Industry committee  Different traits.

Industry committee  Yes. We spoke about the CMF. They funded about 80 projects last year, but there were over 500 projects submitted, so there is a lot of need among the young start-ups that are putting forward innovative and creative content. These start-ups need early stage funding to create these IPs.

Industry committee  By creating wealth in Canadian-owned companies that will stay in Canada because their shareholders feel an attachment to their home and native land, so to speak. By so doing, I feel that it is possible to create a much more solid industry that is capable of producing and marketing a much greater number of products.

Industry committee  As we said about the skills shortage, what we have to understand when we bring in a creative director, a senior creative director, let's say, is that this guy is going to be surrounded by juniors. There is a transfer of knowledge, and the juniors can become seniors themselves, to show to others....

Industry committee  I'd like to cover the last few minutes of our presentation with three other issues that are relevant to our industry. On slide 13, issue number one which I highlighted is access to early funding. The problem right now is there is a new innovation fund that was put together to fund companies through VCs, but this does not respond to the needs of early stage companies that need seed funding from around $100,000 to $2 million in order to reach the next level.

Industry committee  Mr. Chair, I'm thankful to the committee for inviting us to express our opinion on this subject of the entertainment software industry and video games. I'm the chairman and CEO of the Canadian Interactive Alliance, which is a trans-Canada association for all the interactive media associations in nine provinces.