Thank you, Tyrone.
Our second recommendation is greater incentives to trigger greater private investment in content creation. Tax credits are an efficient way to increase Canada's competitiveness, attract investment, and reward risk. We urge you to look at increasing the value of Canadian film or video production tax credits and the production services tax credits. The government should join the provinces in expanding these credits to include all spending, including post-production costs, and not just labour costs.
The government might also explore the possibility of investment funds, for example, setting up public funds to trigger private investment in companies working in screen-based media.
Creating great content isn't enough. In a world where access to content increasingly has no borders and the supply is seemingly endless, we must make sure audiences can find it. Canadian content must be given shelf space, and it must be marketable and accessible.
In our view, the CRTC should be regulating broadcasting on the Internet, which is just another platform for delivery of content. Until the CRTC sees the logic of this approach, we urge the government to provide incentives to private companies to feature Canadian digital content on their websites.
We propose that the government amend the Income Tax Act to give advertisers tax deductions for advertising on Canadian-owned websites featuring our content. This idea is based on the existing section 19.1 of the act, which provides incentives for broadcasters to advertise on Canadian television stations instead of U.S. border stations.
We urge the government not to use this federal budget to once again weaken Canadian sovereignty, but instead to use this opportunity to make us stronger by bolstering regulations and making smart investments in our cultural industries. We must continue to control our own telecommunications and broadcasting industries. Convergence in these industries means foreign ownership rules for telecommunications cannot be relaxed without affecting broadcasting and control over our content.
Given the right tools in today's digital economy, Canada's cultural industries will continue to be an engine of Canadian economic innovation and growth. We urge the government to harness the full economic potential of this important industry with a solid, long-term investment in the coming budget and the years ahead by implementing our recommendations.
Thank you.