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A local tech CEO says a provincial payroll tax credit — intended to help create jobs — is making it more difficult for companies like his to hire and is giving video-game makers an unfair advantage.

“Every CEO I speak to in Montreal and in Quebec, their No. 1 challenge is attracting young employees and technology employees,” says Eric Boyko, the CEO of Stingray Digital Group, which sells music services to other businesses.

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He says that Quebec’s multimedia tax credit, which subsidizes salaries at video-game companies, is allowing them to offer workers more money and lure workers away from other tech companies.

The result, he says, is that it encourages the growth of branch offices in Montreal, rather than head offices.

With Quebec’s unemployment rate sitting at an all-time low of six per cent and high demand for engineers, he says the provincial government doesn’t need to be giving money to foreign companies.