FILMING IN THE VALLEY COULD RENFREW JUMP ABOARD?

MOVIES IN THE VALLEY

We’re all familiar with the ever-increasing footprint the film and motion picture industry is having in some areas of the County, particularly in the Almonte, Carleton Place, and Arnprior areas and, to a lesser extent, Pembroke and area.

As wonderful as that is, and as much as the making of commercials and Hallmark Christmas classics means to local economies, the film industry involved has found itself to be over-saturated with respect to shoots involving those areas. By that I mean that there’s only so many ways to present Arnprior’s downtown as being different from the last time it was used for a shoot. That’s no offence to our friends down the road, but the point is that the film industry is starting to feel the pinch of running out of different angles by which to portray local downtowns and have them come across as novel.

So, in short, they’re looking to expand. And that’s where we may come in.

Renfrew Reeve Peter Emon shared with Council an initiative that came out of the Economic Development Advisory Committee, that being that Renfrew should engage with some other communities in the area to explore the idea of opening ourselves up to providing locations for film companies to take advantage of.

Reeve Emon has spoken with Economic Development Minister Vic Fideli, whose riding includes the City of North Bay, where the motion picture and film industries have established themselves as major players in the local economy with the assistance of tens of millions of dollars from the provincial treasury.

Fideli was instrumental in the North Bay Area receiving a number of provincial government grants to foster the development of the film industry in Northern Ontario. The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund provides a 50% contribution to costs associated with the film industry, while the MAPPED Program — Media Arts Production: Practice, Employed, Developed — subsidizes wages for emerging support crew. The Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit, or OTFTTC, provides a 35% credit towards labour costs, with an additional 10% bonus for any film shooting done outside the GTA, or Greater Toronto Area.

Canadore College, in North Bay, is now considered to be one of the leaders when it comes to the development of all aspects of the film and television industry, the result being that the city is now regarded as a type of “Hollywood North” with no shortage of films being shot in the Gateway City.

The Economic Development Advisory Committee feels, as articulated by Reeve Emon, that the Town of Renfrew should take the first exploratory steps towards determining whether we could become an attractive location for the industry in our own right. As the reeve pointed out, it’s not just pointing a camera, or standing in front of a camera, but any number of related responsibilities and occupations that come together to make a successful film shoot, or film as a whole.

Further to that, the local economy benefits in terms of lodgings, food provision, trades, transportation and all the ancillary things that need to be present for any of this, for all of this, to work.

Upwards of $25 million over five years for this part of the province to do the same might be in the works, helping communities establish their relative strengths with respect to this venture.

The motion put before council was to allow member of Renfrew Town Staff to liase with similar staff from other communities in the area to determine the feasibility of getting involved in the industry, and to determine what next steps might be needed in order to bring our community into capacity compliance with the needs of the industry.

It was a delightful little back-and-forth involving the positive aspects such a thing might represent for Southeastern Ontario generally, and Renfrew specifically. That is until Councillor Andrew Dick joined the discussion brandishing a fire-breathing opposition to the whole idea.

That’s the thing about local council meetings. They can be humming along like a CWL euchre party and then, out of nowhere, a grenade goes off.

Councillor Dick was adamantly opposed to the whole idea on the grounds that Renfrew does not currently have the capacity to host film shoots like the ones being discussed, what with the dearth of hotels, caterers, restaurants, and general people-serving infrastructure available right here where the mighty Bonnechere carves its way through our existence.

As well, the councillor brought up the fact that our municipal buildings are falling apart and that the EDAC — Economic Development Advisory Committee — is entertaining the idea of hiring and Economic Development Officer. Mr. Dick wonders how we can, in good conscience, spend taxpayer money on pursuing the film industry while there are so many other needs in the community requiring funding that isn’t there to fund it.

As the councillor posed in one scenario, are they — the staff member — going to go out and eat, or grab a coffee while hobnobbing with counterparts from the various surrounding townships?

I honestly can’t imagine area administrative types running up a bill like a bunch of Catholic school board trustees while meeting in Cobden, or Osceola, or wherever they gather to meet and discuss this idea, but obviously the councillor feels the optics of of a staffer going out to network with counterparts are not good in the current fiscal environment. I don’t know if this means that he’d prefer all staff to be confined to barracks for thirty years while we pay off Ma-Te-Way and keep radio stations happy, but it does appear that he believes that such discussions are not worth anything when we currently don’t have the capacity to host events such as these.

Yet this very same councillor gets excited by the prospect of a new hotel in town at some point in the near future, and talks about all the economic benefits that happen as a result of baseball, fastball, and slow-pitch tournaments held in town. It was all part of an argument made late last year when he insisted that lights be installed at the ballfields of Ma-Te-Way by May, no matter the cost.

Today, though, he doesn’t like the optics of an already paid staffer going to a meeting to explore economic opportunities intended to be possibly realized sometime down the road. If I didn’t know better, and I really don’t, I’d say Councillor Dick’s fervent response had the appearance of sound-bite preparation for the 2026 municipal elections, where he can label himself, maybe exclusively, as the defender of the Renfrew taxpayer. He was elected to Council in the first place with a couple of dozen votes more than the fellow finishing behind him who didn’t make the cut. Now. suddenly, he sounds like someone making preparations for a run at the mayor’s chair by separating himself from his Council peers, some of whom may have similar ambitions of their own. To me, it just seemed like someone making a stand on a hill, except maybe the fact that we’re kind of missing a hill here.

With respect to the issue at hand, nobody else in the room seemed to be making the point that all this was going to be happening next week or anything, and in fact, most seemed to agree that this was the first step in a journey that may well last several years. As in, perhaps, it might be considered to be a little bit of a feasibility study, or some preliminary networking, the kind of thing where we share inputs and information with others who may be inclined and willing to join us in the great endeavour, that being entertaining the film industry right here in Renfrew.

And no new money is needed to undertake this exploration.

Reeve Emon referred to it as a mapping exercise, or a table exercise, where we map out the needs, our capacity to deliver on those needs, and what we may need to do to close the gaps between the two. It all seemed pretty straight-forward to me from my perch in the press box, but then again I was fighting off sleep as Director Withers struggled mightily with the indoor air circulation, something he was able to wrestle into shape as the meeting went on.

Councillor Cybulski, who is sort of a fiscal hawk in his own right, didn’t see any problem with taking a peek into what might be needed for Renfrew to jump aboard this train, stressing that it was an intelligence gathering mission more than anything else, and that a few coffee bagels here and there wasn’t likely to have the town careening off the financial cliff. To him, it appeared that this was simply an exercise in good government, in looking at potential, at possibilities that exist out there in the broader world, possibilities that may even mitigate Renfrew’s financial situation by bringing much needed dollars into town at some point in the future.

Councillor McDonald weighed in with his own contribution, suggesting that the whole thing be studied and talked about more, especially with respect to scope, which is good I suppose, but I do think that was the intent of the motion in the first place. But as it is sometimes in municipal government, if in doubt, discuss. And if unsure, then send it back to committee, something I’m sure the relevant committee, in this case the EDAC, will lovee to hear.

That’s exactly what happened, by a 6-1 vote, and the whole thing got tossed back into the hands of EDAC once again. And the stasis will continue, the issue talked through, talked through again, and then maybe talked through again, leading to another recommendation and another motion, and ad infinitum until it either dies a tortured death or arrives back for decision well after everyone else has moved on.