Province Elimiates New Media Fund
Anyone that says Manitoba appears to be immune from the recession is mistaken.
To begin on a positive note we were happy to see that all of industry’s recommendations to improve the Manitoba Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit (MIDMTC) in the 2010 Provincial Budget were passed. Some of the improvements include:
- the length of the Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit was extended to December 31, 2013
- tax credit certificates can be issued on an annual basis instead of at the end of a project (you get your money quicker)
- government assistance from other funding programs will no longer grind down eligible labour costs
What we were uneasy about in the 2010 Budget was the noticeably absent reference to the Manitoba Interactive Digital Media Fund (MIDMF), a $300,000 program meant to support new application development in the Interactive Digital Media sector. This past Tuesday, the Department of Innovation, Energy and Mines (IEM), confirmed our fears that MIDMF has indeed been eliminated. This means that Manitoba New Media Producers no longer have a program specifically designed to create innovative new products like Video Games, and Mobile Applications, or the support to attend new markets for training and trade show
This news has been sobering to say the least.
When we compare what has happened in Manitoba to the rest of Canada we see a disconnect. The Canada New Media Fund (CMF) which was just announced last week enables Canadian New Media Producers to access 27 million dollars for project funding in the Experimental Stream (almost double what it was a year ago). There is also a CMF Convergence Stream of $277 million dollars, which will support the creation of television shows and related digital media content. The CMF requires a substantial portion of the Convergence Stream be used to create rich content such as videogames, podcasts, webisodes, mobisodes, and interactive web content - a great opportunity for Film/TV and New Media Producers to collaborate together.
Several other provinces like Ontario, which just invested 26 million into their provincial digital media sector, are creating more incentives to organically grow their industries which begs the question: Why, when every other province is providing incentives to a growth sector like interactive digital media, is Manitoba's only digital media fund being terminated?
To help balance this latest announcement we need to state a few facts:
- When the budget was handed down, Innovation, Energy and Mines had the largest cuts to their programs.
- The Manitoba Interactive Digital Media Fund was under-subscribed in previous years (with the exception of 2009).
We at New Media Manitoba are extremely disappointed with the elimination of the MIDMF particularly because there was no prior indication this program could be cut. We have made recommendations this past year to improve MIDMF's guidelines and have helped 5 companies successfully achieve funding to build their projects. With the momentum that was built, we projected over 15 companies would successfully receive MIDMF product assistance and access to markets in 2010.
With the reduction to IEM's budget and a history of new media companies not applying for the fund, we can understand the challenges protecting MIDMF amidst budget cuts. As new media producers we need to take responsibility for how we approached the fund and for not utilizing it to its fullest potential.
We want you to know that IEM has told us they will do everything they can to help new media producers access other program funding to attend new markets or help with project investment. We still have the interactive digital media tax credit that supports production labour.
Over the next while we will be calling on you to help provide vital statistics for our industry. We need to better understand the size and economic data of our own industry in order to help our province better understand us. If you believe in growing the interactive digital media sector in Manitoba then we ask you to be forthcoming with your time when we launch our survey in the coming months so we can build better programs and support for new media producers in this province.
Questions about this latest announcement can be directed to:
New Media Manitoba's Business Director: Louie Ghiz
or, to Innovation, Energy and Mines: Doug McCartney douglas.mccartney@gov.mb.ca (204) 945-6298