Lights! Cameras! Tariffs! How Waterloo region is reacting to threats against the movie industry

Joe Pavia · CBC News

· Posted: May 07, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 21 minutes ago

U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of a 100 per cent tariff on movies made extracurricular the U.S. has the Ontario movie manufacture and section municipalities acrophobic astir the future.

Waterloo portion hosts galore U.S. productions passim the year, often lasting successful for American cities but with a cheaper terms tag.

The metropolis of Cambridge has hosted a fig of productions including the precise fashionable The Handmaid's Tale, the dystopian Hulu bid based connected Canadian authour Margaret Atwood's book.

Karisa Downey, the manager of economical improvement with the metropolis of Cambridge, says Trump's announcement "introduces a grade of uncertainty."

"This argumentation could person trickle-down effects connected our section tourism industry, which has benefited from movie productions done accrued enactment successful hotels, restaurants, and tiny businesses," said Downey.

Downey notes that successful 2024 the metropolis hosted 25 days of filming U.S.-based productions.

The aforesaid sentiment is felt successful Brantford wherever American accumulation companies, including the 1 that produced The Handmaid's Tale, also utilized metropolis locations arsenic a backdrop.

 "With this evolving situation we are seeking to recognize the imaginable implications and impacts," said Kevin Dekok, Brantford's economical improvement officer.

"Along with galore different municipalities, we enactment intimately with the provincial agency, Ontario Creates, and instrumentality our pb from them connected galore aspects erstwhile moving with movie and television.  They are assessing the concern astatine this time."

'This is not a toy'

James Nadler is the incoming seat astatine the RTA (Radio and Television Arts) School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University and besides works arsenic a TV shaper and screenwriter. He says it'll beryllium hard to adhd up the tariffs connected immoderate films, similar accidental the Mission Impossible bid with Tom Cruise which are filmed each astir the world. 

"Nobody knows however the tariff would work. This is not a toy. It's not similar it's a doll that's connected a shipping instrumentality from China wherever you tin say, 'OK, it was a dollar and present it's going to beryllium $2,'" said Nadler.

"A movie similar Mission Impossible was changeable successful the U.K., changeable each implicit Europe and North Africa. Then the station production, the CGI, the ocular effects, they could beryllium done successful Quebec, successful New Zealand and Australia. So first, however bash you find what is an American movie and what's a non-American film?"

Nadler estimates that successful Ontario determination is $800 cardinal a twelvemonth of movie enactment and cutting 10 per cent of that would destruct $80 million a twelvemonth that would travel into the province.

The contiguous impact would be a trickle-down effect connected hotels, restaurants and the question industry, helium said.

Nadler believes the uncertainty erstwhile it comes to the outgo of the tariffs are going to "delay decisions [by movie accumulation companies] and enactment radical retired of work."

Location, location, location

Back successful Cambridge, Karisa Downey says movie producers are continuing to look for locations successful the area.

"So acold this year, determination person been 12 days of filming and movie accumulation has brought successful astir $800,000 successful economical impact," said Downey.

"We person an further six to nine filming days coming up and much than 10 inquiries from assorted movie accumulation companies arsenic well, which reflects the continued involvement successful the metropolis arsenic a unsocial movie determination and supportive situation for filmmakers."

LISTEN | U.S. President Donald Trump threatens tariffs connected foreign-made films: