Camara said his company, which used the investor tax credit to attract early-stage funding, has grown in just 3½ years to employ 20 full-time staff and now has customers around the globe. But he said he is fearful of what could happen to other startup companies if they no longer have access to the program.

“It’s going to be impossible to raise a seed round into a technology company in Calgary,” Camara said. “I’m very concerned for companies that are coming up behind us, the next stage of companies. I think there is a risk that they (the government) are going to totally deflate momentum in the technology community here.”

Art Smith, vice-president of corporate strategy and business development for Calgary-based startup Virtual Gurus, said the program was an innovative way to “de-risk” investing in Alberta’s tech sector. He said his company is currently in the middle of a funding round and reaching its goal will be more difficult without the tax credit.

“It just makes it more difficult to get investors to write cheques,” Smith said. “If you’re looking at driving investment into private industry here, the AITC was a great way to do it.”

While the government may think its corporate tax cut is an appropriate replacement for the tax credit programs, Sandi Gilbert, CEO of Calgary-based InterGen and chair of the National Angel Capital Organization, said the reality is that seed-stage tech companies don’t need tax breaks.

“They’re not making any money, so they don’t pay taxes. It’s of no benefit to them,” Gilbert said. “This government campaigned on the fact that they wanted to increase investor confidence, and with this uncertainty (around the tax credit) they are doing the exact opposite.”

In addition to the tax credits, Brattinga said the UCP government has also placed a number of entrepreneur grant programs offered through Alberta Innovates under review.

Terry Rock, CEO of Platform Calgary — which is owned by the City of Calgary, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and the University of Calgary and aims to help the technology community by providing space, programming and advocacy — said he is confident the government will recognize the value of supporting the tech sector through the tax credits and other programs.

“We’re in a position in our province where we have to take some risk and get capital flowing to new areas,” Rock said. “Those programs are highly valued, and I think there is a belief that they’ll go through a review and come out and continue, because they just make so much sense.”