Manitoba

Film, TV studio village coming to Niverville, Man.

The Manitoba government has announced $30 million in spending from the private sector it says will create 300 new jobs over the next three years in the province's film and television production industry.

$30M in private funding will create new jobs in community near Winnipeg: province

A woman with long hair and an eyepatch speaks at a podium.
Juliette Hagopian, president of Julijette Inc., says the upcoming studio project in Niverville, Man., has been in the works for some time. (Bert Savard/CBC)

The Manitoba government has announced $30 million in spending from the private sector it says will create 300 new jobs over the next three years in the province's film and television production industry.

The money will result in the creation of a full-service film and television studio village in Niverville, just south of Winnipeg. The site, to be called Jette Studios, will include 18,581 square metres of studio space, the province said in a news release on Thursday.

The project will be developed by Volume Global and Julijette Inc., with construction expected to be completed in two phases starting this summer.

The $30 million is an investment between those two companies, a news release from the Town of Niverville says.

At a news conference on Thursday, Julijette president Juliette Hagopian said the project has been in the works for some time.

"I'm really excited about everything that's happening here," Hagopian said. "There's always the support from the community. And I know that this community here, in Niverville, has already shown so much."

Since the site will be located outside Winnipeg, productions will get an additional five per cent rural tax credit through Manitoba's film and video production tax credit, the province says. Last year, 122 projects benefited from that credit, supporting $525 million in production over 30 months.

Obby Khan, Manitoba's minister of sport, culture and heritage, says the site will be instrumental in supporting the 1,500 people in Manitoba who make up the province's film labour force. Khan says Manitoba's film industry saw 88 projects in the last year, which generated $365 million.

The province has also committed to $40.6 million worth of infrastructure spending in and near Niverville, one of the fastest-growing areas of Manitoba, as part of its five-year infrastructure investment strategy, according to Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk.