John Evans
A&E Reporter

The falling Canadian dollar and exhausted American tax subsidies are bringing jobs and production dollars back to Toronto’s film and television industries.

“Our teachers are telling us about it and getting us all excited,” said first-year film and television production student, Lauren Ashmore, 18. “There will be a lot more jobs because the Americans will be coming up here to use us.”

The president of Filmport studios, Ken Ferguson, said they have already seen an increase in business.

“This spring we are seeing a lot of U.S. TV pilots,” said Ferguson. “A lot of features are still being held up by the Screen Actors Guild. When that clears up we should see a burst of activity.”

The actor’s union has been without a contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers since last June.

Rhonda Silverstone, manager of the Toronto Film and Television Office, which oversees location shooting in Toronto, said the number of productions shooting in the city is up 17 per cent compared to 2008.

“We were down in L.A. in January on a mission with mayor David Miller,” she said. “There is a lot of interest in Toronto. We’re kind of back on the radar.”

Ferguson said a lot of films have been put on hold due to the struggling economy and the risk of a SAG strike. Compared with 2007, total production spending for 2008 was down 23 per cent.

“We have been in talks with all the major studios,” he said. “The whole backlog probably runs into the billions of dollars, of which hundreds of millions of dollars of work could come to Toronto.”