Manitoba filmmakers get subsidy boost

The province of Manitoba released details Friday of what it calls an improved support package for film and television production in the province, which is expected to pump about $16 million into the industry annually.

"Our province is committed to maintaining its place as one of Canada's key production centres," Flor Marcelino, Manitoba's minister of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, said in a new release outlining the tax credit scheme.

According to the province, production companies can choose one of two subsidies: either a 30 per cent credit for a program's total budget, or a 65 per cent credit on the labour portion of production costs.

The province is also easing up on some of the paperwork associated with claiming the subsidies.

Industry leaders expressed happiness with the move.

"It is a genuine boost," Louise O'Brien-Moran, a spokeswoman for Manitoba Film and Sound, a government-funded support agency for the industry, told CBC News. "This has now got us back front and centre with all the studios and producers in Los Angeles, with international producers that are looking for co-ventures with Manitoba Producers."

Colin Craig, prairie director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says his group is critical of these types of incentives.

"Taxpayers shouldn't have to subsidize movies, period," Craig said from Winnipeg. "Governments should provide broad-based tax relief for everyone instead of picking certain industries."

Craig said specialized tax credits are often very complex and difficult for the average taxpayer to understand.

He said it also hard to assess the effectiveness of an incentive program.

"These types of boutique tax credits are really just subsidies," Craig said. "[They] may make for good photo-ops but they're not good public policy."