How to take advantage of Canada's buisness environment and Montreal's creative talent pool

foreign [Music] thank you for being here I know it's a last Conference of the the week but thank you very much so my name is Gabriel uh Divya I'm from Montreal Internationals the economic development agency so my job is to help foreign companies establish themselves in the greater Montreal region and I'm with Hendrick and yeah sure hi Hendrix Holland and not with the embassy of Canada and Poland but in Germany however I Do cover the whole of Central and Eastern Europe so basically what Gabriel's doing for Montreal I'm doing for the whole of Canada on a federal level and yeah we want to take the opportunity

in the next uh like 35-40 minutes to talk a bit about Canada and then hopefully there will be a q A's um I guess it's fair to to put the country which is the furthest away at the last part of the conference so we had time to come here and adjust to the jet lag so we're doing good um let's start so I'm not sure whether you know that that Canada's actually uh one of the uh the top 10 games Market worldwide and uh uh with the third largest video game developing nation in the world of the United States and uh Japan and figuring that when we go into National and speak to companies not everybody might have had an exposure to Canada yet so maybe let's set the scene a bit and start with uh um sorry click here um start a bit with Canada's economy because when we talk to people uh what do you know about Canada if you have any business there it's that they say oh isn't there you know a nice landscape yes it is holidays for skiing fishing anything yes that's all true can we play

hockey yes we can however we can also do business so Canada is a G7 country which means it's one of the seven uh leading industrial nations in the world which means core definition we have to have everything in all sectors of the economy so primary think about any Metals minerals commodities oil gas porous uranium cold copper you name it that's all to be found in Canada as much as we do have Manufacturing in a classical sense so one thing I'd always like to tell is that a lot of people don't know there's more cars being produced in that little part of Canada here and on the other side in Detroit where apparently GM Chrysler Ford is sitting why do people know that because we don't have a Canadian brand it's International investors who are coming to Canada Toyota Fort and all the others producing the cars there but apparently we also have the uh the service sector which the ICT and gaming is part of and we come to that in a second it's a bit of a notification perspective

Canada's economy is highly decentralized yes we do have a capital which is not even named here it's called Ottawa it's somewhere here halfway between Toronto and Montreal however the uh let's say the largest industrial and also ICT and gaming centers hubs are somewhere else I just named a few Industries and you already see by the uh distribution of the economic centers that most of the economic power in Canada is actually within 100 miles to the United States border so the rest up there going up to the Arctic sea it says the Americans would say at the great white North so it's not much to be found there except for those mining Commodities which I just named talk a bit more about the the tech sector you will see that I named a few hubs there Vancouver Edmonton Ottawa Toronto Montreal um and actually in those cities I just said Vancouver Edmonton Montreal Ottawa you find about 80 of the Canadian ICT sector

um actually yeah Vancouver Montreal Toronto other major hubs for example take Toronto it's about 65 000 people in those so-called stem subjects and most of the institutions there colleges universities would have programs specifically for computer engineering game designing digital media Etc I'm not going to go to much into Montreal because Gabrielle is going to do that the esteemed colleague from from the region just dropping a few Figures it's close to 19 000 people working and gaming alone in in Montreal with about 220 plus Studios being directive and on the far west coast Vancouver enjoys the vicinity of the United States so think about any Hollywood movie and the probability is very high that this movie has been shot in in western Canada or downtown Montreal or Toronto why because we have very generous tax credits and I guess I named it a beautiful landscape as well to do so um there are on the tax side per general for example um also a few other things Canada was

excellent in for example artificial intelligence this is one of the areas where I would think that Canada really leading is leading the world we have three world-class Institute in Montreal in Toronto and Vancouver that are really driving forward those AI processes so it's fair to say that those cities are just named are among the the top markets for Tech and the whole of North America so also comparing with New York San Francisco Chicago La um it's a sector where we have about 2.8 million people coming in those uh University degrees which are very relevant to the sector however economic growth in Canada always is based on Democratic growth growth right now we have about 38 plus million people living and if you go back only 40 years it used to be 20 90 80. so doubling the population in 40 years which means we have to rely on qualified immigration in order to sustain the Canadian economic

