Alberta NDP plans to restore tech industry amid increasing layoffs

As Alberta’s tech and Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry faces office closures and layoffs, the Alberta NDP lays out plans to restore the province’s competitiveness.

The party says in a statement it will reinvest in the AI sector, reinstate “the Alberta Investor Tax Credit and the Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit,”  and create “an Alberta Venture Fund that is modelled after a similar fund that spurred the development of the oil sands.”

This comes after Benevity, Calgary-based tech firm, which provides software to manage charitable grants and donations and is one of Western Canada’s largest startups, announced it has laid off 14 per cent of its workforce last week.

The company says the layoffs are caused by the current market conditions.

Meanwhile, On Tuesday, Alphabet Inc. announced it will close the Edmonton office owned by its AI subsidiary DeepMind.

The U.K.-headquartered subsidiary will keep its Montreal and Toronto offices, which are located within Google-managed buildings.

Spokesperson Lauren Skelly says DeepMind’s Edmonton office was the only international site directly managed by the subsidiary, making it more resource-intensive than the other DeepMind spaces.

Skelly adds the researchers in the Edmonton office have been offered the chance to relocate to other sites.

“My heart goes out to everyone affected by this news. To receive this news during an affordability crisis makes matters all that much more difficult,” said Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley. “This is a serious blow for our provincial economy, and without investment, we are at significant risk of losing our competitive advantage.”

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The NDP says the opening of Google’s DeepMind office in Edmonton in 2017 to work with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (AMII) at the University of Alberta was a big achievement for Alberta’s tech industry. The party adds they launched then a $100 million strategy for the province’s tech and AI sector, and implemented tax credits to attract investments.

“These policies were designed to drive innovation, build a more resilient economy, and create good-paying careers. But in the UCP’s first budget, they tossed all of this away. This led to chaos and instability in the sector, and deals fell apart,” said Deron Bilous, NDP Economic Development and Innovation critic.

“As we face a potentially difficult period for the industry, I worry that our lack of competitiveness will mean less investment at this crucial time. We must act now to restore our competitiveness.”

Meanwhile the statement says “in the UCP’s first budget, they cancelled several tax credits that supported the tech sector,” leading companies like Wattpad “to open new offices in Halifax instead of Calgary.”

The opposition adds, according to the Venture Capital Association of Canada, Alberta falls behind BC, Ontario, and Quebec in attracting venture investments.

CityNews has reached out to the Ministry of Technology and Innovation for comments.

With files from The Canadian Press