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Visual effects, animation studios unite to convince Quebec for better tax deal

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MONTREAL – Visual effects and animation companies are uniting to strike a better deal with the Quebec government after it implemented tax changes that some firms say will cost them nearly two-thirds of their revenues next year.

Last spring, the provincial government added in the budget a 65 per cent cap on tax credits that international film studios can claim when they subcontract work to VFX and animation companies operating in Quebec. The original subsidy, which had no cap, was introduced in 1998, and the government says it has become too expensive.

The tax change entered into effect May 31, and as a result VFX and animation studios say the big film companies are less incentivized to put Quebec talent to work.

Véronique Tassart, director of mergers and acquisitions at Cinesite, said her company and other VFX and animation studios are making a joint set of proposals to the Quebec government in the next few months, before the next budget is tabled.

“We want to propose different solutions that would get the government the savings that they’re looking for without destroying the industry here in Quebec,” she said in a recent interview.

One idea, Tassart said, is to implement a rule requiring contracts between international studios and VFX and animation companies to require a minimum of 40-45 per cent of Quebec-based workers. This way, she says, the government is getting investment for its money.

Many companies already ensure about 65 per cent of labour on a contract comes from Quebec; but for some contracts, she said, the percentage of local labour is “much lower.”

Another possible proposal they will put forward, she said, is for Quebec to raise the cap so that the province remains competitive with Australia and France, where the tax environment is more favourable.

Already hard-hit by the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023, Tassart says Cinesite was looking for a rebound — then the tax credit change came “as a bomb.”

Last spring, weeks after the government announced its plan, Cinesite lost three contracts accounting for one-third of its annual budget, she says. Cinesite, which had 600 Quebec-based employees in VFX and animation 2022, now has 400. More layoffs are looming, she said.

The government’s decision to review the tax credit was legitimate, Tassart says, but it was “too much and too fast.”

After surveying 28 different VFX and animation studios working in the province, the Quebec Film and Television Council found that they are expecting to lose an estimated 25 per cent of their revenue in 2024 and 63 per cent by 2025. The council says the industry generated revenues of $1.3 billion in Quebec last year, but in May, before the tax change kicked in, it said it expected that number to drop to $393 million by 2025.

The council says Montreal-based Digital Dimension closed its doors in May and two more studios are expected to close within the next six to 12 months. It expects four international studios working in the province will relocate work elsewhere. In 2022, Quebec employed 8,000 people in the visual effects and animation industry. Today, the council says the number of Quebecers employed has dwindled to 3,100, with more job losses to come.

Framestore, which produced all of the visual effects for “Barbie” at its Montreal office, is also trying to get concessions from the government. Chloé Grysole, a managing director with Framestore Canada, says the tax changes make it 10 per cent more expensive for film studios to produce visual effects in Quebec.

“We’re world leaders at the moment and the incentive always made it kind of a no-brainer to put work in Quebec. Now, with the incentives growing in France, in the U.K. and Australia, it’s more of a question mark than it used to be, and that’s problematic for us in the long run,” she said.

Quebec-born filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, the man behind Hollywood blockbusters like “Dune” and “Blade Runner 2049,” calls Quebec’s decision a “massive mistake.” In a recent interview with The Canadian Press, Villeneuve said film studios want to employ Quebec talent to make films, but all of that is now at risk.

The former tax credit structure, he said, was competitive with other countries. Without it, “we will lose thousands and thousands of jobs, and that was a lot of money that was coming back to the province.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

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Karl-Anthony Towns bringing youth basketball facility to Dominican Republic, his mother’s homeland

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Karl-Anthony Towns was born in New Jersey, went to college in Kentucky and has spent the entirety of his NBA career in Minnesota.

His roots, however, are in the Dominican Republic. And to continue paying homage to his late mother’s homeland, Towns announced plans Thursday to help build a state-of-the-art basketball training facility in that country, one where youth will get top-notch coaching and access to physical therapy, classroom space, meeting space and more.

Groundbreaking in Santiago, Dominican Republic, is set for next year, with plans calling for completion in 2026.

“I’ve been very fortunate to live the American dream,” said Towns, the four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection who is about to enter his 10th pro season, all with the Timberwolves. “But for me, having a different set of eyes, seeing it through my mother’s eyes and what she had to do to really even feel like an American, I wanted to bring the resources that we have here to there and give kids the opportunity to have the best equipment and the best chances possible to not only make money for their family but also pursue their dreams.”

Jacqueline Cruz-Towns died in April 2020 of complications related to COVID-19. She was the center of her son’s world, the woman who taught him about the importance of faith and family, sacrifice and hard work. The fact that this facility — Towns is partnering with GO Ministries and World Youth Clubs to make it happen — is going to be built where she’s from is not a coincidence.

“It was really important for me to give back to my community, a country that’s given me everything, gave me my mother and gave me this love of the game of basketball,” Towns said. “It’s given me the word love, both of family and understanding how to treat people.”

Towns, also in tribute to his mother, has represented the Dominican Republic in multiple international tournaments going back to 2011 at the junior level. He most recently starred for the island nation at the 2023 World Cup in the Philippines, averaging 24.4 points in five games.

This basketball facility is part of a complex that also includes two soccer fields, four baseball fields, covered outdoor basketball and volleyball courts and an educational facility. Towns said it has taken time to find the right people to actually execute the programs on the ground — he has known and trusted some of them for years — and now the “building blocks are set,” he said.

And above all else, his mother — who took him to church often and even when the family was struggling taught him the value of trying to help others — would approve.

“It is the safe haven for some of these kids who have found themselves in different situations and have a lack of resources,” Towns said. “To be able to give these kids a chance to dream and to really think of the dream — maybe they don’t make the NBA, the WNBA, professional baseball, become a professional volleyball player or a great soccer player — but now they get to dream. For them to be able to grow their life skills, their social skills, and also to learn how to have a passion and to be determined about something and have dedication, I think this is amazing.”

___

AP NBA:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Free COVID tests are back. Here’s how to order a test to your home

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans can once again order free COVID-19 tests sent straight to their homes.

The U.S. government reopened the program on Thursday, allowing any household to order up to four at-home COVID nasal swab kits through the website, covidtests.gov. The tests will begin shipping, via the United States Postal Service, as soon as next week.

The website has been reopened on the heels of a summer COVID-19 virus wave and heading into the fall and winter respiratory virus season, with health officials urging Americans to get an updated COVID-19 booster and their yearly flu shot.

U.S. regulators approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine that is designed to combat the recent virus strains and, they hope, forthcoming winter ones, too. Vaccine uptake is waning, however. Most Americans have some immunity from prior infections or vaccinations, but under a quarter of U.S. adults took last fall’s COVID-19 shot.

Using the swab, people can detect current virus strains ahead of the fall and winter respiratory virus season and the holidays. Over-the-counter COVID-19 at-home tests typically cost around $11, as of last year. Insurers are no longer required to cover the cost of the tests.

Since COVID-19 first began its spread in 2020, U.S. taxpayers have poured billions of dollars into developing and purchasing COVID-19 tests as well as vaccines. The Biden administration has given out 1.8 billion COVID-19 tests, including half distributed to households by mail. It’s unclear how many tests the government still has on hand.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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A misspelled memorial to the Brontë sisters gets its dots back at last

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LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.

More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.

The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.

They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.

“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”

It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.

Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”

Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.

“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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