growth that's why we as the federal government thought might be nice to install a few programs one is named there the global skills strategy so if you have a were to found a subsidiary in Canada of your studio and you want to bring in workers and check a few boxes then we can get them into the country in two weeks time only instead of a couple of weeks or months for getting a necessary work permit a bit more focusing on the on the game side so Canada really is placed amongst the world leaders in game development animation visual effects sectors expanding and increasing so we're talking about 3.5 3.6 million US dollars a billion US dollars as the as the revenue of the sector and actually we expect it to grow even further to uh 5.3 5.5 uh this year and basically all the the sub segments of the sector of the industry are to be found in Canada so middleware and services uh virtual reality augmented reality mobile game

social game development Etc so at sector really on the growth side and why are people coming to Canada and companies because others are saying about us it's actually one of the best countries to do business because it's quite easy to found a subsidy in Canada we could all go online right now register pay about um for those two-step process about 300 350 Canadian dollars and then you would have your company maybe buy yeah tomorrow afternoon or on Friday morning we would be registered for the for the company and the minimum Capital requirement is zero slowly or Euro so it doesn't cost a lot of topics in order to found the subsidiary uh in Canada the impact of the industry is actually even a bit further uh so we're talking um you know the spillover effects into other Industries it's close to uh 5.5 billion in total numbers around 33 000 people full-time employees and and at another 25 so 55 60 000 people somewhat related to developing games uh in any

kind in in Canada um it's around by now thousand uh Studios we have Across the Nation and it's a well-paid industry so you see 78 000 is the uh the average full-time salary which is about 240 000 uh polish Swati um it's a good salary and that would qualify to bring in the people within two weeks time into into the country in terms of sub-sectors um you know um I guess it's the same as everywhere so mobile games have been pretty much on the rise on the last year uh Esports as much as AR and VR and also social games were responsible for about 50 of the growth of the of the last years again this decentralized economy which I which I mentioned before uh so main gaming centers being in the province of Quebec Montreal we're going to hear about in a second Toronto and uh and Vancouver um in the wider belt Provence as we call

Quebec it's about 300 plus Studios we're having Vancouver on the west coast it's one of the oldest gaming industry centers of Canada or actually North America since the 1980s it's the only occasion where you find actually a dedicated Esports arena in in Canada of large size because Vancouver is also pretty much tight for example to Microsoft and in the United States Northwest for visual visual reality and augmented reality why do companies come to Canada not the United States um people think that and that's what clients are saying European investors the Canadian mentality it's more European right there's more ties not only in Quebec where there's a strong French element which we're going to hear about but also the rest of Canada as I said a lot of immigrants which automatically brings a lot of European perspective into into the nation and it's maintaining the ties to European Mainland Nations but also can be cheaper so if you compare for example locations such as Montreal and Toronto it's about 25 28 often cost advantage of business

costs across salaries property costs Etc capex in general compared to some of the major hubs in the United States essays such as California we listed a few of the recent polish examples of investments in in Canada so CD project uh recently invested and also people can fly respective in studios in Montreal and Vancouver if you have more question on that I have my colleague from the embassy here in Poland Katarina is here so please reach out to her and those companies as much as the other nations such as from France or Sweden or Japan they're all banking on US Federal provincial Municipal governments supporting them with uh with incentives of various kinds um because this industry is not only driving innovation in the industry per se but also in in adjacent things we think it's very Innovative and that's why we Bank our our buck our Canadian Dollar on that in various aspects either

direct grants and funding on federal or provincial level so for example in Ontario where Toronto is located you would get about 40 percent of applicable salaries or some marketing costs uh in a digital media tax credit um that's the second column uh Quebec has similar programs we're going to hear about but also Foster the immigration of talent within shorter time and less uh red tape to be installed um one precondition really is you have to be a Canadian company so found a subsidiary which doesn't mean you can't do part of the development here in Poland or in your home nation but work with the Canadian subsidiary or Canadian company in order to get access to some of those tax credits or direct grants such as the Canada media fund or we have a very generous on a global level compared to tax credits so any development being done anything Innovative technology processes either done in Canada or in cooperation with a Canadian company you get automatically

