Source: creative Bc
enabling and supporting people
in telling their stories. I think
the other thing that made me
an interesting candidate was
that I was coming from the
private sector. When you work
at an organization like Telus,
all the stu they say about high-
performance culture, know-
ing what your objectives are
and how you're getting there,
providing clarity for people—it's
true and it's super important.
The digital revolution—from
Apple Music to Netflix—has
proven a serious threat for
traditional media. How does
an organization like Creative
BC address that?
Well, Net•ix just opened a
studio in Vancouver to -lm
the new Lemony Snicket show.
That's pretty cool. That's a lot
of jobs. Coming from broad-
casting, working for basically
a cable product for a telecom-
munications company, I don't
think this is a time of doom and
gloom. We've never consumed
more content, but we need to
get a better understanding of
the updated data on all this and
how it can be used to support
the traditional industries.
How do you manage the
inherent turbulence of your
job—the political unknowns,
the economic unknowns?
It's a good question, and I've
been thinking a lot about it. If
we use the Canadian dollar as
an example, I think you need
to have three plans at all times:
What does that US$1 plan look
like? What does that US$0.72
plan look like? What does
that US$0.85 plan look like?
There needs to be an incen-
tive for people to come here
beyond the dollar, because
that's always changing. The tax
credit situation is pretty stable,
but we have to remain competi-
tive with other jurisdictions.
What do you sell people on
instead?
We have an embarrassingly
beautiful province, and it's not
di'cult to sell that. But it's going
to come back to the people, and
that's our number one advantage:
the talent. The fact that organi-
zations like Sony Imageworks
and Animal Logic are moving
their headquarters and opening
up pretty substantial studios
here speaks a lot to that.
Your biggest hope for 2016?
My hope is that more people will
be aware of the impact and the
role that the creative industries
play in this province's economic
development. It's a sector that
employs 85,000 people, compa-
rable to the resource industries.
That's a big deal—and we want
to continue to drive that.
Who's spending
in B.C.?
Combined
budgets
of productions
eligible for B.C.'s
Production
Services
Tax Credit
(2014-15)
TV
SERIES
$871,077,483
FEATURE
FILM
$658,141,847
TV
PILOT
$46,072,328
MOVIE
OF
THE
WEEK
$45,612,146
DIRECT
TO
DVD
$36,005,243
TV
PROGRAM
$6,311,372
WEB
BASED/OTHER
$5,545,482
MINI
SERIES
$3,539,708
*by production
category
