In the shadow of the United Kingdom’s bold new tax credit system for its creative sectors, Canada’s own Creative Canada framework reveals a troubling blind spot that threatens to undermine our competitive edge. While British creative industries celebrate enhanced support, Canadian marketing professionals find themselves inexplicably excluded from similar benefits—a policy oversight that demands immediate correction.
The UK recently unveiled an ambitious expansion of tax credits for its creative industries, recognizing these sectors as vital economic engines and cultural ambassadors. Their approach acknowledges the full spectrum of creative work, including marketing and advertising—industries that blend artistic vision with commercial strategy. This comprehensive support system stands in stark contrast to Canada’s more fragmented approach.
Creative Canada, our federal policy framework for creative industries, offers significant tax credits to film, television, digital media, and other sectors. Yet marketing professionals—the very people who help these industries connect with audiences—remain conspicuously absent from the benefits roster. This exclusion isn’t merely an oversight; it represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how creative ecosystems function in today’s economy.
“The marketing industry employs thousands of creative professionals across Canada—art directors, copywriters, graphic designers, digital strategists—who are indistinguishable in their creative process from those working in supported industries,” explains Marie Levesque, president of the Canadian Marketing Association. “Their exclusion from tax credits creates an artificial hierarchy of creative value that doesn’t reflect reality.”
The economic implications are significant. Marketing agencies face higher operational costs without these credits, making them less competitive globally and potentially driving creative talent to other industries or countries. In Montreal alone, where our creative economy has flourished in recent years, marketing agencies report increasing difficulty competing for international clients against firms from countries with more supportive tax structures.
This policy gap becomes even more puzzling when we consider that marketing services generated approximately $9.7 billion in GDP for Canada in 2022, according to Statistics Canada. These aren’t insignificant numbers, especially as we navigate uncertain economic waters in a post-pandemic landscape. The sector employs over 175,000 Canadians in roles that require the same creative skills and training as many tax-credit-eligible positions.
The historical separation between “commercial” and “cultural” creativity that seems to inform this policy is increasingly obsolete. Today’s creative professionals move fluidly between marketing, entertainment, fine art, and digital media. A graphic designer might create album artwork one day and brand identities the next. A writer might pen screenplays and advertising copy with equal skill. The tax credit system fails to recognize this reality.
Beyond economic implications, this exclusion sends a troubling message about which forms of creativity Canada values. It suggests that creativity in service of commerce somehow deserves less support than creativity in service of entertainment or traditional arts—a false dichotomy that creative professionals themselves rarely recognize.
For a country that prides itself on cultural innovation and economic pragmatism, this policy inconsistency is difficult to justify. If we truly want Creative Canada to foster a robust, diverse creative economy, we must expand our definition of which creative sectors deserve support.
The solution isn’t complicated: expand existing creative tax credits to include marketing professionals or create parallel incentives that recognize their contributions. Several provinces, including British Columbia and Quebec, have already implemented more inclusive approaches at the regional level, demonstrating that such policies can work.
As we look toward post-pandemic recovery and building resilient creative industries, Canada cannot afford to maintain artificial divisions between creative sectors. The UK’s example shows that a more holistic approach is not only possible but potentially transformative.
The question now is whether policymakers will recognize this opportunity to strengthen our creative economy comprehensively, or if they’ll continue to reinforce outdated distinctions that serve neither creative professionals nor Canada’s broader economic interests. The marketing industry’s exclusion from Creative Canada tax credits isn’t just an oversight—it’s a wrong that needs righting, and soon.
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