15 tax credits federally plus matched with the provincial ones and if you have a good accountant that could save you up to uh yeah 50 Cent on each dollars being spent on Innovative measures in Canada um of course tax credits getting back at the Year's End you plan something larger like 10 million for example investment we have big initiatives on the Strategic Innovation fund which can give you up to 50 of the project costs the capex being cautioned by us the federal government and already mentioned fast immigration tracks such as the global skills strategy however for any business case the incentives the support of government should only be the the icing on the cake so basically the homework the business case has to make sense before that's why because we have a very prudent Approach at the Canadian government level to uh managing our household we always had some money to spend because the net debts of Canada are pretty low compared to European measures which means we can work for example on tax rates

Canada Federal country which means each province has a lot of power when it comes to education or there's a different Energy Mix in each province some provinces are banking on nuclear others like Quebec they have 90 Hydro energy so very cheap as well and the same applies for corporate income taxes so it's always 15 on the federal level being matched by a provincial uh part which on average then equals out to 26 percent of corporate income tax your subsidiary would have to pay taxation in in Canada so if we take this together I think um Canada as for as for many reasons is a springboard for the whole U.S American Market sort of Canadian Market although we just touched briefly and I'd rather want to leave some time for individual questions we touched briefly that there is a significant Mark in Canada uh with thousand students Etc we or european clients always use Canada also supplying to the 250 million people United States and parking Mexico because we have a

free trade agreement between those three countries used to be called NAFTA now with President Trump uh they changed the name a bit but it's pretty much the same so Services can go freely to United States the border is very transparent each minute it's about 2.5 million dollars of goods and services going back and forth between Canada and United States but also Canada is the nation which has the most free trade agreements with any other country in the world in Europe it's a so-called Sita agreement which not only means it's custom free for most of the products but more importantly it provides for the recognition of qualification so if you are an independent consultant tax lawyer or engineer your qualification under this Free Trade Agreement will automatically be recognized in Canada we're still working out the exact procedures but it will be which means you're good to go otherwise you would have to do a recent exam like the United States so that's what Sita is providing for as much certification standards

North America different standards in Europe so if there's anything C double provide for that but also Canada because of the geographic location reaching out to Asian markets via free trade agreements so we have some room to maneuver as I said with favorable taxation rates um it's a very competitive business environment not only in Canada but spanning over to the United States as well we have to work for us because getting Talent you cannot always bring new people from Europe or from from Asia you will find those people in Canada in Ontario in Quebec and British Columbia Etc to work with you Innovation being one of the major focus of the Canadian industry in in many sectors so institutions are working bringing out this Talent you can cooperate with academic institutions and even get government funding for that get the easy access to the market and in the end we all believe that Canada is also a nice place to live in um as I said in the beginning and uh by that I'll conclude my little elevator pitch

and hand over to one of the nicest places of living which is called Montreal so Gabrielle will take it from there and then afterwards we jointly take questions thank you so so thank you Hendrick um so I'm going to start maybe with just a quick video to Showcase a bit what we have in Montreal and give you the opportunity to see what we are proud of so let's start this in Montreal we live and breathe creativity this is where big players in small Studios craft their greatest success stories and come to harness our superpowers our top talent our innovative ideas and our appetite for adventure we're building a multiplayer ecosystem for The Bold and The Brave here to propel projects to new heights and push the entire creative industry forward by Giant Steps we're designing an open and inspiring World known for its diversity

