As Donald Trump now rallies for a federal film and TV tax incentive, Canada’s actor union is urging the feds in Ottawa to bolster its own country’s domestic production sector.
“It’s now more important than ever, that Canada keeps its focus on producing more Canadian stories here at home,” ACTRA national president Eleanor Noble said a statement on Tuesday. “Canada must support its own industry, and we must carve out our own place in the world.”
And ACTRA Toronto, the performer union’s biggest branch, urged Ontario, led by Premier Doug Ford, to raise the value of its provincial tax credit for foreign and local producers to stay competitive. “Canadian and international productions are a life blood for our members. If Ontario wants to remain a world-class production centre, we need a balanced plan to attract international investment, grow Canadian production and protect performers,” stated Kate Ziegler, president of ACTRA Toronto.
Calls for Ontario’s film tax credit for foreign and local producers to be raised in value started in early 2025 when British Columbia raised its own tax incentive for major studios and streamers shooting locally and New Jersey introduced among the most generous tax credit programs among U.S. states.
The ACTRA leadership comments followed Trump on Monday expressing support for the idea of a federal tax credit in a lengthy Truth Social post. Advocates have called a federal tax credit a crucial step for the U.S. to compete with film incentives offered by Canada and other rival locales like the U.K. and Australia, among others.
ACTRA, while recognizing existing legislation has yet to be passed, pointed to Trump’s intervention continuing an ongoing debate on ways to bring U.S. production back across the Canadian-U.S. border, and how Canada should respond. The Canadian actors union recognizes its membership secures wide employment on American film and TV production north of the border, as do local crews, creatives and support businesses.
But ACTRA cautioned American production in Canada cannot be the foundation of the country’s media and entertainment sectors to ensure longterm sustainability.
“If Canada does not strengthen its domestic industry with Canadian stories, made by Canadian storytellers, we risk one of two outcomes: American productions electing to stay in the U.S. as a result of their own tax-incentives, hollowing out our production ecosystem; or they stay, leaving Canada increasingly dependent on a single foreign client for the health of our industry. A refrain which is playing out across Canada amid our ongoing trade dispute,” the performers union said in a statement.
Trump’s call for a federal film tax credit also follows his fight with Canada over tariffs escalating into a full-blown trade war, with implications for how homegrown film and TV production is financed and produced.
That cross-border trade war shows little signs of being resolved anytime soon after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in late August said trade talks were abandoned in part after the U.S. negotiators objected to digital-content rules around the French language that can lead to higher operating costs for U.S. companies looking to get content into French-speaking Quebec. Carney said the disagreement over French language rules for American companies amounted to an attack on Canada’s culture and identity.
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