Good afternoon. I would first like to thank the committee for allowing me to be part of this study on the entertainment software industry in Canada. I believe that the study is necessary for the long-term viability of our industry.
I have been a professor in the École des arts numériques, de l'animation et du design at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi for three years. I teach game engines and video game design methods.
Our training institute, formerly called the Centre NAD and based in Montreal, has been working in the area of 3D animation for more than 20 years, in visual effects, in cinema or in video games.
I would like to start by giving you my view of the reasons for the success of the industry in Canada. Then I will talk about future challenges and I will provide the committee with some recommendations.
First, in my view, the success of the entertainment software industry in Canada can be explained by a number of factors. As the previous speakers have indicated, the entertainment software industry is multidisciplinary. A number of different people have to be involved in bringing a product to fruition. One of the aspects of our success is the quality and diversity of the workforce. It is highly skilled, and that has certainly contributed to the success of our projects.
Take Montreal as an example. The city has both talented artists with a lot of creativity and imagination and highly skilled programmers and technical people. Additionally, the fact that companies have been able to take advantage of a favourable tax system has encouraged them to settle in Montreal and in other places in Canada. The number of jobs associated with the sector has grown dramatically since the beginning of the century. We are now talking about approximately 10,000 jobs in Montreal alone.
In the coming years, the industry will have to face a number of challenges. One of them is access to labour, from less experienced employees to experts. Demand will be strong in the coming years. To allow for the hiring of highly qualified people, it would be desirable to encourage companies to free up employees so that they can teach in a university setting. It can often be difficult for companies that focus on profits and income in the short term to free up their best employees so that they can teach. But we have to think in the long term.
Second, we have to come up with training programs that will allow the transfer of highly qualified staff from other areas to the entertainment software industry. Many developers and programmers in other areas have very specific skills, in fact. That said, the video game industry is unique. If there were training programs that allowed those skills to be transferred to the video game industry, it would allow experts to be hired in greater numbers.
Third, the development of employees' skills must be supported as an ongoing process. As well as its programs at bachelor’s and master’s levels, the Centre NAD also offers private programs intended for a range of companies.
Finally, there must also be support for internships in the industry. Currently, and for various reasons, it remains difficult for lower-level students to find an intern position in a company.
Another major challenge will be to establish Canadian intellectual property. Until now, most of the companies that have set up in Quebec or in Canada have been foreign. Certainly, we are seeing more and more local companies, but few Canadian intellectual properties have been created. Research and development partnerships between the industry and the Canadian university system must be developed, both technologically and artistically.
A lot of funding is available for so-called applied research in engineering and programming, but there is little funding in the artistic areas, in video game design and in level design. Research funding in the visual and narrative aspects of video game production must be made more accessible.
Thank you.