Four months ago, Karen Thorne-Stone assumed the newly created post of Toronto film commissioner. As the city's former executive director for economic development, she was no stranger to the production industry's lead role in the municipal economy, but nonetheless she was charged with some formidable challenges. Chief among them was finding a way to rejuvenate a production center that had been perhaps the hottest spot for offshore Hollywood production at the beginning of the decade, but which had faded considerably due to increased competition from within Canada and around the world.

The head of Toronto's Film and Television Office recently spoke to Playback about her job so far.

Playback: Why did you want to be commissioner?

Karen Thorne-Stone: In [economic development] I certainly had... the chance to work with the industry and be instrumental, I think, in establishing the mayor's [Toronto Film Board], and in having council formally recognize this industry as a priority for Toronto and put the corresponding policy directions in place. When the film commissioner position was created earlier this year, it was an exciting opportunity for me.

PB: How are you addressing the factors contributing to Toronto's production slowdown - the lingering fallout from SARS, the high Canadian dollar, and the lack so far of a megastudio?

KT-S: My objective is to ensure that Toronto is and continues to be the best place in the world to make a film. That means promoting and protecting that brand at City Hall, in Toronto's neighborhoods and in our business community, and obviously at Queen's Park, in Ottawa, the U.S. and abroad.

That role includes... helping Toronto's businesses and neighborhoods to understand the impact and the importance of this industry and the productions on our economy. It means developing a strategic marketing plan... and sector strategies to help us respond to emerging competition, and [it means advocating] for policy changes that ensure the industry not only is sustainable in Toronto but continues to grow.

PB: And how do you intend to do that?

KT-S: I think it's... early in the year to assess the true impact of the competition, and the Canadian dollar in particular. There's no question, anecdotally, that we have seen some decline in our production levels [compared with] 2005, but the good news for us is that Toronto has a lot more to offer than being a discount location. We have unsurpassed crews, locations, talent and technical support, suppliers and quality of life. We have a new film studio complex coming online [FilmPort, to open in 2008] which will obviously bring significant benefit both in terms of infrastructure and capacity for Toronto.

The other thing is for us to be looking both at foreign and domestic activity... We know that a strong foreign [business] helps us to sustain high-quality local Canadian productions. We're lucky in Toronto that we have probably a 50-50 split. Since the domestic is not affected by that [rising] dollar... it's also a good opportunity for us to... focus on strengthening that domestic industry.