More Thoughts from Rob: The Provinces

I separate the provinces like the new Canadian Football League. The differences between West and East start at the Saskatchewan and Manitoba border. The Western provinces (Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC) have some programs but not the tax credit incentives (other than SR&ED incentives) like the Eastern provinces (Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, PEI and Nova Scotia). Ok so it doesn’t work so well when you take into account New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. Here is my quick synopsis heading West to East. Please chime in and comment on experiences and other programs I may have missed.

British Columbia

British Columbia is at the forefront of the video game industry in Canada. The creative games cluster in the lower mainland is one of the oldest and largest in Canada. The province has invested in programs such as the Masters in Digital Media. BC has also provided incentives with investments in the BC Renaissance Fund.

BC has taken a different approach and created the BC New Media Venture Capital Program Tax Credit. This program provides tax credits to those who invest in small new media companies such as game developers. It should be noted that BC has various tax credits for film and television productions but has yet to see the light on doing the same for video game developers.
http://www.investbc.com/businessincentives.htm

BC as well has a 10% tax credit which is refundable for Canadian-controlled private corporations (“CCPCs”) for scientific research and experimental development expenses. http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/business/Income_Taxes/Corporation_Income_Tax/tax_credits/scientific_research.htm

Alberta
I guess the leading incentive in Alberta is low taxes. I haven’t been able to find any programs or tax credits specifically related to the video game industry. There are some government funds geared towards the Information Technology sector such as the Alberta Ingenuity Fund that which may be relevant to a game developer in the province. http://www.albertaingenuity.ca/
Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan government has created the Saskatchewan Film and Video Development Corporation. It appears its programs are mostly aimed towards film and television projects however they do mention interactive projects in some of their documents. There appears to be some minor funding available for travel and marketing. Again Saskatchewan has a tax credit for film and television but no mention of game developers. http://www.saskfilm.com/docs/assets5/SaskFilm_Program_Guidelines_May2008.pdf


Saskatchewan has a 15% SR&ED non-refundable tax credit as well that would be available to those who meet the criteria http://www.finance.gov.sk.ca/Default.aspx?DN=7210d60f-4263-4bf8-9f59-dbbbd8d64f7a

Manitoba

The Manitoba government has created a refundable Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit which provides a tax credit on 40% of eligible labour expenses up to a maximum tax credit of $500,000.
http://www.gov.mb.ca/stem/knowledge/idm_taxcredit.html

The province also has some small granting funds available for such things as market research, prototyping, product development and marketing assistance through the Manitoba Interactive Digital Media Fund as well as several other programs providing some assistance for technology commercialization or export market development.

In addition, Manitoba has a Research and Development Tax Credit that provides a 20% non-refundable tax credit on eligible expenses. http://www.gov.mb.ca/ctt/invest/busfacts/govt/rd_taxcredit.html

Ontario

The Ontario government has made significant strides over the last few years to make the province attractive to both foreign and domestic developers. The Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit is available to both Canadian-controlled and foreign-controlled Canadian corporations who have a permanent establishment in Ontario. The tax credit is equal to 30% of eligible expenses (mostly labour and some marketing) for qualifying small corporations. In addition larger corporations are eligible for a 25% tax credit and “fee for service” products may qualify for this tax credit as well.
http://www.omdc.on.ca/PageFactory.aspx?PageID=3257

In addition, the Ontario Media Development Corporation has several programs available to assist game developers. The Interactive Digital Media Fund provides funding up to $100,000 for up to 50% of the completion of an interactive digital media project. Other one off programs such as the Video game prototype Fund and the Screen-based Content Initiative have also provided funding for Interactive projects. It is hoped that some of these funds will be continued in future years. The government has also created the Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund which provides funding for collaborations between various partners in the creative cluster which would include interactive media.
http://www.omdc.on.ca/PageFactory.aspx?PageID=3258

Ontario also has an Innovation Tax Credit that provides an additional refundable 10% tax credit on SR&ED eligible expenditures spent in the province.
http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/english/credit/oitc/index.html

Quebec

Quebec with the establishment of many multinational game development studios in the province has become the fastest growing and is recognized as one of the global centres of game development.

The Quebec government established the Multimedia Titles tax credits which provides corporations in Quebec producing multimedia titles (which would include video games) a tax credit of up to 37.5% of eligible labour expenditures.
http://www.revenu.gouv.qc.ca/eng/entreprise/impot/societes/credits/adaptation/titresmultimedias.asp

Quebec also provides loans, loan guarantees and interim financing for tax credits amongst other programs.
http://www.investquebec.com/en/index.aspx?page=1764

Quebec provides further incentives on SR&ED performed in the province.
http://www.revenu.gouv.qc.ca/eng/publications/in/in-109-v.asp

Prince Edward Island

The government of Prince Edward Island provides an Innovation and Development Tax Credit of 35% on 150% of eligible production labour. The extra 50% is given to allow for other overhead in operating a development studio in the province.
http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/ptrp_idtc_guide.pdf

The province also offers reduced personal taxation to employees of the developer and several other tax credits that may be relevant to a game developer as well as subsidized rent to companies wanting to establish in the Atlantic Technology Centre.
http://www.gov.pe.ca/development/ptrp/index.php3
http://www.gameplan.ca/programs.html

New Brunswick

New Brunswick offers a refundable 15% research and development tax credit which may be of use to game developers in the province.
http://www.gnb.ca/0024/tax/randd.asp

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia offers a refundable tax credit equal to the lesser of 25% of all expenditures in Nova Scotia or 50% on eligible Nova Scotia labour expenditures plus an additional 5% on all expenditures or 10% of labour expenditures if the development takes place outside of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
http://www.gov.ns.ca/finance/en/home/taxation/businesstax/corporateincometax/digitalmediataxcredit.aspx

Nova Scotia also offers a refundable 15% research and development tax credit which may be of use to game developers in the province.
http://www.gov.ns.ca/finance/en/home/taxation/businesstax/corporateincometax/researchanddevelopmenttax.aspx

Newfoundland & Labrador

The province offers a refundable 15% research and development tax credit which may be of use to game developers in the province.
http://www.fin.gov.nl.ca/fin/scientific.html