'Missed opportunities': Edmonton councillors, game developer want Alberta to bring back digital tax credit

As the Alberta government gets ready to table its new budget next month, Edmonton mayor Amarjeet Sohi will attempt to get a tax break for interactive digital media creators reinstated.

In 2018, the previous NDP government offered a 25 per cent incentive to attract developers, but a year later, the UCP killed the credit.

On Wednesday, City Hall's Executive Committee voted unanimously to have the mayor ask for it back.

"It's about missed opportunities. If you don't have it it's very hard to attract new companies to your municipality, when they can go to the province next door. They can go to B.C., they can go to Quebec. I think it's important we are matching that," said Coun. Andrew Knack, who brought the motion forward.

"We can go to these companies and say we are the most affordable major city in Canada so what better place to set up your company."

A study published last year determined that the value of the gaming industry has now topped US$300 billion following a pandemic-fueled surge, with roughly 2.7 billion players worldwide.

The gaming sector is worth more than the combined markets for movies and music, driven by gains in mobile gaming and an emphasis on making connections during a time of pandemic physical distancing, The Accenture report said.

A local developer believes Alberta is missing out on lots of that action, and he wants the tax credit back too.

"We were finally at this moment when we had parity with the rest of Canada, or a level playing field and it was pulled from under us," said Trent Oster, the CEO of Edmonton-based Beamdog.

Oster's company received that initial tax credit, and said he had to lay off staff and scale back expansion once he lost it.

"It's just so hard to compete and it's almost more painful because we had it for a brief time."

CTV News Edmonton reached out to the Ministry of Jobs, Economy and Innovation about this story, but Minister Doug Schweitzer's press secretary declined to comment.

Mayor Sohi and Councillors Knack, Jenniffer Rice, Erin Rutherford and Anne Stevenson all voted in favour of the motion to try to get the tax credit back.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Touria Izri and Agence France-Presse