Canadian Heritage committee  Good afternoon. My name is Jayson Hilchie and I'm the president of the Entertainment Software Association of Canada. I'm joined today by Mr. Jason Kee, ESAC's director of policy and legal affairs. ESAC is a national association representing companies in Canada that make, market,

Canadian Heritage committee  In our survey in 2011, 50% of the companies said that 90% to 100% of their revenue was all export. A good percentage of it, almost half, would be a good estimate.

Canadian Heritage committee  This is a global industry, absolutely.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's what we're working toward. We're working to grow the industry here in Canada and to ensure that the labour is available and that the support from the governments is available to ensure that companies start here, companies invest here, and the industry continues to grow.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm not sure, when comparing it with other industries in the country. The industry definitely employs new graduates, and the new graduates who come out of schools are options for our employers, and the companies that are in the industry are definitely out looking for those people

Canadian Heritage committee  Definitely the challenge in the industry right now is the change in the industry from distribution of physical product to distribution through digital downloads. The industry definitely is shifting in that respect. It is a challenge, but it also opens up opportunities, opens up

Canadian Heritage committee  What it has done is create a renaissance—I think my colleague Mr. Kee used that term—in the independent development community in this industry. It has levelled the playing field so that smaller companies are able to make games and distribute them and get those games into the hand

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. May I speak to that?

Canadian Heritage committee  We have spoken a lot about why in the various conversations we've had, but in general, I think the theme is that the talent pool that exists, the skilled labour that's available, along with the government support and the creative nature of the employees and the industry, really w

Industry committee  Thank you. Good afternoon and thank you very much for having me here today. My name is Jayson Hilchie and I am the president of the Entertainment Software Association of Canada or ESAC. ESAC represents a number of leading video game companies in the Canadian industry from multi

Industry committee  We've really narrowed that down to two major points. We've recently quantified this in our research, but we knew it before qualitatively anyway. Canada has a great talent pool. I know that I talk a lot about access to talent and the senior and intermediate talent that we need.

Industry committee  The United States and Japan are the two biggest. The United Kingdom, in fact, used to be the third largest video game industry in the world and is now fourth, possibly fifth; I don't know. A lot of expats from that industry have helped contribute to the Canadian industry, because

Industry committee  Countries such as Korea and China—those types of emerging economies—certainly are growing at a rate that I believe could in the future threaten us.

Industry committee  The biggest threat to us, and this is one of the reasons for many of the meetings I have here in Ottawa and for many of the comments you hear from our organization, is focused on continued access to the high-quality talent that we need to be able to continue to grow. Look at the

Industry committee  It's 16,500.