TORONTO – Organizations including ACTRA Toronto, Interactive Ontario, and FilmOntario offered a collective thumbs-up to the Ontario government’s decision to continue supporting the industry at existing levels in the 2016 Budget, released Thursday.
“In a fully globalized and highly competitive business, the Ontario Government’s stable production tax credit program has helped secure Ontario’s position as the third largest production centre in North America”, said ACTRA Toronto president David Sparrow, in a statement. “…The 31,000 skilled and talented Ontarians employed in this sector are working hard to take us to the next level in the near future.”
Interactive Ontario said that it was “heartened” by the government’s continued support for the interactive digital media (IDM) sector through programs like the Ontario interactive digital media tax credit, but called the reduction to the Ontario innovation tax credit and the Ontario research and development tax credit “cause for concern”.
FilmOntario described the stability of the government's support and investment as “critical” to the ongoing growth of the screen-based sector, and expressed appreciation of the government’s continuing commitment to the industry’s tax credits.
“FilmOntario looks forward to working with the Government of Ontario in a collaborative manner in the coming months to ensure that, with this re-stabilization, the Film, Television and Digital Interactive industry continues to be a key economic engine which could, in the foreseeable future, establish Ontario as the second largest screen-based hub in North America”, the organization said in a statement.
