 jobs annually, with a net investment of $1.3 million.

Its replacement, the grant-based Creative Saskatchewan, can offer media productions a total of $2 million per year, triggering $6.7 million in spending, according to its website.

Government should be looking for opportunities to increase economic activity, diversify the economy and create jobs, said McCall, and “the film industry did that in spades.”

Cutting the film employment tax credit was a “wrong-headed” decision, said McCall.

Cheveldayoff said Saskatchewan’s film industry is “thriving, it’s working well with Creative Saskatchewan.”