North Bay shares secrets of film success at EDCO conference

Vic Fedeli had an opportunity to sit back in a comfy chair and rant about the success his riding has had with the film industry. 

Fedeli, Nipissing's MPP, sat back with North Bay Mayor Peter Chirico and told a crowd from the Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO) about the secrets to economic success when it comes to working with the film industry. 

The event took place last Thursday at the Grande Event Centre in North Bay. 

Fedeli told the crowd about where Ontario hopes to take the already growing film industry. 

"When we took office,film was a $2 billion business," said Fedeli.  

"Georgia does $5 billion and Premier Ford said,' That's it, that's our target, $5 billion.' We were at $3.2 billion in 2022 so we are headed in the right direction."

Fedeli shared stories including an anecdote about being an extra himself in an episode of the series "Hudson and Rex."  

It was estimated the area has hosted more than 100 film projects in the past seven years. 

"We need communities like North Bay where we have tens of millions of dollars of film being done. You need a lot of that in a lot of communities throughout all of Ontario to be able to add to that $3.2 billion to get us to the $5 billion," he said. 

Chirico and Fedeli reflected on the origins of the film industry in North Bay, recalling a "Kids in the Hall - Death Comes to Town" mini-series shoot in the late 2000s as the first step in North Bay's success with the industry. 

“Be nimble and flexible,” said Fedeli. 

“It taught us everything we needed to know about permitting." 

Fedeli noted getting ahead of bylaw constraints is key for any community looking to host a film crew.  

"All of these need municipal bylaws, if you want to close down a street, you need long notices and long advances," he explained.

"All of that has to be compressed to be in the film sector. So what our advice is do that early, get all those lined up because if you have a film production and they want to do something and you have bylaws that prevent that from happening, you are going to be in trouble. You are going to cost the film set a lot of money and they will never come back so get all these things in place." 

Fedeli says the benefits are endless. 

"Hotels packed when films in town, restaurants are busy and those are side benefits," he noted. 

Chirico and Fedeli noted that the City gets in front of problems when the film industry comes to town.

More “how to” than “no we can’t,” says Chirico.