UCP government announces $75M to create jobs, diversify economy

EDMONTON (660 NEWS) – Alberta’s government is pumping $75 million into the provincial economy in an effort to jump-start the province’s economic recovery.

Minister of Jobs, Economy, and Innovation, Doug Schweitzer made the announcement Thursday morning saying the money will help create jobs and build on Alberta’s existing strengths in energy, tourism, agriculture, and financial services along with emerging sectors like technology.

Schweitzer says the province has a little ways to go on this front- says we need to be at the forefront of intellectual property, taking research and ideas and turning them into businesses and jobs faster than anyone in the world. #yeg #yyc #ableg

— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) September 17, 2020

The initiative, known as the Investment and Growth Strategy (IGS), will see the $75 million spread out over the next three years.

Schweitzer, along with Ministers Demetrios Nicolaides and Nate Glubish will also be consulting with the tech sector to help modernize Alberta’s intellectual property laws.

“Alberta is coming to play in the tech and innovation space. We’re putting the rest of Canada on notice that we are going to beat provinces like Ontario and B.C. to punch by moving policy at the speed of business,” said Schweitzer.

“The first of many policy steps is to develop the best framework for intellectual property so ideas can be turned into businesses and jobs.”

This latest initiative builds on the Alberta Recovery Plan announced in June which the government said will create thousands of jobs through infrastructure projects such as schools and roads.

WATCH: Alberta cuts business tax, boosts infrastructure spending to reboot economy

That investment saw the government commit $10 billion and further cut the corporate tax to 10 per cent as of Canada Day.

“I think we have seen a slight change in tone from the government over the last six or eight months. If we think back to last fall or even early winter, there was a sense that energy was going to be the future of the province that we didn’t need other things. We didn’t need tech, we could do away with investments, or investment credits for tech — I think today’s (Thursday) announcement re-enforces a message that we have heard from the government in the last few months that says no the future of Alberta really does require some diversification and tech is one of the sectors,” said Political Scientist with the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, Lisa Young.

Young added there are some fundamentals in place that may help attract more tech companies to Alberta.

“As the government points out, we have a highly educated population, we’ve got lots of people with a background in science, technology, engineering who got the capacity that you might need to make a pivot to tech. We got a couple of big cities which are places that tech companies like to locate too, it’s certainly a low tax regime and the government has worked on that so that might do the trick. I do think though that the government is going to have to think hard about the kind of incentives that come into play with tech.”