Dear Editor
Your article "Government brings in balanced, restrained budget" (Regional Optimist, March 13) had only one sentence about the removal of the Film Employment Tax Credit.
This is a disaster based on a complete lack of understanding of how the film industry contributes to the people of Saskatchewan. A society without creative people is dead and it is always the government's responsibility to support those creative people in any way it can. Creative people, not the gods of profit and money, enrich and humanize our society. The film community contributes not just by making films and by employing people in many different facets of the production, but by who these people are in every aspect of their lives. They are part of the artistic world that helps make our lives colourful and interesting and more than a rat race. If they cannot thrive in Saskatchewan they will move elsewhere, depriving us of the intellectual and creative contribution such people make in our cities and town.
I have had a step-son and cousin involved in Saskatchewan's film industry and both have contributed in a multitude of ways to their community. They never earned much money being involved in making films, but what they did earn helped them survive as artists, parents, volunteers and supporters of the arts. Our artists, musicians, film makers, actors, thinkers and writers are part of the arts world, a world that contributes to everyone in a society, but without everyone being consciously aware of it. This government being a case in point.
I am a music teacher in North Battleford and recently helped a fundraiser for Creative Kids, a program the Government of Saskatchewan supports. How can this government justify supporting children being trained in the arts and then not supporting an adult world in which they can thrive in the arts? It makes no sense. It's as if they think the arts are for children, but not adults!
Once again, I think this decision was based on profound ignorance.
Jaya Hoy
North Battleford
