Interactive Gaming in Ontario Gets Schooled
Ryerson University’s G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education offered an interesting post-grad series of courses for gaming aficionados: the EDGE: Education for Digital and Games Entrepreneurs program which ran workshops in January 2012. “Ontario is rapidly becoming viewed as a leader in digital media and gaming,” says Dr. Gervan Fearon, Dean of The Chang […]
OIDMTC – The Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit and Why It’s So Great
Household name Encyclopedia Britannica, in print since it was first published in Scotland in 1768, announced earlier in March its plans to end physical print publications and focus on expanding its online and digital application presence. Their website features an ad for an iPad app under a banner promoting its “FINAL Print Edition,” a great […]
Ontario FIT Program Amendments Reaffirm Government Commitment
The Ministry of Energy has released the numbers for the anticipated rate reductions in the FIT program. New solar projects will see rate reductions of over 20 percent, wind projects will see 15 percent. The FIT program was launched in 2009 and offers green energy producers above-market rates to feed electricity into the grid. The rate […]
Energy News Round-Up
Energy Future Heading North Recent talk in the Canadian energy sector has been pointing to Nunavut as representing “the future of the country’s energy sector” (see Nunatsiaq News and The Globe and Mail). Eva Aariak, Premier of Nunavut, spoke on March 14th at the Arctic Oil and Gas Symposium in Calgary to present Nunavut as […]
Options for Early Stage Technology Companies to Finance Growth
The dilutive nature of early stage equity financing (i.e., giving up ownership) makes it the most expensive way to finance growth. When a start-up does not have enough cash in the bank or cash flow to support their growth (hire more employees, fund working capital, etc.), the company is faced with a significant funding barrier […]
2012- Canada’s Digital Future in Focus
ComScore, the go-to internet marketing research company, recently released an annual report on Canada’s digital trends, highlighting the influence of digital media in Canada’s marketplace. “Technological innovations in digital device hardware and software have enabled a rapid increase in consumers’ digital consumption habits, marking an exciting time for the digital media industry and depicting an […]
Hacking Health could lead to health-care IT innovations
The Globe and Mail recently profiled a somewhat unorthodox approach, the “hacker way,” to jumpstarting the dinosaur system of Canadian healthcare IT. The “Hacker Way” is a loose model for rapidly solving problems through intense “jam sessions” wherein programmers and developers work on creating solutions in an extended, continuous time period (a weekend, for example). “[A]bout […]
A Major Player: Canada’s Video Game Sector
We’ve got our own tech hubs in Canada. Last year, Canada’s video game industry employed almost 16,000 people contributing $1.7 billion to economic activity, with an expected growth of 17% over the next two years according to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC). In fact, our gaming industry is about five times that of […]
Taxpayer’s Ombudsman: Issues of service and fairness within the SR&ED program
The Office of the Taxpayer’s Ombudsman released word on their investigation into the Canadian SR&ED program this week. The OTO committed to looking into the program’s service and administrative fairness after hearing of “dissatisfaction” with the SR&ED program from claimants and representatives. The OTO set out with a firm objective: “Through research and analysis, we […]
Feed-In Tariff Program News
The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) is “moving forward with its commitment to review the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) Program” (read here), concerning the FIT review (scheduled for every two years) announced October to investigate price reduction, long-term sustainability, clean energy job creation and the renewable approval process. Renewable Energy World predicts late February will bring about […]