Nova Scotia would do well to follow the example of Australia and implement policies like those that are boosting the Australian film industry, said Cape Breton academic Jacquelyn Thayer Scott.

Thayer Scott recently read in the Financial Times that the Australian film sector has long been overshadowed by New Zealand’s, but tax breaks and the fall in the Australian dollar are attracting U.S. film crews.

Foreign films generated US$300 million expenditure in Australia in 2014-2015, more than double the income of the previous year.

Nova Scotia is rich in creative talents and traditions that could grow the economies of the region said Thayer Scott, who is a professor at Cape Breton University’s Shannon School of Business.

 “I believe an under-exploited area of startups is the arts and creative sector,” said Thayer Scott, who is also a former president of Cape Breton University and a former chair of Innovacorp.

“It was stupid, stupid, stupid, getting rid of the Nova Scotia Film Industry Tax Credit…We’ve got music, theatre, film, visual artists…”

Plus, Nova Scotians already value and promote the creative sector.

That support was demonstrated to Kansas-born Canadian Thayer Scott when she arrived in Sydney in 1993 to become president of the college that became Cape Breton University.

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“I was taken aside by an influential person who said, of several people on the university payroll, ‘Don’t necessarily expect a full day’s work from them. They have the support of the artistic community…’”

“They were good employees but, more importantly, they were real cultural icons…”

Thayer Scott said Cape Bretoners have helped young musicians fund albums. Rita MacNeil’s first two albums were published by the university, she said.

Cape Bretoners volunteer during the annual Celtic Colours International Festival. The festival has increased tourism, exposed local musicians to the world and brought international artists to the island.

Since the Celtic Colours International Festival began in 1997, recording studios have opened on the island, Thayer Scott said, and sound technicians are now trained locally.

“When something is important to a community, why not exploit it in a respectful way?” she asked. “We have that resource in Nova Scotia. Why turn our backs on its commercial potential?”

She said the creative sector may be facing the same misconception tech startups faced in the 1990s when Thayer Scott and others began trying to start a tech cluster in Sydney.

At first, there was little official support because tech startups were not seen as real businesses like retail outlets, steel plants and coal mines.

Eventually, Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation provided money for a monthly meeting.

“We knew that if we had tea and sandwiches, people would come,” Thayer Scott said. “We started TAG, the Technology Advisory Group, at the university.”

Over time, the group helped birth 12 small companies. Most of the 12, which include Marcato Digital, a specialist in web-based management of live events, and e-learning company MediaSpark, are still growing.

The sector was boosted in 1995 when Innovacorp began the province-wide I-3 Technology Startup Competition.

Now, Sydney houses a growing tech cluster. The university has partnered with entrepreneur Gavin Uhma, founder of the UIT Startup immersion stream, to teach entrepreneurs.

Innovacorp, led in Cape Breton by regional manager Bob Pelley, continues to fund new companies. Innovacorp and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency run the Spark Cape Breton contest.

Problems include: the difficulty of obtaining later-stage funding; the scarcity of expert mentorship; the shortage of key graduate programs at the university and associated research; distance from markets and the lack of good staff.

“But if Donald Trump gets elected we may get more people,” she said jokingly, referring to the website called Cape Breton if Trump Wins, which has unexpectedly generated tourist bookings and immigration queries.

 “The site’s been worth a million dollars in advertising,” she added.

Disclaimer: Innovacorp is a client of Entrevestor.