With the establishment of a new soundstage as a main priority, the Ottawa Film Office has been exploring temporary options, including former Hudson Bay stores, as it waits for the city to review its plans.
A soundstage for Ottawa has been in the works for a number of years. In 2018, the film office announced its proposal to build a $40-million soundstage and creative hub on the site of the former Greenbelt Research Farm on Woodroffe Avenue across from the Nepean Sportsplex. The land has been leased from the National Capital Commission.
In March 2024, the film office announced that it would start accepting expressions of interest for its soundstage project and film commissioner Sandrine Pechels de Saint Sardos told OBJ in late 2024 that such a facility would generate between $40 million and $100 million in annual economic spinoffs.
She told OBJ recently that work is progressing. “We delivered the business plan last December. It’s (going through) a peer review with the City of Ottawa at the moment. There are a lot of stakeholders on this project.”
In the meantime, she said the film office has been exploring temporary options.
“We are always looking at spaces, either privately owned, city-owned or NCC-owned … We’ve looked at the (former Hudson’s Bay spaces). I checked that and spaces in other malls that have been empty. Those places, because they are privately owned and former retail space, (the landlords) want to have at least a five-year lease. But when you have a production coming in for six to nine months, they don’t want to sign a lease for five years,” she explained.
The reason for a soundstage is increasingly pressing, since unpredictable weather such as the storm on July 1 impacts what little time productions have to film in Ottawa, she said. “It’s essential to have a soundstage since the environment and weather is changing drastically. In order to keep the flow of work going, we need a soundstage.”
Securing a soundstage would be a major success for the film office’s new board by the end of its term in 2029.
“We’re smaller but mighty,” she said. “We are friendly and have amazing professional crews. That’s why filmmakers from Los Angeles and Europe are coming here, because they know they’re going to be taken care of and Ottawa has that reputation. I want to make sure that soundstage is a go, because it’s very personal for me.”
Last month, the film office elected its 2026-29 board of directors, with Tom McSorley, executive director of the Canadian Film Institute, succeeding Ottawa Tourism’s Kelly Haussler as chair.
Pechels de Saint Sardos said the priorities for the next few years are getting the soundstage up and running, workforce development in the screen industry, and progress on international co-production.
“We have to be international in order for the capital city of Canada to … have an international profile. My goal is to make (Ottawa) even more discoverable at an industry level.”
In terms of workforce development, the film office hopes to stimulate the job market through career fairs and the city’s film and animation festivals, McSorley said.
“One of the things that both festivals do, in collaboration with the OFO, is work with Algonquin College on its animation program and its film production program to expose young, aspiring animators and filmmakers to other filmmakers, whether they be fellow students or established veterans of the industry.
“For example, at the animation festival, we have a lot of very high-powered animation producers come to Ottawa and the festival is constructed in a way where everybody meets everybody. So you can have an animation student from Algonquin standing beside the head of Pixar at our event,” he said.
A soundstage would also create more employment possibilities, said Pechels de Saint Sardos. “Beyond creating a soundstage and generating revenues for the City of Ottawa, it will generate a lot of work, new jobs in every field.”
“Our job is to keep things moving,” McSorley added. “Yes, the soundstage will be one concrete, big victory. But you have to keep going, keep doing things, because the environment around you will change always, but our role is to remain a catalyst for things to happen.”
