Ontario Touts Stability Amid Tax Credit Chill

7:46 AM PDT 6/7/2011 by Etan Vlessing

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Talk last weekend at the Producers Guild of America's Produced By Conference about unstable tax credits in rival U.S. states like New Jersey, Michigan and New Mexico prompts Ontario to tout its film tax credit as permanent and stable for Hollywood.

TORONTO -- Being ignored is good, when Hollywood studios paying attention to film tax credits these days is trouble.

Producers Discuss Tough Future at Produced By Conference

Amid all the talk at the Produced by Conference last Saturday about U.S. state administrations cutting or scrapping their film tax credits to cover ballooning deficits, Canadian film commissioners felt left out owing to their no-drama incentives north of the border.

“Our tax credits are competitive, stable and dependable, with no caps, no limits on the number of productions, and no surprises," Ontario Media Development Corp. CEO Karen Thorne-Stone, who markets Ontario to Los Angeles producers, said after the Producers Guild of America's conference at Disney Studios.

Thorne-Stone insists the familiarity and permanence of Ontario’s all-spend film and TV tax credit contrasts with the instability of tax breaks in rival U.S. states.

“Tax credits were established in Ontario in the 1990’s, and they have been stable in the province since then,” she insisted.