Fernie’s economy received a significant shoulder-season boost this fall from a four-week movie shoot in the city.

Santa Pups, which finished a four-week series of shoots in the Elk Valley city in October, injected $881,072 into the local economy, notes a letter from Santa Pups Productions Inc.’s location manager, Darcy Wild, to the City of Fernie. That figure also factors in two weeks of prep work.

“Keep in mind this is only an approximate figure of trackable costs. There are also huge costs that are not directly inputted in the Fernie area, such as numerous flights on both airlines, car rentals from Cranbrook airport, fuel costs through our account at Petro Canada,” Wild wrote.

“I can only imagine that our filming has made the shoulder season for many businesses and families easy this year,” he concluded.

Directs costs that injected money into the local economy included $261,619 to six different hotels and condos, $156,000 in construction materials and rentals and $135,853 in remuneration and related expenses to Fernie residents who served as extras.

In addition, the film crew received $120,000 in food allowances, $102,000 went to Fernie workers who worked on the film crew, $80,600 in locations fees, cleaners and staff liaisons and $25,000 went to food for craft service and caterers, Wild noted in his Nov. 19 letter to the city.

“I think that is pretty respectable for four weeks’ filming and two weeks prep work,” stated Mayor Cindy Corrigan during the Nov. 30 city council meeting.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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