Village Gamer

Communities throughout British Columbia can take advantage of a new suite of online tools and resources to help them strengthen and diversify their local economies. If you support economic activity for your community – a local government or First Nation – the Business Attraction Toolkit can help attract potential new businesses and investors from across Canada and around the world. Read the rest of this entry »

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has posted the 2013-2014 Performance Envelope allocations to its website. The envelope system was designed to provide a greater degree of funding predictability to both broadcasters and producers by allocating funds to broadcasters at the beginning of each fiscal year based on past performance in commissioning and airing convergent projects. The allocation of funds, known as envelopes, is applied to the Performance Envelope Program as well as the Development Program. Read the rest of this entry »

Emily Carr University of Art + Design and the CUPE Local 15 support staff have reached a tentative agreement under the 2012 Cooperative Gains Mandate, Minister of Finance Michael de Jong announced today. The two-year agreement provides for modest wage increases funded from savings found within existing budgets, as required under the 2012 Cooperative Gains Mandate. This agreement covers about 160 staff working in a variety of positions ranging from information technology, administration, studio and library technicians, facilities and other services that support students and the institutions. Read the rest of this entry »

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has released statistical and financial summaries for Canadian specialty, pay, pay-per-view (PPV) and video-on-demand (VOD) television services. Revenues for these television services have climbed by 35.4% over the past five years to reach nearly $4 billion in 2012. During the past year, a significant portion of these revenues, close to $1.4 billion, was invested in the creation of a variety of Canadian programming, resulting in thousands of jobs in the Canadian production sector and new television programs for Canadians. In 2012, Canadian specialty, pay, PPV and VOD television services created 226 new jobs, directly employed 6,176 people and paid $487 million in salaries. Read the rest of this entry »

The Government of Canada has launched a national Call for Concepts to identify organizations who are interested in forming a pan-Canadian network focused on improving the literacy and essential skills of Canadians. The announcement was made by Dr. Kellie Leitch, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and to the Minister of Labour, at the 16^th Annual Skills Manitoba Competition. Read the rest of this entry »

The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), today announced a Government of Canada investment that will allow ThoughtWire to accelerate development of its innovative software platform, and access close to $2 million in financing from southern Ontario angel investors. Ted Opitz, Member of Parliament for Etobicoke Centre, accompanied Minister of State Goodyear. Read the rest of this entry »

Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, has announced the launch of a new pilot project that enables Canadians to submit access to information and privacy requests online. The pilot provides better service for Canadians by making the process of requesting government records simpler and more convenient. Read the rest of this entry »

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has released statistical and financial information on Canadian broadcasting distribution companies for the broadcast year ended August 31, 2012. During the past year, cable companies reported a modest growth in revenues and subscribers, while satellite companies recorded a decline in both categories. The combined revenues for these companies increased by 4.2%, from $13.5 billion in 2011 to $14.1 billion in 2012. Similarly, the total number of subscribers rose by 1% from 11.4 million to 11.5 million. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting today, people who believe they have suffered discrimination will have easy online access to a tool to determine if they have grounds for a complaint under the Canadian Human Rights Act. The Canadian Human Rights Commission has launched an online complaint assessment tool, an interactive, self-service questionnaire that helps people determine if a discrimination complaint is valid and should be formally filed. Read the rest of this entry »

This just in via email: Dear Colleagues,

We are writing to provide an update to the recent announcement by the provincial government that BC Film + Media and BC Film Commission will become Creative BC.  As described in that announcement, the new agency will work with creative industries in the province to develop and implement a broad strategy capitalizing on the sector’s strengths and identifying new opportunities for the future. Read the rest of this entry »