“In economic impact, the [film] industry has brought $2.6 billion annually into Toronto’s economy — to say nothing of the bragging rights the city has enjoyed as a metropolis sparkling with Hollywood glitter. But in recent years that bloom has withered dramatically. A generous system of provincial tax credits that allowed both domestic and foreign film productions a rebate on labour expenses incurred while in production in Ontario has been duplicated — and in most cases, bettered — all over the world… That, combined with a rising dollar, an increasingly hard line in Los Angeles against ‘runaway productions’ and the lingering effects of last year’s SARS outbreak, has driven foreign production in Ontario down from $981.6 million in 2001 to $874.1 million in 2003.”