News

The members of the Senate banking committee were a little star-struck.

Then again, they are getting used to seeing famous faces from Canadian film and television at the end of their committee table, chatting about tax credits.

Paul Gross, with his chiselled jaw and perfect smile, told the senators yesterday that Bill C-10, which proposes to deny tax credits to productions deemed "contrary to public policy," could spell the end of his industry.

It "may destroy an already very precarious and insanely complex system of film financing," said Mr. Gross, who described himself as an actor, a writer, a producer, a director and a Canadian nationalist.

"One of the very few things in our system that has some degree of predictability has been the tax credit. It is their very reliability that has made tax credits essential to financing any film in the country."

Mr. Gross, who has starred in notable Canadian films including Men With Brooms, is probably best remembered as RCMP Constable Benton Fraser from the Canadian television show Due South.

He is currently working on a film about Passchendaele, the great battle of the First World War that killed 16,000 Canadians among hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides.

Without the tax credit, he said, "it is quite possible that we would not have secured an advance from the bank ... and a film that pays honour to the Canadian sacrifice in the Great War of 1914 to 1918 quite simply could not have been made."

Conservative Senator David Tkachuk said: "It's a stretch to draw C-10 to the battles of the First World War."

He and other Conservative senators asked why the film and television industry did not ring alarm bells when consultations about changing the structure of the tax credits were conducted in 2001.

Mr. Gross replied that he could only apologize for himself and everyone else in the film and television business "for being so slow to understand what the implications of something like this are. I am not sure why we didn't see it but we didn't."

Hammered by accusations that she is attempting to censor Canada's artistic community, Heritage Minister Josée Verner has said she will ask the entertainment industry to help craft guidelines to govern what material no longer qualifies for tax credits.

But Mr. Gross said he believes the only test should be whether or not a production is legal under the Criminal Code.

His appearance before the committee follows those of several other luminaries from the country's entertainment industry, including actors Sarah Polley and Wendy Crewson and director David Cronenberg.

The few witnesses who have supported the government's proposal have pointed to the tax credits given to a film called Young People Fucking that will be in theatres next month.

A special screening for parliamentarians has been scheduled by YPF's producers at an Ottawa theatre tonight in an effort to prove the film is not as salacious as the title would suggest.

A staffer for Conservative MP Gary Goodyear was reportedly fired this week for accepting the invitation after being warned not to - an allegation denied by Mr. Goodyear's office yesterday.

"The story was wrong about the termination of my staff person. Out of respect for my former staff person I will not comment any further, the real reasons for her termination are confidential," Claudine Courtois, Mr. Goodyear's legislative assistant, wrote in an e-mail.