Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press According to Minister Eric Girard, job losses in the field of visual effects and special effects were caused by strikes in Hollywood and artificial intelligence, and not by the revision of the tax credit.
Frédéric Lacroix-Couture – The Canadian Press
Published at 7:34 p.m.
- Québec
Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard continues to defend tax changes for the visual effects and animation sector. He believes that Montreal does not need the “most generous tax credit in the world” and that “the best will survive.”
In its last budget in March, the Legault government announced a 65% cap on expenses eligible for the tax credit for film production services. The measure came into effect on May 31.
A petition with more than 12,000 signatures calling for the changes to the tax credit to be suspended was tabled this month by the Parti Québécois in the National Assembly. It is suggested that this tax change puts at risk many jobs in the visual effects and animation industry, which generates significant economic spinoffs.
Appearing before the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM) on Friday, Minister Girard explained why the government had decided to cut this program, when questioned on the subject by the President and CEO of the CCMM, Michel Leblanc.
“I want to be very polite because I have a lot of respect for the people who work in this industry. But there were integrity issues with the tax credit. Not with the integrity of the people who work in this industry. But there are American companies — because the tax credit goes to American majors — that used the tax credit in a suboptimal way, which meant that the tax credit was extremely expensive in proportion to the benefits,” replied the CAQ elected official.
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In the eyes of the petition signatories, “the changes made to the tax credit disqualify Quebec, which loses its place as a global hub, and deprives it of major contracts, to the benefit of Ontario, British Columbia, Australia, France and the United Kingdom.”
Mr. Girard seems to believe that Quebec will still be able to hold its own.
“It is not necessary for Montreal to have the most generous tax credit in the world in the field of visual effects and special effects. We are competitive with Ontario and British Columbia. “The best will survive and the integrity stakes are over,” he said.
The President and CEO of the CCMM told the Minister that the number of jobs in the sector had dropped from 8,000 to about 3,000. Mr. Girard indicated that these losses were caused by the Hollywood strikes and artificial intelligence, and not by the revision of the tax credit.
Questioned about francization
The Minister of Finance had come to talk about his economic update presented the day before.
Very close to the entrance to the conference room in downtown Montreal, where he gave his speech, a group of about twenty teachers demonstrated silently to denounce the cuts to francization. They formed a line, each holding a poster with the message “Stop the dismantling of francisation.”
Questioned by Mr. Leblanc, the minister maintained that Francisation Québec's budgets are up 15% and that demand has exploded.
“We are the government that gave non-permanent residents access to Francisation Québec courses. We have potentially added 600,000 people to take courses. For permanent immigration, we have raised the French criteria. So, there is more interest in taking French courses,” he said.
According to him, “clearly, given the demand, we should have done more, which means doing less elsewhere because there is no more money” in the government coffers.
“It is possible that in future years, there will be a need for more French courses and a little less of other things. Then, it is possible that we have not found the right balance,” he continued.
Other protesters interrupted the beginning of Mr. Girard’s speech by chanting slogans, before being quickly ejected from the room. “Inequality is growing. Poverty is growing too,” shouted one of the protesters.
The Mouvement d’éducation populaire et d’action communautaire du Québec and the organization Ex aequo said they were behind this “coup d’éclat for the social safety net.”