Nova Scotia film tax credit changes hurts Port Williams antique business

It may be a long way to Hollywood from the farming community of Port Williams, N.S., but one antiques dealer says his business is suffering because of cuts to the provincial film tax credit. 

Ken Bezanson, owner of Country Barn Antiques, says his relationship with film productions and prop departments was lucrative until the Liberal government eliminated the $24 million film tax credit and replace it with a $10 million fund.

"It was going really well because they'd come here and they'd want to do one-stop shopping, so they could get a lot of the sets here," Bezanson said. 

"I rented to Lizzie Borden, two summers in a row, five truckloads each time. It was wonderful. I rented for Book of Negroes, about three truckloads. I rented to The Healer, about two truckloads just this spring and that was still under the old tax credit."

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But since the changes took effect on July 1, business hasn't been the same, Bezanson says.

"It's slower. That extra part that I thought, 'Okay, it doesn't matter if I sell much to the public, I know I'm going to be able to rent things and that's going to be income' [is gone]," he said, adding that business will now depend on the tourism season.

He calls the trickle-down effects at the community level "the invisible impacts." 

"It's happening but nobody sees it. I'm aware of it," Bezanson explains. 

"It's an unrecognized reality because people are not aware and they don't see the importance as you say, and the impact that it has locally and especially for people that are renting." 

The government says it is working to promote the new fund so that if the new system is fully understood, productions can be enticed back to the province. 

But Bezanson says that hasn't happened so far, and he says it's cost him $20,000 so far this summer. 

"It's very, very bad for me. And I think you'd find that for other dealers as well."