Canada's Subsidies and The Effect On American Workers
According to a 2001 U.S. Department of Commerce report by Commerce Secretary, Norman Mineta, "Runaway film production' has affected thousands of (U.S.) workers in industries ranging from computer graphic to construction workers and caterers. These losses threaten to disrupt important parts of a vital American industry."
The U.S. film industry has voiced concerns about this outsourcing trend which began in the mid to late 1990s, and which coincided with increased Canadian government subsidy programs.
A DGA-funded study confirmed that the Canadian government has engaged in a comprehensive and aggressive, long-term strategic campaign to lure U.S. productions to Canada. The report estimates that runaway productions cost the United States over 50,000 jobs and at least US$10 billion in production monies annually.
At least $13 billion is doled out annually in corporate welfare to the business sector in combined Canadian federal and provincial subsidies and tax breaks, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), a conservative tax watchdog. The CTF released a report saying that from 1982 to 1997, the Canadian federal government handed out $11 billion in 32,969 grants and loans to the provinces earmarked as business subsidies or directly to corporations.
Read more about this topic: Runaway Production
Famous quotes containing the words canada, effect, american and/or workers:
“I see Canada as a country torn between a very northern, rather extraordinary, mystical spirit which it fears and its desire to present itself to the world as a Scotch banker.”
—Robertson Davies (b. 1913)
“The want of an international Copy-Right Law, by rendering it nearly impossible to obtain anything from the booksellers in the way of remuneration for literary labor, has had the effect of forcing many of our very best writers into the service of the Magazines and Reviews.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“The heritage of the American Revolution is forgotten, and the American government, for better and for worse, has entered into the heritage of Europe as though it were its patrimony—unaware, alas, of the fact that Europe’s declining power was preceded and accompanied by political bankruptcy, the bankruptcy of the nation-state and its concept of sovereignty.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of ... every industrial area in the whole country.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)