The scene is set for a new chapter in the CRD’s film industry

The Vancouver Island film industry is about to enter a new chapter with a huge boost from a new carbon-neutral, zero-waste major film studio complex on Malahat Nation territory, and a new regional film commissioner.

Yesterday, the Vancouver Island South Film & Media Commission announced that 25-year film veteran Peter Haymam would replace Kathleen Gilbert who is retiring after 14 years as commissioner. Hayman has worked on IMAX projects, films, TV spots, and videos with Canadian rockers Rush. Now situated in Langford, the not-for-profit commission’s mandate is to market the region to the global film industry.

Construction on the $242-million movie complex, to be built near an industrial park on the western shores of Saanich Inlet north of Victoria, is expected to begin toward the end of the year.

It will be built in three phases, with the first to include two sound stages, a workshop, and a pair of production offices.

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“I want this to be a film studio that people want to work at and come to for 100-200 million-dollar productions,” Beverley Dondale, founder and CEO of Victoria-based production company Alpha Select Production Services, told Capital Daily.

“I want this to be a hub for Indigenous and domestic film production.”

The Island has the (rain) drop on other places to shoot

Vancouver Island, unlike other Canadian film production hubs in BC, has moderate weather to allow crews to work throughout the year. As a result, the new Island film studio has the potential to make a real economic impact on the CRD’s economy. “I want the studio to create a thriving, innovative circular economy,” Dondale said.

The region's economic prospects look good but film studios' environmental impacts aren’t always positive. Films with budgets of $70 million produce an average of 2,840 tonnes of CO2 per production. That amount of C02 takes 3,700 acres of forest to absorb the equivalent in a year. Film studios and directors are working to be more sustainable.

Dondale hopes to take a page from She-Hulk director Kat Coiro’s sustainability playbook. Coiro, who recently filmed The Spiderwick Chronicles for Disney+ in Vancouver, has been working for years, not only to reduce waste on her production sites but to ensure the depictions of making better environmental choices for her audiences. No crew or characters in her TV or film productions use single-use plastics or non-recyclable take-out containers.

“We want to eliminate single-use plastics and to re-useable containers by working with organizations like the Nulla Project.” The Nulla Project is a Victoria headquartered company that provides reusable (washable) cups, containers, and coffee mugs service to organizations or events across Vancouver Island.

Victoria theatre costume and set designers take note: “I want créatives repairing textiles, reusing, and donating costumes to local theatres. We want our construction materials to be reused or donated to other productions and to the community,” Dondale said.

It's a win for the First Nation's economy

For Malahat Nation, getting ready to house such a project on its territory is significant. “To get a project of this scale going in a region where we don’t have a lot of infrastructure to start with—it’s meant building water infrastructure, wastewater infrastructure, power, communications infrastructure and also making sure the right transportation networks [are ready] to make things work here,” said Malahat Nation CAO Josh Handysides.

Dondale first conceived the project in 2010 and approached the Coast Salish Indigenous community with her proposal to build on an 85-acre (34 ha-) site. Maple Reinders Constructors Ltd. has been retained to develop it.

Alpha Select is hoping the project obtains a Certified B Corp designation, which means the studio meets specific performance requirements across environmental, social, and governance policies. Dondale said for her, the designation is about production.

“Public transparency, posting yearly impact reports—-this instills confidence that we are not  just ‘greenwashing’ by having policies and procedures in place so things don’t slip between the cracks.”