The company was founded by brothers Paul and Michael Donovan. Paul Donovan was trained as director and still directs projects for Salter Street. Michael worked as a producer and headed the business, and he remains CEO today. Salter Street Films was named after the street in Halifax where Michael had been living.
The company began life with early problems. Its first major motion pictures were generally failures such as George's Island which lost large amounts of money. The company's salvation turned out to be the science fiction series Lexx, which was a hit in Germany and became a lucrative money maker internationally. Soon after new successes followed with This Hour Has 22 Minutes becoming a hit on CBC and other series such as CODCO, Emily of New Moon, Made in Canada, Blackfly and the special Rick Mercer's Talking To Americans. These shows found homes on CBC as well as other Canadian networks and cable channels.
The success of Salter Street Films attracted interest from the powerful Alliance Atlantis Corporation, which bought Salter Street. This merger allowed Salter Street access to Alliance Atlantis' large number of cable channels and its film distribution network. It also allowed Salter Street to play important roles in even larger ventures, such as Bowling for Columbine, which was produced by Michael Donovan.
But two years after the purchase, Alliance Atlantis closed the operation. Read here for more info