The province of Alberta has been one of the prime locations for movies. Numerous big production movies like Fraggle Rock, Interstellar, The Last of Us, etc. were shot there.
Considering the prominence of the location, the Government of Alberta has decided to allocate more funds to the film and TV industry.
Doug Schweitzer, Alberta’s Minister of jobs said that the film industry of Alberta has been enormously growing and the value of its production has risen by two times.
The Government of Alberta has decided to allocate huge amounts of funds to the TV and film industry, under which a total of $70 million funds will be used for the Film and Television Tax Credit Program in 2022-2023 whereas a total of $225 for the next two years.
He claimed that the more the investment made in the Film and Television Tax Credit, the more will be the action for the province in the approaching years. Thus, the Government of Alberta aims to flourish the TV and film industry by $1.4 billion in the coming ten years.
The Film and Television Tax Credit was introduced back in 2020, and since then it has enormously helped the province in developing opportunities. Since the time it was launched, 62 production houses have come to Alberta and have spent more than $621 million in the province. Moreover, the arrival of production houses has offered a total of 12,500 job opportunities for its people.
A refundable Alberta Tax Credit certificate and the cost of production are offered to the corporation making films and TV shows in the province.
The Film and Television Tax Credit is a part of the Alberta Made Production Grant which is an initiative of the Government of Alberta to raise the film and TV industry by one-fourth in the coming 10 years.
Work permits for film and TV corporations
The Government of Canada has relaxed the process of work permits for the professionals in the TV and Film industry coming to the province.
The crew members of Film production applying under the TV and Film Production Work Permit do not need to take an LMIA assessment.
The exemption of LMIA assessment is not available for all the workers, instead, it will be on a case-to-case basis. It will be evaluated on the basis of the importance of the role of the worker in production. Although there has been no specific list of essential job roles released by the government.
Whereas it will be individually evaluated on the basis of the essential roles along with many other factors and different types of evidence provided to the government.
And for the workers who need an LMIA assessment, the requirement for advertisement has been exempted.
Although, certain workers may require to apply for a Business Visitor instead of a work permit, so below are the categories of workers working in TV and film production who will be considered as business visitors instead of work permit holders.
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Artists
Anyone who is coming to Canada to perform on stage, at a concert, or coming as a guest for any show which is shot in Canada needs to enter the country as a Business Visitor.
To be considered as a Business Visitor, the candidate needs to stay in the country for a limited time. Contrastingly if the artist has regular or recurring performances, then he/she needs to apply for a work permit.
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Producers
Film producers who are moving to Canada to work on a film/documentary/tv show completely financed by an international party have to arrive in Canada with the status of Business Visitor instead of a work permit holder.
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Essential workers
The applications of such visitors have been evaluated on an individual case-to-case basis so professionals who are coming to Canada for a maximum time period of 14 weeks for executing commercial shoots completely financed by an international third party.
It is always a better option to look for all the available options and their respective eligibility criteria before taking the production to Canada, or seeking help from a Canadian Immigration lawyer can offer you a more transparent knowledge regarding the available options of study and work permits.
