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EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

693 points · 905 comments · hackernj

  1. harhargange · · focus · HN ↗
    From Blackberry to a budding VFX industry and many other sustainable businesses to come out of Canada has always made it seem like a very EU-like philosophy. This will be great for fair trade.
    1. NuclearPM · · focus · HN ↗
      Blackberry is a sustainable business?
      1. bpye · · focus · HN ↗
        Blackberry might not be, but RIM are still around, QNX is still in use.
    2. musha68k · · focus · HN ↗
      From Glenn Gould to Wayne Gretzky, from ATI to AdLib and Matrox we've always loved Canadian "exports" here in the EU. Let's work together!
      1. PyWoody · · focus · HN ↗
        You might want to look into Gretzky's political beliefs before "importing" him.
        1. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

          [deleted]

    3. alibarber · · focus · HN ↗
      From having worked extensively in it, the VFX industry, apart from being near to Hollywood in terms of time zone, is surely just a tax rebate competition. Which is actually very non-EU philosophy; member states cannot simply subsidise local industries from tax revenue - it is a single market, other members have to have equal access to your market as your local companies.

      Of course there's plenty of ways around it. In the case of film production, if the script calls for the characters to be in a specific location - then it's now a cultural asset that the government can fund with rebates. The person writing the script is of course aware of this and the incentives available.

    4. whywhywhywhy · · focus · HN ↗
      I mean Blackberry is long gone and missed its full potential, VFX industry only exists there temporarily because of tax credits, once a better deal is offered elsewhere all that will up and leave that’s how that industry works. Not to mention AI is going to obliterate large VFX teams for a lot of productions.

      So neither of these are good sustainable examples.

      1. morkalork · · focus · HN ↗
        The VFX industry is in dire straits here
    5. raydev · · focus · HN ↗
      From a shadow-of-its-former-glory-20-years-ago company to a budding industry reliant on dollars from outside Canada?
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