A Canadian film industry adept says Niagara has lost out on upwards of a million dollars in film production opportunities because there’s no centralized film office in the region.
A film office is a hub that supports and promotes film production in a specific area by assisting with permits, locations and resources.
Location scout and production manager Peter Donato, along with television producer and scriptwriter Nigel Napier-Andrews, recognized the need to take action when they reflected on Donato’s experience working on “The Amazing Race Canada” in Niagara.
The push for a film office is a volunteer initiative, which Donato and Napier-Andrews kind of hatched up by fluke, said Donato.
“We both had a love for film and such, and I would joke with him about the fact that when I worked on ‘The Amazing Race Canada’ on two different episodes in Niagara, it was a lot of work to jump through hoops,” he said.
Film offices can be run by local governments or privately by experts in the industry, often with government funding.
Usually functioning as a component of local government, municipal film offices, such as the ones operating in Toronto and Vancouver, concentrate on attracting foreign producers to the area, optimizing logistics and arranging permissions and resources.
Privately operated film offices are administered by professionals in the field who use their knowledge to draw in productions.
Although Donato and Napier-Andrews are passionate champions of the film office proposal, they are calling on the regional government to fund and establish the office and work with unions and guilds to include the Niagara region in official work zones.
As a location scout, Donato’s responsibility is not only to gather permits and documents but also to scout the perfect place to film as well.
“When you’re a location person, you’re given a task to find a suitable town, city or area to shoot the whole film, or parts of the film,” he said.
In one episode of “The Amazing Race Canada,” Donato said they did four or five communities, including St. Catharines, Pelham, and Welland, and each time he had to deal with different limitations.
“Nigel and I then thought, ‘Why is there not a film office in Niagara?'”
In Niagara, helping hands, film staff, proper forms and permits, and organized guidelines are all quite limited, he said.
Donato said once productions get greenlit and the funds and grants come through, they’ve got to act fast — fast enough to find a place to shoot in time for production.
Everybody who’s in the industry knows southern Ontario has a lot of amazing places to shoot film and television, he said.
“But, there’s no film office here — and that’s going to discourage anybody from even looking,” he said.
“More importantly, without cohesion, without a central office and a team that can act fast, it’s going to be a long-shot to secure these projects and these productions.”
Donato knew of a production interested in filming in Niagara, but they encountered problems navigating the Niagara Region and finding someone to schedule a meeting to help with permits and permissions.
Without that cohesion, without a central office and a team that could have acted fast, Donato said it would have been a long-shot to secure that million-dollar production.
“Let’s say you were somebody from outside Niagara: Where would you go? Where would you start? You’d look up at a map, you’d see 12 cities, you’d be like, ‘What the heck?'” he said.
“Even people that live in Niagara don’t really know how Niagara works; it’s complicated,” said Donato.
“They were basically chased away.”
Eventually, the production went to Cambridge, Ont. A million-dollar production was essentially turned down by Niagara due to their lack of a film office, he said.
Another thing driving their push is that Toronto has become increasingly unworkable for many in the industry — with rising costs, heavy traffic and a loss of key studios and warehouses due to development.
As a result, production activity is spreading beyond Toronto.
Hamilton has wisely capitalized on this shift and is thriving, said Donato, and London, Kingston and Mississauga have established film offices of their own, too — all the more reason for Niagara to establish one.
“It makes a lot of sense, but it needs to be driven by the politicians,” he said.
They soon found something that could help accelerate the speed of their mission: a study Deloitte was commissioned to do on behalf of Niagara Economic Development, which identified six key areas Niagara should focus on.
“One of those is film,” he said.
“So, it was kind of like, we had this idea, but we didn’t realize the idea actually had some solid, some statistical merit,” he said.
They’ve been pursuing the film office idea ever since. On July 12, 2023, they formally proposed the idea to the Niagara Region.
Film production is already on the regional government’s list of strategic priorities for growth over the next decade, so Donato said all they want is for them to pull the trigger and fund the office.
It would require bringing at least 13 government entities into alignment.
Niagara-on-the-Lake Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa is in support of this call to action.
“I am writing to you in support of a proposal by Peter Donato and Nigel Napier-Andrews to the Niagara Region Planning and Economic Development Committee on July 12, 2023, regarding a proposed Niagara Film Office,” wrote Zalepa in his letter of support of the Niagara Film Office Proposal.
What’s next for Donato and Napier-Andrews? A very public, high-profile spring fundraiser, which Donato describes as a networking fundraiser, to bring people together.
“It’s another opportunity for politicians and the tourism folks to meet us and learn more about our plans,” he said
Donato said he and Napier-Andrews are already looking forward to the next press release which will announce the date and time of the fundraiser.
“We want to put a value on the industry today,” he said. “And then, where we see that value going exponentially in the future.”
Paige Seburn is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at The Lake Report.