PARITY

Read the news today, oh boy. The 'Loonie' is at parity with the U.S. dollar. That is not necessarily a good thing, especially when it comes to attracting American producers to come up to do a shoot: There is now no cost savings. 'Real' businesses will also have a hard time... as Canada exports more than it imports, the costs of our goods will go way up. I am no economist but I do know that a nail has been driven into the coffin of Canadian film and television production. (Notice I did not say "industry".) A friend of mine is a production illustrator. He has been getting some work, lately. Another friend of mine, who has always been cynical about 'the biz', works no longer as a grip. He has gone back to waiting tables, and seems to be comfortable and perhaps relieved. I guess having a specific skill and one that not a lot of people offer, helps scare up a little bit of work in the Toronto film biz. A very cynical friend of mine thinks that the film and television business in Toronto -- at least what there is of it, in all its skeletal form -- has to be shattered, broken down and built back up again; and into something better than it has ever been... which was nothing much.