we're behind thousands of celebrated works from all four corners of the Galaxy foreign [Music] Montreal get in the game so you started a Showcase of uh some students are there but you know Montreal is not just about gaming distributes all about the creative industry that we have so we have a bit of showcase now uh but uh yes so we did that um I would like to start maybe with uh maybe the top reason for you to uh consider Canada and Montreal as a way to invest if you're a company uh wanted to go to National so when it comes to Montreal we have really a Leading Edge ecosystem in the gaming industry we have 300 plus Studios now in Montreal it

started really small back then uh but I'm going to get back to that so we have a lot of studios and a lot of workers in the industry so 19 000 plus workers in the industry of the gaming sector so it's really massive and I'm gonna get back later on to the incentives that we have that are really attractive for foreign companies that want to come to Canada and also talk about the quality of life that we have I think it depends of the reason you are but you know yes we have winter but it's still manageable to to deal with that so maybe a bit about the history of the ecosystem so it didn't start from uh it started a bit from scratch almost 25 years ago and now Montreal is really the Hub in Canada in terms of gaming Studios that we have and it's part of the top five in the world so really Montreal is at the Forefront of the industry it started about 25 years ago we used to have pseudos like behavior that you might know but also soft image that was acquired by Autodesk so you know we had that ecosystem of creativity that was

there but no major player was in town so 25 years ago the Quebec government decided to try to attract and seduce big players and that big player was Ubisoft um and there was maybe that connection with the French language yes but the Grayback government decided to to grieve a great incentives to attract them and we're going to get into the details but that was the first step of having a major studio in Montreal and just opened the the the open the opportunities for the rest of the ecosystem so you see some names here uh you have the tax credits but now you know in the early 2000s the industry changed a bit in Montreal so to give more space to ND Studio to make sure that they have the opportunity to collaborate so it's not just about big studios that we want to attract but it's also smaller players to make sure that we can collaborate and that's I think what's really distinctive about Montreal ecosystem is the collaboration that you have between

major Studios and smaller Studios um and you see a bit what you want and to use also opportunity to you know have the power and one voice with the government to make sure that they get here and now the future is all about Hendrick was talking about AI materials at the Forefront of AI we are really pushing it for also ethical AI you have gdpr here but we have also a strict kind of rules uh set in Quebec and in Canada so it's interesting to explore the opportunities also when it comes to gamification and whatnot so so VR AR is getting very stronger and stronger and that's the future now for the gaming that we see in Montreal the change that we have so it's not just about the gaming industry but it's all the sectors are collaborating together uh together and it's easy to get in touch with people so you see here an overview of major games that you maybe know Assassin's Creed you've seen the character and the video you know you it's the famous one

but you have Batman and others so it's a lot of products are made in Montreal or in collaboration with other Studios but that comes for game development but also for VFX and creative industry I was talking about the ecosystem so it's a logical system with different sectors so about the Technologies about services and developers so it's all about you know having a full ecosystem that can sustain uh the evolution of the companies and I was talking about Autodesk but it used to be softimage as I mentioned so they have all the Technologies they brought there and it's really moving forward um so that's how we see uh the uh the ecosystem here the timeline about some studios that came to Montreal in the recent years so there's a lot of players but you see people can fly we mentioned before in 2021 but you have other cereals from the

region you know Amber Studio Rainbow Room 8 so there's a lot of serials coming and considering Montreal as a first destination to open a shop abroad so it's still coming we're going to have new uh a new slide eventually for 2022 but that's uh coming soon talking about the ecosystem we have a big Association it's called like video yes it's in French uh so we speak French in Montreal it's a major Association for smaller and bigger Studios it's one voice I was mentioning and they also have support for smaller studio so if you need to negotiate for your insurances and whatnot or give workshops they have all the power for that so it's really interesting for you if you want to to better understand the ecosystem to be in touch with them they also in charge of one of the major event that we have in Montreal there's also a zellium it's a place for sudos if they want to example

