Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 6th, 2012

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

It's a one-shot deal, unless they make another game and they want to bring you back.

[Simon Peacock]

There's a buy-out period, but at the moment it is somewhat of a moot point with video games because they have such a short shelf life. Usually after six months or so, if you find them anywhere, they're in the bargain bin, and a year later they are consigned to memory.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Is the amount of work for actors in the entertainment and software industry growing?

[Simon Peacock]

Yes, enormously. When I first started working in the industry 15 years ago, when Montreal's Ubisoft first opened up, actors probably had an income of around $2,000 or $3,000 for all of them. In the calendar year we were just talking about, it's just over a million dollars that has been paid to actors.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

You were talking about training programs for actors to do this kind of work. Do you partner with either Humber College or Sheridan College or any of the colleges to put together a program to do that?

[Simon Peacock]

At the moment in Montreal we are trying to partner directly with the industry. We are looking at partnering with Ubisoft and a company called Game On Audio. They both have their own motion-capture studios. We hope we can partner with them so that actors can get experience for the first time without the pressure of its being a paid gig.

As far as the college is concerned, we're starting an outreach program this spring. We will be going to all the theatre schools to see if we can have ourselves worked into their curriculums. We think it is important for young actors coming out, because this is going to be a big part of their income. If people still value things like actors being able to perform in theatre, that has to be subsidized by other income sources and this is a great way of doing that.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Waddell, you talked about a tax credit to help develop Canadian talent. I'm thinking back to the CanCon rules. When I was a teenager, the only FM station that played rock music was CHUM FM 104. But the industry wasn't really blossoming until Q107 came on the market and started to play Canadian artists, not at 2 o'clock in the morning like CKLW, but all the way through the day. Then the number of Canadian musical performing groups expanded incredibly.

The CanCon rules definitely worked. Are you suggesting some variation of CanCon, with the tax credit? Can you describe that?

[Stephen Waddell]

No, Mr. Young, we're not suggesting a Canadian content requirement. We're just suggesting a straightforward refundable tax credit that we see in the film and TV industry extended on a federal level to digital media. That would be very helpful.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Young.

Mr. Nantel.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you all very much. It's a very thrilling study for us.

I want to put a question to Mr. Lucas in Vancouver, but before that I want to finish up with Mr. Waddell.

The question was asked about the tie-in with creation. When the movements are done and the words are spoken, do the actors feel that they are working or creating? The notion of droit de suite comes into play in cases like that. Then again, as Mr. Lucas mentioned, we can be proud of all the products made in Canada, but we might wonder whether, say, a Lexus RX 450h that is made in Brampton, Ontario is actually created as part of our heritage.

[Victor Lucas]

What we are creating is heritage, absolutely. These are stories that resonate, that matter to people. I think what we should be doing is educating the consumer, educating players out there, and the developers too. Canadians are great at sublimating their pride and sort of working in a group, which is a perfect thing for video game development because you have to put a lot of ego aside and work in sometimes really massive collectives to follow a singular vision.

I think there needs to be a very enormous artistic cultural pride. We need to push this further, and I think it's going to engender more and more development, more work, and support for video game entertainment. It isn't just a product.

The thing that engaged me so much about video games and got me on this road—I used to be an actor as well, and I love the movie and television arts and I have a deep respect for all aspects of the artistic community—is exactly what our panellists have all been talking about. It is a moving target. It is constantly changing. It's fantastic for television because everyday it's a new day. We are talking about this medium in a totally different way, and more and more it's becoming closer to its artistic potential.

So, yes, I think this is art. It's part of our heritage and it has limitless potential.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Lucas. I hope we get some more time.

I want to pass the microphone to my colleague, Andrew Cash.

[Andrew Cash, NDP, Davenport, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Nantel.

There have been some amazing comments, and many of them resonate with us. Wow. There's a lot here, and there's just not enough time to get to all of what's going on here in this industry.

Thanks to everyone for being here.

I want to direct a quick question to Mr. Kelso, and forgive me if I cut you off, because we don't have a lot of time. You participated in the government's consultations on digital media strategy, am I right?

[Ian Kelso]

Yes.

[Andrew Cash, NDP, Davenport, ON]

What year was that?

[Ian Kelso]

It was 2009.

[Andrew Cash, NDP, Davenport, ON]

In 2009-10 maybe? We haven't heard the results of that study at all. I'm just wondering about the impacts on a sector that you've described as a $4 billion sector. We need an overarching digital media strategy and we don't have one.

[Ian Kelso]

Certainly, I think it would be advantageous to have one, but at the same time, if we're not ready, we need to get it right. Everything depends on what that strategy is. I guess I would like to see, as a sector, having more of a dialogue about the strategy as it's being developed, a little bit more opportunity to have input. I think it's going to be a living, breathing strategy. I don't think you can walk into a digital media strategy. It would be very advantageous to start to see iterations of that and to have a dialogue before perhaps we embrace it. What was true in 2010 may no longer be as salient now.

[Andrew Cash, NDP, Davenport, ON]

Do we need at least a point of departure or a base to sort of make these discussions happen?

[Ian Kelso]

It would be good. I would like to see an ongoing dialogue, not just a document.

[Andrew Cash, NDP, Davenport, ON]

That's partly why on our side we pushed for this study, because we felt we needed to have this conversation and to bring all these people together. In fact, we have a long list of folks who we haven't seen yet. I'm curious, because you said many in your membership are small, almost micro-entrepreneurs in your business. I think we need to hear from them.

I just want to say, Mr. Chair, that it seems to me like we have a lot more people we need to see. It would be great if we could extend the study. I'd like to propose that at the end of this meeting, and in public, we discuss that and make a decision on whether we should extend this study. We have a lot of people to talk to.

I'd just like to close by saying, Mr. Lucas, that your enthusiasm is very infectious. I was in Saskatchewan this week, and they have a bubbling gaming industry, an interactive media industry there, which is super important. It's super important right across the country. It's an exciting place to be and it's an exciting time in this sector.

Thank you all for being here. I hope we can extend this study and really get to the brass tacks. As you say, Mr. Kelso, it is a moving target. That's why we really need these discussions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Cash.

We would have to extend the study because in five minutes you only got one question in.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

At that rate it would take a while.

Next we have Mr. Simms.