Taking Posession

Well as of 8am this morning my wife and I have officially taken posession of our brand new house. I will try to post some pictures of the house once we have everything moved in.

Open Letter to the Alberta Government About Alberta's Digital Media Industry

The Ontario government has recently given a significant tax break to digital media business from 20% to 30% in its latest budget, a tax break that I see as another slap in the face to hard working technology developers here in Alberta.

This latest move by the Ontario government once again highlights how Alberta lacks behind other provinces such as BC, Quebec, Ontario and PEI by supporting and encouraging the growth of an important industry. An industry that continues to grow every year and play an important role in the future development of the economies of the provinces that have encouraged these tax breaks. Allowing them to be leaders in this global industry and take significant steps ahead provinces such as Alberta that have failed to support this industry.

Every day developers such as myself struggle to compete in a global marketplace that gets tougher and tougher due to tax breaks and benefits being given out in other locations. Jobs and contracts are being lost here in Alberta to provinces and states that are aggressively competing and encouraging digital media development simply because we cannot compete on the same levels with the tax advantages that are being given. As a result, every year hundreds of highly trained and skilled developers leave this province because Alberta is not a favorable location to do business in. Even the few success stories that we have which have managed through their own hard work and determination to survive and become a large player in this business are moving future development out of this province because there is no such thing as the “Alberta Advantage” in digital media.

This cannot be allowed to continue and something must be done now before Alberta falls so far behind other provinces and states that our digital media industry dries up or becomes the joke of North America. As such I implore you to wake up and do something to help show that Alberta can compete in tomorrow’s marketplace in industries other than natural resources that we have really just stumbled upon. Its time to step up and show the world what Alberta can give to the digital media market when the playing field is level.

Logan Foster
Digital Media producer.