for example collaborate and have one roof and chit chat with others so that's a way to do it um talking about maybe more about the talent now so Montreal is really Canada's University in terms of a number of universities that we have we have 15 so there's a lot some are in French I'm in English some bilingual so you have to the opportunity to see um over the half the population of Quebec is located in Greater Montreal and you know Montreal is really pushing and Quebec is really pushing when it comes to research and development we mentioned it about uh but you can get the 15 from the federal level we can get a 14 refundable tax credit so it's a cash back if you do research a development in Montreal and we also voted best city best student city in the world in 2023 so we get those hours over and over and there's a lot of foreign students coming to Montreal and the great opportunity also if you're still a student or you

want to go back to school it's the possibility to stay in Canada after that so if you go and study a bachelor or master or phe you can stay the same number of years that you've been there studying you can stay and be there with the open work permit so that's pretty a good occasion for you to explore I was talking about also the ecosystem so we built also the ecosystem we have 75 programs related to the video game industry that means we have now yearly fifth 45 000 students enroll in those kind of programs in universities 7 000 and 500 in colleges so it's massive so each year we have new talent that is injected in the ecosystem and that's I think one of the strength of the ecosystem to build that also school system educational system not just for beginners but also if you want to better your your skills with that so we can really explore and be part of the

ecosystem and now we're going to get to the place that maybe some people are really looking for the incentives why Montreal you know and I'm going to talk about it it's the multimedia tax credit so literally it's a 37.5 cashback on the salary of game developers there's some rules around it so if you have a French version you can go to that number if you don't it's 30 but nowadays most game studios they develop the game in different languages to make sure that they are in all the market so that's way really interesting for you um you have different combinations if you're a subtract a subcontractor or not but you know it's really an opportunity for you to have access to it and I'm going to show you the next slide it's a just a incorporation of the salaries so you see the service you know that they have but the cashback goes to the employer so

the rules for that is to make sure that you have fiscal residents in the province of Quebec so if you open the subsidiary there in Montreal you have employees all the employees are game developers or project managers they can get access to that 37.5 cashback example it's kept at 100 000 Canadian dollars so you know if your salary is 100 000 Canadian dollar you're gonna get 37.5 uh yeah 37.5 000 cashback on the salary um but there's an exception for 20 of your staff so if your staff is making more than 100 000 Canadian dollar you can still have that percentage of um of tax credit so it's math you can find a lot of information online I can send you the presentation if you're interested but that's really a way to optimize uh the incentives that we have that's really attractive for companies they're looking for it and for my Year from the industry here you know salaries

wages went up in Poland so if you compare salaries sometimes it can't get to to break even at the same time and it's there's no uh no limit to that tax credit right it's uh for now it's forever and it's good and that's how the quebe government realized that it was good for the economy to bring that um because they get the money back somehow by the job creation so everyone that's working there they're going to pay taxes in Quebec and they're going to get a part of their money back but that's really what is uh impressive and uh attractive in that sense I was talking about uh some events I think the major event that you should attend if you want to explore the Canadian market and you know learn more about Quebec and Montreal is the Mega mix it's in the fall uh the data the dates are not out yet but last year it was end of October it should be there soon so if you come just you know find

me on LinkedIn write to me uh where there we can help you connect Network that's our mandate but it's really the occasion for you to go and it's really more a humid scale event maybe you've been to other events in Germany or GDC you know it's sometimes hard to connect that's why I like here for example a digital Dragon to be able to connect with people and it's easy it's the same in Montreal so it's a great occasion for you uh to attend and maybe uh just uh some quotes of some Studios that we have in Manchester but I would maybe take some time to talk about the quality of life that we have in Montreal um Andrew mentioned it you know it's a mixed culture between Europe and America the way of doing business is really American you know you have two weeks if you want to fire someone it's two weeks but you can also get a job pretty easily and it's all about experiences so it's not about your diplomas it's all about the experience that you have that you

