Location Agreements

Here is how the work lines up. Location agreements in Canada split cleanly into four governance tracks, each with its own paperwork and timing. Parks Canada governs all federal national parks and historic sites — Banff, Jasper, Gros Morne, Pacific Rim, Cape Breton Highlands, the Rideau Canal, the Halifax Citadel — with a permit application process that runs 30-90 days lead time depending on park ecological sensitivity, needs a Letter of Authorization, mandates qualified location managers on set and carries strict no-trace restoration clauses.

Heritage UNESCO sites — Quebec City's walled Old Town, Lunenburg's painted-houses harbour, Old Montreal (a national historic district rather than UNESCO-listed but governed by Ville de Montréal heritage rules) — route through provincial culture ministries (Culture et Communications du Québec, Nova Scotia Communities Culture & Heritage) with additional facade-protection and conservation-easement riders. Provincial parks (Algonquin Ontario, Mont-Tremblant Quebec, Garibaldi BC) have their own ministry permits, and provincial Crown land filming clears through BC Ministry of Forests, OMNR Ontario or Ressources naturelles Quebec. Our team prepares and files all four tiers, including the bilingual EN/FR documentation needed for Quebec, Acadian New Brunswick and federal Parks Canada submissions.

Indigenous lands operate under a parallel consent framework that has matured a lot since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and which most Hollywood productions now follow as standard. On First Nations reserve lands, agreements route through the band council via AFN protocols with Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) language adapted from UNDRIP; on Inuit Nunangat territory (Nunavut, Nunavik Quebec, Nunatsiavut Labrador, Inuvialuit NWT), agreements clear through ITK Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the relevant land-claim authority (NTI in Nunavut, Makivik in Nunavik); Métis settlements in Alberta and traditional territories elsewhere route through the MNC Métis National Council provincial bodies.

City Film Office agreements for Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Halifax handle the city-street, public-park and city-asset permits and often turn in 5-15 business days. Private property templates cover access dates, restoration obligations, liability under provincial occupiers' liability statutes, $5-10M CGL insurance certificates, and the holdback structures Canadian property owners expect. We also coordinate ATA carnet customs filings with CBSA for foreign equipment crossing borders and IRCC work-permit clearance for non-Canadian crew tied to exact locations.