The city and the film industry came together with a very clear message.
The ban of the fake snow substance “Phos-Chek” will not impact any current or future film projects in the city.
“I am going to call this ‘Fake Snow-gate,’” stated Director Derek Diorio, who spoke in support for the City of North Bay’s decision to ban the substance.
“It is just one of many products that can be used and I always find the best solution for creating snow is to actually shoot in the winter. It is a crazy notion, I actually did a Christmas Francophone film in March. We got to the local arena and get some snow and spread it around, it looks great.”
Douglas Brisebois is a location manager and is currently scouting new locations for season two of the TV Series Carter.
He believes there are many other options aside from the Phos-Chek foam for winter scenes such as snow blankets or even potato flakes.
“I think as a producer you have to find ways to be cost effective but also stewards of the environment because all of us in the film industry are very careful about where we shoot,” noted Brisebois.
On top of all that support from the Film and TV industry, David Euler, the Director of Engineering and Environmental Services, outlined how North Bay came up with Phos-Chek ban.
Euler stated that three different production companies used Phos-Chek in five different projects in 2018. The concern came when the city got a report of an overspray of the product ended up burning some vegetation and shrubs along the waterfront.
After that incident, the city followed a thorough review of the product before making the decision to ban the substance.
“This came because there was burnt vegetation down at the waterfront so there was an actual concern in regards to an environmental issue. So the fact that our staff did their due diligence and they researched it, they went through a consultant, they went through all their counterparts in the environmental circle,” stated Tanya Vrebosch, North Bay’s Deputy Mayor who hosted the Monday morning press conference at City Hall.
“Then we had to weigh that along with the economic impact.”
Vrebosch says the city is thrilled to see how much support they have had from the film and TV industry.
“There is no economic impact and we heard that loud and clear today from the movie industry. They are still coming and the momentum for 2019 is going to be just as big if not stronger than 2018,” she said.
“We thank the citizens for being so passionate and protective about the movie industry but you heard today how technical David’s report was on how they came to that decision. We have to come back to the fact that the city is protective of the environment, protective of our drinking water source, and that is why we suspended one substance.”