can have to come cost of living in Montreal is really low compared to other major North American city um it's half the price most of the time from Toronto Vancouver you know the rent are really cheap it's getting more expensive nowadays but still it's still possible to afford housing to buy a prepared a house to send your public health is there there's a public health system to make sure that you know it's for it's free you can have the send your children for seven dollars per day at the kitten Garden so it's all you know an impact that we have that if you want to move you consider that maybe for your family it's a way to uh to expand it's really a safe City I think you just have to adapt we have four seasons in Poland I think you used to have before season but uh other than the snow uh it's pretty easy and same for companies so for office spaces it's pretty affordable it's um it's a great opportunity so for me really it's um you know there's four

aspects for that is the collaborative ecosystem that we have in Montreal it's really strong the different incentives are available for companies but also the talent build that we have that's really they have a lot of know-how but we need more we need more ideas we need more collaboration and that's why I'm here also to open that discussion with companies from Poland from other regions in Central Europe or Eastern Europe to have that discussion to make sure that we can build those bridges and collaborate so I'm open we're open for questions now if you have some and thank you for being here I know it's late in the event I'm sure the beer is going to be good after so yeah thank you yes please hi I'm Mike I'm working with a Japanese gaming industry and I'm actually also lobbying to Japanese governments to create more Public Funding since there's currently none and that leads me to to one of the questions

uh what why what what happened 25 years ago that the government decided to to create all those incentives and you know build up the industry yeah uh I think Quebec had to renew itself back then uh there was a time that uh Quebec uh I don't know maybe you've heard about it but there were two referendum in Quebec to try to be uh independent from the rest of the country you know it was a big decision and a lot of companies went to other provinces because they got a bit scared of this situation it didn't happen and I think Quebec government say okay we need to be more proactive we need to reinvent ourselves and that was one part of the plant but also to make sure that we attract major studio so Montreal always been really creative you know when you look at movies that we show around there's a lot of Quebec movies that make it to Europe um the the creativity is there when it

comes to dance circus you have Circus Soleil so you have the ecosystem but it was missing a bit big players and uh foreign players so that's why they say okay we want to get Ubisoft to come to Montreal so they were looking for spaces they found a great space in a neighborhood that was still a bit more uh um developing but the deal was we're going to offer you that incentive but you need to give back to the society to the community so you know Ubisoft it's all there but they have to give back they do workshops they give to uh different charities in the neighborhood so it's part of the deal also it's not just giving money for free it's all about the commitment of companies that they're coming to the region so I think that's a deal that they have to do but yeah that was the Quebec answer so the whole Canadian answer is um it's similar because um I guess I mentioned it briefly uh I mean Canada is a G7 country which means Commodities manufacturing and also Services however the the blessing but

also a bit of the curse is since we have so much of any Commodities in the world initial it means also our currency the Canadian dollar will always be somewhat dependent on what's happening on the world market prices so if the oil prices are high Canadian dollars high if it's low then it's low right so Canada really needs to do some structural change and at 25 years ago 30 years ago for example there was also when the NAFTA agreement was concluded between Canada and the United States until then um Canada was a bit in many manufacturing Industries like an Outsourcing Nation also for the United States and uh as a potential sales Market but then we realized in Canada that the volatility of the international commodity markets is not enough for us so we needed to do a a change for example if you look at classical manufacturing where the industry chains in Germany in Japan in Sweden took place in 1980s that only happened Canada from the 90s onwards so really need to refocus a way a bit from the dependency of World Market prices for Commodities to manufacturing Innovative

manufacturing and out of that like everywhere in the world the ICT industry emerged and with the sub sector of the gaming industry in order to attract it and I mentioned it also briefly to sustain the economic growth by Democratic growth we needed to invent something how to attract people and slash companies to the market so really a structural change happening a bit later than in some other nations globally so so trying to understand a bit the the kitchen behind the policy makers like was there a common let's say understanding and shared goals from from the beginning like that yes the digital economy is the way to go like how how does it look like you know um from the back end so to speak uh we mentioned it since Canada being a federal country there's one more thing because what you said like there's been a lot of like external factors that led to this big strategic decision no I was wondering if there was also some

