Mayor John Tory says he’ll be heading on a trade mission to Los Angeles next week with a message for the film and television industry.

“We’re going to be going there and saying ‘the place you want to be to produce that content is in Toronto,’” Tory said Monday.

Speaking with reporters at TriBro Studios in East York, Tory said that the city has been working hard to meet the needs of the industry in order to make sure that the city remains competitive.

Tory said the province has provided assurances that lucrative tax credits will continue for the film industry. Those tax incentives, coupled with a broadening talent pool and expanded studio space, make Toronto an attractive place for major studios to locate their productions, Tory said.

“We’re going to be off on two days of very intensive activity and I hope it’s going to produce great dividends for the city,” Tory said.

The trip will take place May 9 and 10 and the delegation will include councillors Michael Thompson and Paula Fletcher, as well as representatives from 30 local companies.

Tory said the delegation will be meeting with a number of major studios and players, including Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, Universal, HBO and Apple.

“The mission will also reinforce that Toronto's studio space capacity will increase over the next two years, and its respected industry workforce is also developing and expanding to meet the high demand amongst production entities,” the city said in a release.

Toronto saw $1.96 billion of foreign and domestic investment in film, television, digital and commercial production in 2018, according to the city.

Earlier this year, Netflix announced the creation of a production hub in Toronto, with two major leases on studio space totaling close to 250,000 square feet.  

The city has hosted production for a number of major shows recently, including Suits, Star Trek Discovery, The Umbrella Academy and The Handmaid’s Tale.

In addition to demonstrating to the industry that Toronto has the facilities and talent to accommodate large-scale productions, Tory said he’s interested in communicating “that we’re committed to creativity here.”