REGINA -- The Saskatchewan NDP say they will revive the film tax credit if elected government, a move the party says will bring back jobs in the province’s film industry.
Speaking on Thursday in Regina, NDP candidate Carla Beck said film crews have left the province since the Sask Party axed the credit in 2012.
Revenues generated by the industry have decreased by half and more than $20 million has been lost each year, she said, noting Manitoba has been able to create jobs in the industry.
"Saskatchewan has lost 18,000 jobs over the last year, and Scott Moe still refuses to admit that their cuts are driving people out of the province to look for work elsewhere," Beck said in a news release.
"Now, with COVID-19 impacting our economy, people are even more worried about how they are going to pay their bills.”
Celeste Pinder, the local president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, said the cut to the tax credit has been devastating for the film industry.
“It is devastating to see the impacts this cut had to the film industry and the jobs we lost, because in every other province the film industry is thriving,” Pinder said in the news release.
“Over half of the workers in this industry have left the province, and many of them had families and homes here and were holding out hope that the cut would be reversed, but that hasn’t happened yet.”
