VANCOUVER -- Up about 20% over last year, revenue from British Columbia's booming film and television production industry last year reached C$1billion ($680 million) for the first time.
The good news for the Canuck industry will be announced on Tuesday by Ian Waddell, minister of small business, tourism and culture.
This year's remarkable jump is the result of the unabated increase in runaway productions from Hollywood, the continuing low Canadian dollar, tax and other incentives, the rapidly increasing production infrastructure here, and -- to a minor extent -- more Canadian-controlled production.
B.C. is now the third-largest production center in North America, and has been growing at an annual rate of more than 20% a year for better than a decade.
Four new feature films are scheduled to begin shooting here this month, in addition to more than a dozen TV movies and miniseries. Other major productions are under way.
The B.C. economy is lagging well behind the rest of Canada, and the socialist New Democratic government will be trying to lay claim for responsibility for this one bright spot in an otherwise bleak outlook. Waddell is supporting the leading candidate in a party leadership race brought about by the forced resignation of premier Glen Clark last summer over his part in a casino gambling license scandal.
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