Tax credits battle over Bill C-10 continues

Vancouver Centre Liberal MP Hedy Fry has claimed that the Conservative government wants to create “a censorship board” within Heritage Canada. In a phone interview with the Straight from Ottawa, Fry rejected Canadian Heritage Minister Josée Verner’s claim in a March 3 written statement that Bill C-10 “has nothing to do with censorship and everything to do with the integrity of the tax system”.

Bill C-10 would grant Heritage Canada officials authority to deny tax credits to filmmakers on the basis of gratuitous violence and sexually explicit content. Verner claimed in her statement that the amendment was previously announced by former Liberal cabinet ministers John Manley and Sheila Copps.

Fry insisted that the Liberals proposed amendments that accepted Criminal Code of Canada definitions of sexual content and unacceptable hate language. She claimed that Conservatives are creating a new system of regulation. “If they just stayed with existing public policy, that would be fine,” Fry said.

Fry and NDP heritage critic Bill Siksay both told the Straight that they have witnessed Conservative MPs criticizing the content of films that have received tax credits. “For instance,” Siksay said in a phone interview, “when the new head of Telefilm came to the standing committee on Canadian heritage at the end of January, there were some Conservative committee members who took him on, saying that Telefilm was sponsoring films that didn’t reflect mainstream Canadian society.”

Evangelical crusader Charles McVety told the Globe and Mail last month that his lobbying efforts had resulted in the Conservative government introducing Bill C-10 to deny tax credits to film and TV productions with graphic sex and violence.

Neal Clarance, a film-financing specialist with Ernst & Young, told the Straight in a phone interview that if Bill C-10 becomes law and there aren’t clear guidelines about tax-credit qualifications, it will be “virtually impossible” for him to write opinion letters on behalf of producers for banks. He added that banks often require these opinion letters regarding tax credits before providing financing to producers.

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