Canadian Heritage committee  On our last game we had a team of maybe four full-time writers out of 135. That gives you the percentage of writers on a game. EIghty per cent of the writers were from Canada. You want to put the right people in the right place. In business, you need to deal with two strong things: offer and demand.

Canadian Heritage committee  I will add to Carole's comments. Maybe 10 to 20 years ago there was a brain drain. People from Canada were going south, or in whatever direction out of Canada, sometimes because of the lack of important projects in their fields. What I can say is that I'm really proud that my small company is able to attract these people, who left 10 years ago, back to Canada, because we have the most interesting projects in our domain.

Canadian Heritage committee  If we look at a broader vision, obviously, entertainment and information comes to mind, but there is digital education. My daughter, who is 15, started this year with an iPad as her new support. I get medical broadband. Once you've poked into the digital plan, you'd better strap yourself because you're going to be talking about a lot of things that will impact a lot of people in different ways.

Canadian Heritage committee  I also want to let my colleagues speak. Take our company, for example. We attend graduation ceremonies at colleges and universities at least 15 times a year. We spend approximately $10,000 on scholarships in order to build bridges with the École polytechnique and various colleges and universities.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can answer your question. As you know, for a work permit to be issued, we have to obtain the consent of both orders of government. We have the most difficulty shortening delays at the federal level. Do the large companies necessarily recruit more outside Canada? I believe so.

Canadian Heritage committee  The average age of the dev staff is about 34 years. That's the average of about 400 people who are working specifically on development.

Canadian Heritage committee  I need to add that we have a quality assurance department—testers, if you want to put it in different terms. We have 100 testers, and these guys and girls are much younger, because that's an entry-level position. The average age of our testers is maybe 26.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Pierre. Good afternoon, everyone. As a good Montrealer, I'll be speaking some franglais, so I'll be giving the translator some difficulty. Thank you for giving us some time to provide our testimony and express our thoughts about our great industry. It's a great success story.