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Ontario’s robust film and TV production industry has the potential to absorb 1,000 former GM workers from the shuttered Oshawa plant.

Lisa MacLeod, the province’s minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture, said Thursday the Ford government knows the booming film and TV industry needs more crews to keep up with demand.

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With the help of an advisory panel of industry experts — from film and television, unions and agencies — former GM workers are being offered re-training to transfer their skills to a production set.

Jobs were just part of the good news MacLeod announced Thursday at a small gathering of film and TV insiders in Toronto. Ontario had a record-breaking year in 2019 — with productions here bringing $2.16 billion into provincial coffers and supporting close to 45,000 jobs.

That’s a 15% increase in production and about 7500 new jobs for Ontarians.

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MacLeod emphasized the cultural importance of telling more Canadian stories and seemed particularly proud of a 23% uptick in production dollars for domestic projects; that figure rose from $850 million in 2018 to cross the billion dollar mark in 2019.