internal uh activities or like lobbying or activists that were pushing for hey guys the government needs to do something about the creative economy in that sense like I was wondering like what was the gravity and dynamics of the situation back then both uh the external one so seeing Canada's position on the World Market and remaining a G7 Nation but also internal one and uh what I was just going to say is that being a federal nation of course there's big disputes between East and West so similar to other nations uh for example Great Britain Scotland versus England Germany Bavaria against the rest in Canada I wouldn't say only point out Quebec but Eastern Canada it's western Canada uh and again it depended a bit on the commodity prices if they AI western Canada is rowing so for example when the oil Sandstone Alberta were high in the 2000s every citizen of Alberta got for Christmas a 400 check just for nothing the next day you could go to a travel agencies and there were all these offers for 399 dollars could do a shopping trip

to United States in order to reimburse the economy and that's when western Canada is kind of uh you know might be getting money to Eastern Canada and then when your prices are down for Commodities and more the classical manufacturing industries were up then Eastern Canada was cushioning out and helping western Canada so we decided okay we cannot outscore the United States I mean yes we can in some Pockets but we need to really focus on the tertiary sector the service sector that's why a focus coming from the insights and after all the premiums of the 10 Canadian provinces and three territories sit down and said okay we need to find a way and that was one of the directions going into the service sector and creating industry which is global with some local hubs like Montreal like Vancouver like Edmonton but really this is where we can outscore also the world for example in the AI or also in the gaming sector so both external factors which you cannot change because it's a curse and it's also a blessing if a lot of Commodities you are dependent but also internal factors to remain a highly industrialized and

leading economic nation in the world so you did have actually like activists or lobbying from the creative industry to to do more yes and you know I think it's also a difference in Canada and Quebec I think the governments are really Keen to support uh Industries uh and it's non-stop I said the the tax credit is forever and it's going to stay there everyone tries to approach it and maybe change it they back off so even though there is a change of power and changing the power or Direction they keep those incentives because they know it's paying off because for us at least when I track a foreign company when they create one job in the kinesian economy it's going to create 600 jobs in the ecosystem so we see the value of foreign direct investment we keep them so it was a bit to attract the big players from abroad but then it's paying off also for the local industry same in the AI Canada always supported the aiing industry never stopped to fund it in the 80s and 90s and that's why maybe we're now at the Forefront a lot of people

stop because it's just a funny thing to explore AI in the 80s but now we see where it goes thank you hi I'm darker from the union world food program um my question is um more in the direction of social stuff um I experienced Canada as you know a very nice place from the media who wouldn't right um and so my question is about well maybe more specific about the industry of social gaming or games for change serious games given Canada's reputation and involvement in humanitarian issues and humanitarian grounds and all that stuff is this something that is also um a meaningful sector or sub-sector within the gaming industry in in Canada is this something that reflects also Canadian policies this in development as well

I I guess I mentioned it briefly that if you look at the industry in general over the last five years 50 of the industry growth came from social games actually so you're absolutely right that it's kind of the reflecting a bit uh Canada's values which we're trying to convey into into the world how we behave in international conflicts uh how we try to foster a Greener economy Etc so diversity it's a big issue um I mean it's it's a very much difference like in my former life I used to work in Bulgarian Hungary and it's now working for with Canada it's totally different these kind of things and you see it depicted by pure numbers also in Social gaming but maybe you have some more insights on the ground I wouldn't be able to answer your question properly but you know so I don't want to give you a wrong answer but I think there's the awareness I was talking maybe more about the AI the ethical AI you know everything that we want to build is has to be sustainable it's a buzzword but you know it's still

in the mind of the people that are creating games that are creating that ecosystem to make sure that we respect rules and yeah sustainability okay so thank you very much guys it was uh very nice to get drink for you