Evidence of meeting #35 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was films.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:30 p.m.
President, North Shore Studios; Chair of Motion Picture Production Industry Association of British Columbia
In Vancouver it's extremely important to have those components to attract productions. It differentiates us from other jurisdictions. We have the top post-production, visual effects, and animation companies in the world locating in Vancouver. That's going to help attract physical production.
We want the whole thing, the whole pie. We want to become a centre for digital entertainment.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
Thank you.
There's another thing I want to ask. I'm happy that we spoke about the financing aspect of things, because a producer of Heartland was telling me how, to him, this was a loss of money for everyone, and was just making the banks richer, handling the money for that little short while between end of production and the final banking of the cheque.
Is it true that there remains a lot of red tape in the subsidy process, in terms of how it's filed, and that it's a long process to getting the cheque? Is it too long? Can we make it faster?
4:30 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William F. White International Inc.
Yes, there's a lot of red tape. It just takes a long time.
4:30 p.m.
President, Brightlight Pictures; Member of Motion Picture Production Industry Association of British Columbia
I think the staffing—
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
4:30 p.m.
President, Brightlight Pictures; Member of Motion Picture Production Industry Association of British Columbia
Yes, it does take quite a bit of time between when we complete production and when we actually get the cheques back from the government. Anything we can do to streamline that.... It seems that within CRA it's an issue of staffing. They audit, they check us, they go through all of that. The timeline between when we actually file our tax return and when the cheque comes can be, in a quick time, six to eight months, but it's often well over a year to two years.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gord Brown
Thank you to our witnesses for joining us today. If you have any further contributions to our study, please send them to us in writing. I know that we do have some of it already in writing, but if you have anything else, please send it in to us. Thank you very much.
[Proceedings continue in camera]