Industry committee  Every company would have their own strategy in regard to intellectual property, but of course all of them are very interested in protecting the rights to that property for as long as they can. In fact, we advocated on behalf of an extension of copyright protection like the music

Industry committee  The short answer is no. There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is that we can go all the way back to the supply of talent, going from the school system into the post-secondary education system. I've spent a lot of time meeting with deans of computer science programs i

Industry committee  That's correct.

Industry committee  The temporary foreign worker program should be able to help us bring in those types of people in that we can't find. However, over the last number of years, since the federal IT workers program was shut down around the end of 2010 and in early 2011, we've been having non-stop pro

Industry committee  Yes, our members receive money through all sorts of different avenues. His graph is quite interesting. I would say that most of our industry is getting money by starting with the family and friends area.

Industry committee  The BDC is actually quite helpful. I've met with the BDC in the past few months. I've met with the CEO, Michael Denham. The BDC is actually one of the more active institutions for small business loans to the video game industry. They have done some equity financing and some ventu

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the committee for the opportunity to participate in this study. The Entertainment Software Association of Canada represents a number of leading video game companies with operations in this country, from multinational publishers and console

Human Resources committee  The way that we have been advocating for our employment issues is both on a short-term and a long-term objective. The short-term objective for us is to succeed in convincing you all that we need a streamlined process for bringing high-skilled foreign workers into this country, s

Human Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. The problem is that we have no choice. If we can't find a Canadian and we need to fill a job, we have to go and put ourselves at the hands of the TFW program. I wouldn't say that people are not using it, but their association has simply been more active on advoc

Human Resources committee  It can be up to four or five months to get a labour market impact assessment. Oftentimes the Service Canada officers will decline the application based on a misunderstanding of what the job actually is, because the occupation code that they're applying to the job is not actually

Human Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. That is one of the reasons why it's so imperative for our industry to be able to bring in foreign workers. Whether they're called TFWs or whatever they'll be called in the future, it is very important for us to be able to access that knowledge. In some cases, t

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. The obstacle that exists is the labour market impact assessment, which is the major problem for us. If we didn't have to be subject to that, we would be able to make job offers almost immediately to prospective employees who want to come to Canada to work, to transfer

Human Resources committee  The express entry system is for permanent residency, not temporary work. While our industry does use it, it is not the mechanism we use to bring people in quickly and efficiently. But then again, I guess the temporary foreign worker program isn't that either. The express entry s

Human Resources committee  The work permit that is issued under the temporary foreign worker program is good, I believe, for four years. It isn't specifically related to the project. If one of the employees comes in and works on Assassin's Creed in Montreal, when Assassin's Creed is over, they have the opt

Human Resources committee  Thank you for your question. I will answer in English. When our industry really began to grow in 1997 after the investments of Ubisoft in Montreal, and the further investments of the other video game studios that subsequently invested, there was a lot of talent available, both c