New sound stage to open in Mount Uniacke for film productions
Lauren Ella Burke | CBC News | Posted: March 21, 2025 6:38 PM | Last Updated: March 21
'This is a bit of a chapter turn for us,' says Screen Nova Scotia board chair
Screen Nova Scotia will be ready to start TV and movie productions in Mount Uniacke, N.S., later this summer.
Two buildings at the site will be used as sound stages.
Laura Mackenzie, Screen Nova Scotia's executive director, said having a space that can be used year-round will transform Nova Scotia's film and TV industry, provide more jobs and grow tourism.
"When a production team selects a filming location in our province, they invest their budgets back into the local businesses," Mackenzie said during a press announcement Thursday.
This property is the "perfect canvas" because the two sound stage buildings are almost ready to use, there are other buildings on site that can be renovated, and there's space for expansion, Mackenzie said.
Screen Nova Scotia had plans to build a new sound stage on Crown land in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Mackenzie said the organization had started that process when warehouse spaces started popping up on the market around the province at the end of the pandemic.
Screen Nova Scotia had looked at several properties before scouting the Mount Uniacke property last summer. The location and amount of space is what makes it the ideal place, she said.
Dave Ritcey, Nova Scotia minister of communities, culture, tourism and heritage, said more than 85 productions took place in the province in the last year. That resulted in more than $160 million in local spending, he said.
"When these productions come here, they don't provide work in the short term," he said. "They build careers, they boost local businesses and they create economic growth that benefits our entire province."
This investment makes what has always been a highly seasonal industry for this province a year-round economic driver, Ritcey said.
Productions in recent years have taken place in curling clubs, hockey rinks, and converted warehouses, said Mike Volpe, Screen Nova Scotia's board chair.
"This is a bit of a chapter turn for us," said Volpe. "We are still here and we're thriving and we've stuck together as an industry and we had government support at the right time."
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