{"id":121237,"date":"2017-10-04T03:34:15","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T07:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=121237"},"modified":"2017-10-04T03:34:15","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T07:34:15","slug":"alberta-government-hikes-grant-program-for-entertainment-productions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/04\/alberta-government-hikes-grant-program-for-entertainment-productions\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta government hikes grant program for entertainment productions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Culture<\/a>
Culture Minister Ricardo Miranda announced the $45 million Screen-Based Production Program in annual spending would replace the previous Alberta Production Grant, brought in by the Conservatives in 1998. (Photo By Connor Mah – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CALGARY \u2014 Alberta’s government and film industry is hoping a revamp of a grant program will lead to bigger productions and Netflix programs being shot in the province.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Culture Minister Ricardo Miranda announced the $45 million Screen-Based Production Program in annual spending would replace the previous Alberta Production Grant, brought in by the Conservatives in 1998.<\/p>\n

Jurisdictions often offer grants to studios as incentives to offset some costs and the previous limit for an individual project was $5 million.<\/p>\n

The NDP is raising that cap to $7.5 million and each application will be examined for maximum economic impact and job creation, as opposed to what Miranda described as a poor first-come, first-serve basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we inherited was a grant system that was a bottomless pit and it left us scrambling for the money that we needed,\u201d Miranda said.<\/p>\n

The grant will also offer incentives for local productions, including up to 30 per cent of eligible production expenditures.<\/p>\n

According to Calgary Economic Development, the industry contributes about $165 million to the provincial GDP, but CEO Mary Moran wants to see that grow significantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we start to attract larger productions, mid-sized productions that we hope to create a pipeline of that type of business, allowing us to grow over the years to five times what it is today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Alberta is no stranger to film and TV crews; recent productions include \u201cThe Revenant,\u201d FX’s \u201cFargo\u201d and Canada’s longest-running drama, \u201cHeartland.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Moran said the goal now is to entice more seasonal productions, specifically Netflix shows, to come to Alberta.<\/p>\n

Luke Azevedo, Alberta’s Commissioner of Film, Television and Creative Industries, said being able to compete with other jurisdictions offering higher grants has been a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the mountains, the badlands, the prairies and two municipalities over a million people all within a three-hour radius,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when we started to talk about those larger budgets, it was very difficult for us to compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never lose a project because of our personnel or because of the locations, it was the money-based application.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CALGARY \u2014 Alberta’s government and film industry is hoping a revamp of a grant program will lead to bigger productions …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":121238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[16064,26010,26009],"class_list":["post-121237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-alberta-government","tag-entertainment-productions","tag-grant-program","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}