Evidence of meeting #14 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
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Conservative
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President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
I don't know if I'd use that term, but our goal is obviously to be the credible representative—
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Conservative
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Voices
Oh, oh!
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President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
Yes. I think our goal is to be the best credible representative of the industry that we can be.
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Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
I ask this question because, Chair, I'm trying to understand a little bit.
Are there other...? We've heard from the Canadian Interactive Alliance and some other firms that are either gaming companies or.... We've heard from Electronic Arts and Execution Labs, some that seem to act as either.... Aside from the gaming industry direct programming, they do some kind of consulting or they do some.... Who would your competition be in terms of trying to lay claim to being the spokesperson for the industry?
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
I don't look at it as competition. Electronic Arts, for example, is our member, so we represent them in Canada in government affairs issues like this. Execution Labs is an accelerator incubator program for start-up companies.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
Forgive me, because maybe we didn't get all the....
I'm trying to understand. I'm sure no one is comparable to you in what you do, but if somebody was close, who represented other industries you don't represent, could you name a name? I hate naming the competition, but I call it that in a sense because you talk about how competitive the industry is.
Who else would be there that represents gamers in the Canadian industry?
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
As you mentioned the closest thing would be your guest on Monday, the Canadian Interactive Alliance that represents interactive digital media, which is a broad overview of a number of different subsectors. Video games would be one of them.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
I'm not trying to make any kind of negative connotation that you don't represent all 329 of them, but I wanted to get the focus of it.
It's rather interesting because when I look at it, you have some pretty serious players here. Warner Brothers games are in here and Nintendo and Microsoft and Sony and Disney, not small players in the industry, so you act for these folks.
What's your smallest client?
4:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
We have a member in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that has 12 employees.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
Is that so? How do they feel when they hang out with the folks from Microsoft and Nintendo?
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President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
I would imagine they—
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President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
They are paying members of our association so they obviously value that.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
I'm still struggling. I'm just learning how to do the solitaire thing on the computer so I'm not the best to get into how it all works, but it strikes me you mentioned there are 65 educational institutions. You're the first that has articulated a number. We heard about Sheridan College, and we had a great representation from there.
How many grads would the 65 institutions spew out in a year?
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President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
We're the first to articulate a number because we did a—
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President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
That's okay. We did a study where we consulted across the country. We researched internally, and then we consulted with our member companies as to the schools they used.
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Conservative
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President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
The scope of our research was to get the number of programs they offer, not the number of graduates.
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President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
It would be useful.