Premier wants to make B.C. a leader in emerging field of augmented reality

Mar 14, 2017 | 11:52 AM

VANCOUVER — As governments around the world put up barriers to increased trade and immigration, British Columbia has an opportunity to grow its burgeoning technology sector by opening its doors to skilled newcomers, Premier Christy Clark says.

“While other countries are looking in, let’s be a country and a province that is looking out … that is building bridges to the world, that is welcoming people in, the best and the brightest from every corner around the globe,” Clark said Tuesday in a keynote address to 5,000 delegates at the second annual #BCTECH Summit.

“That’s how we will be different.”

Clark used her speech to announce the government’s plans to expand a tax credit aimed at helping companies in the entertainment sector that specialize in augmented reality.

Last month’s provincial budget expanded the digital media tax credit program to include augmented reality companies working in entertainment. The program is forecast to cost $1 million in foregone revenue in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Tuesday’s announcement would see the credit apply beyond companies that create products designed to educate, inform and entertain, and encompass all applications of the technology.

The budget defines augmented reality as any product that enhances a user’s perception of reality by superimposing digital information on their field of vision.

Bill Tam, head of the B.C. Technology Industry Association, described augmented reality as a budding field and said it’s important that the province make the necessary investments to get ahead of the pack early.

“It’s a strategic investment in what I believe is a burgeoning area of capability for the B.C. tech industry,” Tam said.

Tech entrepreneur Andrew Reid described the expanded tax credit as a small step that will have a larger cumulative impact alongside other government initiatives, such as the province working with the federal government to fast-track the immigration process for skilled workers, investing in better co-op and internship programs for post-secondary students, and offering seed money and networking opportunities for local startups.

“The more I’ve been in business, the more I’ve learned that sometimes you’re always looking for those Hail Marys, the big exciting thing that’s the one thing everyone’s going to point to. And it’s very rare that that happens,” he said.

“It’s a bunch of little initiatives that, when you pull all those together … are the things that are really going to impact the industry.”

Mike Tippett, a tech expert based in Vancouver, emphasized the importance of reaching out to technology hubs in the United States to attract talent that may have to leave the country because of changes in its approach to immigration.

“Every country and every region in the world is trying to get a piece of that and is trying to rebuild Silicon Valley in their own backyard, so Vancouver and British Columbia really needs to be playing that game,” said Tippett. “I’m pleased to see that that is something they’re doing.”

— Follow @gwomand on Twitter

Geordon Omand, The Canadian Press