With the provincial budget scheduled for April 23, we are pleased to provide an update on Interactive Ontario’s robust advocacy campaign surrounding the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit.
IO staff, board members and members have taken over a dozen meetings with staff and elected representatives in the Premier’s Office, the Treasury Board, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Through these meetings, we have been able to educate and inform key players about our industry and its unique workings. We have ensured that the concerns that were voiced at our four public townhall meetings (Toronto, Waterloo, St. Catharines and Ottawa) have been relayed to the government and have provided tools to help IDM industry stakeholders contact elected officials directly.
In our meetings, we have emphasized the importance of the OIDMTC to the success of our industry – and its necessity in helping Ontario’s share of the Canadian IDM GDP reach that of Quebec and British Columbia. We have highlighted the innovation happening in Ontario and the ways that the OIDMTC supports the creation of knowledge-based jobs at the core of building a leading digital economy in Ontario, as well as the volume of export sales generated by IDM in our province.
The decision now rests with the Ontario government and we hope that they will heed our advice to reduce the ‘outliers’ accessing the credit while leaving access intact for all bona fide IDM creators and making improvements to increase the OIDMTC’s efficiency and impact. IO will be attending the budget lockup and will provide news on the outcome of the review as soon as it is available.
