The following is my submission to the Nova Scotia Finance Minister on the province's tax review, which I sent yesterday:

Dear Ms. Whalen,

I’m writing you during your budget consultation process to encourage you to liberalize the Equity Tax Credits, which is essential for sustaining the fastest growing segment of the Nova Scotia economy.

I join Jevon MacDonald in his call for a minimum investment ceiling of $250,000 and that the credits be extended to trusts and businesses as well as individuals. I’d like to go beyond his call for a pan-Atlantic ETC by saying the credit should be

A campaign is afoot to persuade the Nova Scotia government to increase its incentives for private investment in the fastest-growing segment of the economy.

The digital and startup communities in Nova Scotia want the Finance Department to liberalize Equity Tax Credits for high-growth companies, including startups.

Any column discussing both taxation and technology is bound to lose readers pronto, but this is why you should read on.

The biggest single problem facing the Nova Scotia economy is slow growth — our gross domestic product rarely grows by more than one per cent, which limits

East Coast Startup Week will be held once again this year in Fredericton spanning the week of the Breakthru Dinner.

Breakthru, the biennial competition organized by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, will hold its awards dinner March 19 at Fredericton Convention Centre. The highlight of the dinner – of the week, in fact –  will be the announcement of the three Breakthru winners, who will share $750,000 in development capital and in-kind services.

But the dinner is only one of eight major events, featuring more than 25 speakers, taking place in Fredericton between March 16 and 21.

Dalhousie University’s Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship has issued the following press release:

AGRIFOOD STARTUP WEEKEND IN TRURO A BIG SUCCESS

January 21, 2015 (Truro) - Last weekend, students and professionals from across Nova Scotia came together on Dalhousie University’s Agricultural Campus for Startup Weekend Truro. The event was co-hosted by Dalhousie University’s Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship (NNCE) and the agricultural campus’ new sandbox, Cultiv8.

Startup Weekend has been hosted in 300+ cities in 100 countries. Colin Conrad, a student entrepreneur and a

Nova Scotia’s digital technologies industry is booming, but the workforce lacks diversity.

That’s something Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia, president and CEO of Digital Nova Scotia, is working to change.

Incorporated in 1989, it is a non-profit that strives to promote Nova Scotia’s $2.5-billion digital industry; this figure includes the $1.5-billion industry itself and $1 billion in spinoff benefits.

EOLIO, a Halifax company that helps people with their personal online branding, has issued the following press release:

Halifax Partnership and Local Start-up eOLIO Announce Partnership

HALIFAX, NS – January 22, 2015: The Halifax Partnership announced today a partnership with local start-up eOLIO, its first start-up partner and newest investor.

The Halifax Partnership works with more than 120 private and public sector leaders who are shaping the future of the economy through collaborations and connections that fuel business and economic growth. The Partnership’s Connector Program - a

The greatest thing about Matt’s Got Balls is obviously the company’s name, but a close second may be its margins.

The Fredericton startupis the brainchild of Matt Vance, a University of New Brunswick engineering student with a blazing passion for golf. He has teamed up with his father, Kevin, and fellow student Josh Ogden to produce a business that retrieves golf balls from golf course water

Accreon, one of the largest tech consultancies in Atlantic Canada, is restructuring its ownership and leadership through a leveraged management buyout involving the Boston-based private equity firm, Mansa Capital.

Fredericton-based Accreon, which specializes in information technology for the healthcare industry, issued a statement on Tuesday saying it is in the final stages of the buyout. It did not reveal the financial terms, nor say when the buyout will close.

The upshot of the restructuring is the company will now be led by a three-member management team, a smaller group than the

To reflect the evolution of its business model, Swapskis is changing its name to Vendeve.

The Halifax startup began last year with the mission of helping women barter their skills with one another, so they could build up resumés and networks and eventually charge real cash for their services. Last summer, Founder and CEO Katelyn Bourgoin realized a better way to generate revenue for the business would be to be a cash-based market place for women’s services.

So she and her four colleagues changed the business model to allow more cash-based transactions. But the fact that the word “swap”

SageCrowd, a Halifax startup that develops online networks for personal improvement authors, has issued the following press release:

SAGECROWD BRINGS ITS LEARNING SCIENCES TO BOSTON’S LEARNLAUNCH EDTECH ENTREPRENEURSHIP CAMPUS

Halifax, January 21, 2015 – Today sageCrowd announced it has agreed to join Boston’s influential edtech incubator LearnLaunch. In the agreement sageCrowd will become an advisor to companies incubated through LearnLaunch and locate its US operations within the LearnLaunch Campus.

The agreement brings sageCrowd’s learning science and its focus on competency based