Canada rakes in C$5.5b a year in film, TV production boom

Washington

A WOMAN in scrubs hustles a patient out of a hospital in a wheelchair and into a waiting SUV, her face a knot of anxiety. Suddenly she sees someone and turns to leap into the car. "Cut!" calls out a director on the Entertainment One Ltd production Mary Kills People - and immediately the real-life bustle of an afternoon commute resumes on the leafy Toronto street.

A police officer lets through a held-up streetcar and pedestrians begin to navigate around cameras, electrical cables and lighting booms.

Film shoots have become so common in Canada's biggest city that hardly anyone bats an eye at the commotion all around them. "This place is nuts," said actor Richard Short, who co-stars with Caroline Dhavernas in Mary Kills People, a drama about a doctor circ…