Report from Ontario: Build a major production center

Toronto area a target for filming

By TAMSEN TILLSON

TORONTO -- Ontario is under siege as a production center, according to a new report released. To compete effectively, the report's authors maintain, the film and TV industries need to pursue a more aggressive strategy, which includes building a major studio in the Toronto area.

Commissioned by the Ontario Film Development Corp. (OFDC) and the Toronto Film and Television Office, "The Studio Feasibility Study" found Canada's largest production center is losing ground to others in Canada and abroad.

Price war

"There is a virtual price war going on now, through incentives and subsidies," said David Bergman, a senior associate at Economics Research Associates and Asset Strategies, the company that produced the study. "Our current strategy, based on price, will not be sustainable."

Recently released figures from the Canadian Film and Television Producers Assn. confirm that while more money was spent on production in Ontario last year, the province's share of the national production pie has shrunk from 45% to 38%.

One of the province's biggest handicaps, according to the report, is a lack of studio space that keeps it from bidding on large-budget features (north of $50 million) and TV series, the vast majority of which come from abroad.