Canadian Industry Minister Defends Against U.K. Videogame Claims

Canadian Minister of Industry Jim Prentice has defended his country's game industry against U.K. complaints that it is operating unfairly and in contravention of World Trade Organization laws.

The United Kingdom announced in March that it had launched an investigation into tax rebates in various Canadian provinces, which it said provided an unfair advantage in attracting videogame developers and publishers to the country. The U.K. Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport issued a statement saying it was "concerned that state aid offered to computer games companies by a number of federal institutions in Canada" may be in contravention of WTO rules.

But according to a Globe and Mail report, Prentice defended the behavior of the Canadian industry, saying, "We have innovative Canadian companies that do great work, that are cutting edge and I hope they will continue to do exactly that, compete with the best in the world."

"We have a very strong, innovative gaming industry in Canada ... we exist in a global marketplace and, certainly, global competition in that area is quite fierce," he said, adding that he was "not aware of any specific trade challenges that have been mounted on that point." He also said he had no evidence Canada had broken any international trade laws, and that he would be touring some of the major videogame companies in Canada in order to learn more about the industry.

Many major studios have set up shop in Canada, particularly in the province of Quebec, which sports facilities operated by Ubisoft, Eidos and Electronic Arts, among others. Ontario recently announced changes in its tax laws intended to attract new growth to an industry that already includes home-grown studios like Silicon Knights and Digital Extremes.

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I'm Canadian, so quite probably biased, but what exactly does it say when not taxing an industry as much is seen as an illegal subsidy?

Now the one tax in BC that gives refundable tax-credits (ie, can turn into the gov't giving the company money) I can perhaps see an argument against. But the rest, where the company is allowed to write-down the labor costs or gain non-refundable tax-credits? That's just saying we're not going to tax a specific industry. I'm not sure how in the world someone can think that's any sort of subsidy.

The British Government just love thier taxes, I'm sure thats all parliment does all day is make up new ways to tax us. Then they piss and moan when a company goes somewhere that it can afford to do buisness. I live in Britain and I truly hope that this dosen't come to anything. Otherwise, money that would have gone into making games would be spent on parliments new way of screwing us out of money.

It's hardly surprising developers are going overseas when games and their developers are practically demonized by Parliament and the media here in Blighty. You continually put down a burgeoning indusrty, blame it for the ills of society, then act surprised when it goes somewhere else for business?

It's kind of odd but in Canada there's been virtually no uproar whatsoever about videogame content. Maybe our proximity to the US has given us a "let them handle it" mentality, since we do just roll along with ESRB ratings anyway, but there's nothing compelling retailers to abide by ESRB age ratings (as far as I know anyway) and I've never once heard anyone in our government calling for any kind of restrictions on games. That in itself probably goes a good way toward making it a more attractive environment for developers and publishers.

That's because we have better things to worry about. Unlike America, we're not willing to be 'everyone's parents'. That's what parents are for.

I'm glad he's standing up for our video game industry, 'cause he isn't sticking up for our internet.

This is the classic English Government ploy. The taxes are too high, so everybody that can leave does, so they try to make people stay by forcing everyone else to charge just as much.

It never works, which is just as well since I emigrate (to Ontario) next year...