province to explore rebooting interactive digital media tax credit
mandate letter for technology and innovation minister nate glubish also includes system modernization at alberta health services and setting up proposed health spending accounts
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nate glubish, alberta's minister of technology and innovation speaks at an event with leaders in energy, agriculture, and technology at the westin hotel in calgary monday, april 17, 2023.
jim wells/postmedia file
talent attraction and the technological advancement of government services are the focus of technology and innovation minister nate glubish’s mandate letter.
the letter, issued wednesday by premier danielle smith, outlines the minister’s priorities in her government, and centres on further implementation of the alberta technology and innovation strategy.
“the letter picks up where we left off before the election,” he said in an interview with postmedia.
“it’s a big focus on modernizing government service delivery, looking for more ways to apply technology in everything we do so that we can deliver better, faster and smarter services, ultimately saving taxpayers money, with the goal of trying to make sure that alberta becomes one of the most innovative jurisdictions around the country.”
the resurrection of the interactive digital media tax credit program in some form was once again included on his list of objectives. the credit was originally introduced by the ndp in 2018 but when they were ousted by the ucp in 2019, the program was axed in then-premier jason kenney’s first budget.
the program was designed to help the digital media sector — which includes video game developers among other companies that harness this technology in a wide range of sectors — attract workers and scale up. as the program was around for just a short time before being cut it is unclear how successful it was in meeting those goals. however, similar programs in other jurisdictions like b.c. and ontario have helped their sectors thrive and have pulled investment away from alberta, according to nick facey, vice chairman of digital alberta.
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there was hope the digital tax credit would be in this spring’s budget, but it was not.
‘we’ve got do to our homework’
glubish said it is critical the government complete its due diligence on development of the program and they are awaiting a report from an independent agency, expected later this summer.
“if we’re ever going to consider creating a new massive multimillion-dollar permanent subsidy program, we’ve got to do our homework,” he said. “we’ve got to make sure that we have looked out for the interests of all alberta taxpayers to say if we’re going to support a specific industry with a subsidy there’s got to be a good rationale for it.”
talent development and acquisition are central to glubish’s mandate beyond the tax credit program. he is tasked with working with other ministries, like advanced education minister rajan sawhney and jobs, economy and trade minister matt jones on this.
the alberta technology and innovation strategy, unveiled in november, calls for the creation of 20,000 new tech jobs by 2030, noting the forecast of alberta tech companies to generate an additional $5 billion in annual revenue in that time. this builds on the record venture capital investment calgary and alberta has experienced over the last six years, showing strengths in green tech, agricultural tech, artificial intelligence and other sectors.
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the letter also denotes an additional $100-million investment by the province into the alberta enterprise corp. to further business attraction targets.
technology eyed to improve efficiency and outcomes at alberta health services
glubish said he plans to utilize homegrown tech where possible to achieve other priorities in the mandate. specifically, he will be working with health minister adriana lagrange to modernize alberta health services’ it systems to improve outcomes and efficiencies. ahs was kept separate from the consolidation of other government services and the digital modernization they underwent. glubish said the province will look at the lessons learned from those efforts to improve service delivery at ahs.
“i’ve seen so many exciting entrepreneurs and innovators building really cool technologies and turning them into big companies here in alberta,” he said. “i know that there’s a lot of opportunity, as a government, for us to lean on that expertise.”
the minister has also been tasked to explore the feasibility of the $300 alberta health spending accounts promised by the premier in her electoral platform in may.
glubish will work with the ministries of health, treasury board and finance on this file. there is no timeline for the launch of the account but said with a program that will cost albertans in excess of $1 billion, due diligence is critical. the government will take some cues from the affordability payments portal designed by the province this winter, but it will be a more complicated process.
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the mandate letter also calls for the continued implementation of the alberta broadband strategy — a joint federal and provincial program worth $780 million — and to improve cellphone coverage on major highways across alberta.
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