“This is just a step towards getting competitive again”

What Saskatchewan’s Feature Film and Television grant means for the province’s film industry

The Saskatchewan Production Studios, Spring 2022. Photo: Jeremy Davis

When the Saskatchewan provincial budget was delivered on March 23, 2022 it included an $8 million increase to the province’s Feature Film and Television Grant, raising the available funding from $2 million to $10 million. It was some of the first good news the province’s film industry has gotten since it was decimated by the Saskatchewan Party’s decision to cancel the Saskatchewan Film Employment Tax Credit in 2012. The money is administered through Creative Saskatchewan, a Crown agency that was established by the Sask Party in July 2013. “Everyone’s just buzzing,” says Megan Jane, who is manager of Marketing and Communications at Creative Saskatchewan. “It’s a really good time to be a creative in Saskatchewan right now.”

It seems like the goal is to attract larger productions by established filmmakers.

The additional funding means Creative Saskatchewan can bump the cap on spending per production from $600,000 to $5 million. There are two funding streams available to eligible applicants: the Saskatchewan Stream (offers up to 30 percent of all eligible Saskatchewan expenditures for Saskatchewan production companies, applicants must be the owners or co-owners of the project and must share a proportion of copyright proportionate to Creative Saskatchewan’s financial participation) and the Service Production Stream (has no copyright ownership requirements, and offers up to 25 per cent of all eligible Saskatchewan expenditures).  For now it seems like the goal is to attract larger productions by established filmmakers. “Productions with a higher budget will definitely have a ripple effect on Saskatchewan’s economy,” Jane says. “Minister [Donna] Harpauer has said she’d like to see a Hallmark movie filmed here, and that’s the kind of thing that would be perfect for us.”

In terms of who can qualify for the grants, Jane says, “what it comes down to is the market trigger. Federal agencies such as Telefilm do work with first-time filmmakers, in this scenario first-time filmmakers have a market trigger and are eligible to apply to the Feature Film and Television Production Grant.” She adds that for those who do not have the market trigger, “there are different avenues available for those new to the craft – such as the Saskatchewan Filmpool or SMPIA.” (Editor’s note: the Filmpool publishes Splice magazine. The Filmpool has a total of $10,000 in grants, up to $2500 in cash and $2500 in equipment deferrals per production. For comparison, Creative Sask has $10 million total in grants and a $5 million cap for a single production). There is a Music Video Production grant, which is open to anyone and does not require a market trigger. “It is one of the few grants that is 100 percent funded up to a certain dollar amount.”

“What Creative Saskatchewan and the government are looking for is established filmmakers to come in and start making film and television.”

Saskatchewan filmmaker Layton Burton, who is currently an instructor at the University of Regina School of Journalism, said he thinks that for emerging filmmakers the benefits of the increased funding will likely be indirect. “This will be good for young filmmakers in the province for sure, because they can go ahead and apply for grants,” he says. “But at this point I think what Creative Saskatchewan and the government are looking for is established filmmakers to come in and start making film and television. Hopefully a series, I think that’s what they’re really focusing on, is a series that will come to the soundstage in Regina and do multiple years of production there.”

Filmmaker Layton Burton has cautious optimism about the new investment. Photo Source: Layton Burton

The agency has also added incentives for producers that weren’t available before. “There’s a 10 per cent frequent-filming bonus for producers that produce three or more projects in a year,” she says. Creative Saskatchewan also incentivizes projects that take place at least 50 kilometres outside of the province’s two major centres, Regina and Saskatoon. “We’re trying to encourage productions in other parts of Saskatchewan. We’re not just those major centres.” There is an additional five per cent post-production bonus for any editing work done in the province after filming has wrapped up. “We know it’s been awhile since we’ve had this kind of meat and potatoes in place for producers,” Jane says. 

“I’m jumping up and down with happiness that they’ve decided to reinvest in us, but at the same time, I mourn for all my film family that isn’t here anymore.”

For Burton, who remained in the province after the demise of the film tax credit led to a mass exodus of many of his colleagues, the increase to the grant is bittersweet. “I’m jumping up and down with happiness that they’ve decided to reinvest in us, but at the same time, I mourn for all my film family that isn’t here anymore,” he says. “And I would do them a great disservice if I publicly spoke out in favour of this new investment without remembering all of those people that are no longer here and were forced to go away, and ridiculed by the Saskatchewan Party in the legislature.”

It’s hard to overstate the impact that the end of the tax credit, which provided up to 55 per cent of the labour costs in film productions, had on the film industry in Saskatchewan. A study conducted by Sask Film and the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce found that between 1998 and 2012, the film industry generated, on average, $36.7 million in economic activity. By 2019, that number had fallen to $17.2 million. “Almost 2000 people lost their jobs and lost their livelihoods and left the province,” says Burton, who adds that with those workers went much of the infrastructure Saskatchewan’s film industry had spent decades building. “Those people are the bedrock of what Saskatchewan film is today.” 

“The SFECT that we had from 2004 until 2012 was focused on employment…. The grant system isn’t that.”"

Like Creative Saskatchewan, which says they’re taking “a measured approach,” following the funding announcement, Burton’s attitude could best be described as one of cautious optimism. “This is just a step towards getting competitive again. There’s no way that we can compete with Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland. We just can’t do that right now, simply because we do not have the infrastructure.” Burton said that while the grant is welcome, it doesn’t have the same ability that a tax credit has to help build the kind of infrastructure that Saskatchewan had prior to 2012. 

“The grant isn’t great at building infrastructure because it’s not focused solely on employment. The SFECT that we had from 2004 until 2012 was focused on employment,” he says. “There was a refundable tax credit for those Saskatchewan employees who were hired on a production. Production companies would pursue monies back from taxes paid on employees, so it was Saskatchewan based employee hiring centric,” he says. “The grant system isn’t that. It allows production companies to come into town and, yes, hire local people, local film workers, but it also allows them to use those grant monies to bring in other established filmmakers from wherever they may be coming from.” 

Saskatchewan, along with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, are currently the only provinces in Canada that use the grant system instead of a tax credit.

Saskatchewan, along with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, are currently the only provinces in Canada that use the grant system instead of a tax credit. Alberta, which previously used the grant system, transitioned to a tax credit in 2020. “If you look around at jurisdictions globally, you will find that the majority of big film juridictions in the world use the tax credit system over the grant system,” Burton adds. “If you’re looking at the infrastructure alone as the impetus for investing in film, tax credits are always better for that type of investment than a grant.”

Physical infrastructure like the soundstage is just as important as workers and service providers. | Saskatchewan Production Studios, Spring 2022. Photo: Jeremy Davis

Jane says Creative Saskatchewan is doing what they can to start rebuilding that infrastructure, including launching a pilot program with the National Screen Institute to train Saskatchewan people aged 18 and older to work as crew members. “It’s entry-level,” Jane says. “Just to learn a little bit about the logistics and process of how you take a script and turn that into a movie. Showcase some career opportunities, and provide connections to break into the film business, and just inspire a passion for filmmaking, really. We built that in response to knowing we were going to need to train some crew members really quickly for people that wanted to start their productions in the summer.”

“If year to year funding is continued and they continue with the momentum that they’re creating right now, we could do some amazing things in five years.”

Burton says that the infrastructure required for Saskatchewan to produce hit shows like Corner Gas and Little Mosque on the Prairie took 25 years to build. “But that was starting from nothing,” he adds. “It will not take 25 years to rebuild if we get year after year funding from this government and subsequent governments. I would venture to guess that if year to year funding is continued and they continue with the momentum that they’re creating right now, we could do some amazing things in five years.”