Sask. introduces 2.5 year pilot program to boost investment in technology sector

Tina Beaudry-Mellor, the minister responsible for Innovation Saskatchewan, introduced Bill 129, the Saskatchewan Technology Start-up Incentive Act for first reading in the Saskatchewan legislature on April 30.

The incentive is designed to increase investment for technology companies in their early stages and will offer a 45 per cent non-refundable tax credit for individual and corporate equity investments in an eligible technology start-up. The tax credit per investor caps out at $140,000, and can be applied to investments in multiple start-ups.

“Saskatchewan has a growing technology sector, and the government is committed to providing an attractive business environment to support its expansion and success,” Beaudry-Mellor said.

“The Saskatchewan Technology Start-up Incentive will help us achieve this commitment. It will create the conditions for increased early-stage investments in technology start-ups in Saskatchewan, which will in turn help enhance the growth, attraction and retention of start-ups and talent in the province.”

The incentive program was announced as part of the 2018-19 budget and will be managed by Innovation Saskatchewan.

The provincial agency will assess eligibility for applicants to ensure they meet all required qualifying criteria, including the need to be technology-based start-ups, located in Saskatchewan, with 50 or fewer employees.

The incentive is being offered as a two-and-a-half-year pilot program and will be capped at $1.5 million in its first year, with any unused credits rolling into the following fiscal year.

“The Conference Board of Canada has said that the fastest area of job growth is going to be the tech sector and this is going to be an area that we need to develop as part of our province, as part of diversifying our economic portfolio,” Beaudry-Mellor said.

In addition to this tax incentive, Beaudry-Mellor said this is part of a bigger tech picture in the province. This includes plans to introduce coding to the K-12 curriculum.

“Tech is not strictly one sector, it’s a sector that sort of expands all of them. So we see a number of technological developments in artificial intelligence for example in agriculture, we also see a number of developments in mining and resource industries, so it really spans the gamut,” Beaudry-Mellor said.

The Saskatchewan Technology Start-up Incentive will strengthen the province’s innovation commercialization strategy, which will complement recent related policies and programs the government has developed, including:

• Co.Labs – Saskatchewan’s first technology incubator;
• The reformed Saskatchewan Research and Development Tax Credit; and
• The Saskatchewan Commercial Innovation Incentive.

The program will begin to accept applications in fall 2018, and a full evaluation will follow in the 2020-21 fiscal year.

With files from David Baxter