Sandra Pupatello Ontario's Minister for Economic Development and Trade speaks to NowGamer

Sandra Pupatello, Minister for Economic Development and Trade for the Ontario Government has spoken exclusively to NowGamer about the recently announced deal that will the see the Canadian province invest $263 million CAD in Ubisoft’s new Toronto-based studio.

What’s the background to the deal?
We’ve had a digital media tax credit for some time. Recently we’ve continued to ramp it up, and we’ve watched what our competitors are doing – we know we’ve got to at least match what other competitive jurisdictions are doing in terms of incentives. If we can at least match it, we hope we have an edge when it comes to the talent pool that these companies are looking for.

We’ve been told that they’d like to see us matching because they believe that Ontario has the kind of talent they would look for across the digital gaming market. We’ve heard that from a number of companies that are already here and are expanding. They’re telling us they’re thrilled because people are walking out of the school system with a very varied background that makes them ideal for the digital gaming industry - art, music, and the maths sciences required for computer skills development. They’re finding that in the same person, which is ideal for the business.

Ubisoft has other studios in Canada, but how did the dialogue start between yourselves and the publisher?
It was what you’d call a long courtship. It started about two years ago. We launched our strategy to chase significant players in this field. We were fairly competitive even then in terms of the digital tax credit, where we could make offerings that should be of interest to these companies. We’ve got a growing cluster in Ontario, and we needed a significant publisher. So about two years ago we started our discussions with them and we travelled to see them, here in Toronto, over in Montreal, we met them in Paris, back in Montreal, back in Toronto… this went on for some time.

It’s fair - we need to know that we’re talking to a company that’s ready to invest – people aren’t just going to invest because we come to visit, it needs to line up with their business plan, and it finally did. We could be competitive on the incentives, so where we had the edge was in fact the kind of talent that’s accessible to Ubisoft being placed here in Toronto.

It has an additional benefit for us; we’re aware that a number of graduates from our Ontario education system have travelled all over to find jobs like this, with companies like Ubisoft. We’ve heard from them, received emails from them for some time saying ‘I want to come home, and here’s what I do for as living.’ We think this is really an opportunity to repatriate some of our talent.

So you actively pursued the partnership?
Definitely. It stands to reason that when we’re graduating hundreds and hundreds every year to a number of college and university programs, it’s in our best interests as a government - we make the investment in education only to have them leaving our jurisdiction to go elsewhere because they’re in that type of work. It was really necessary to align our strategy on what industry we chase based on what we also fund in education to get these people to be really top notch.

… continued

Ontario factoids:

- 75 per cent of Ontario residents play video games

- The new studio will lead to the creation of 800 new jobs over 10 years

- The Government has pledged $260 million CAD (£146 million) to the venture

- Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat will head the Toronto studio

- Suitable sites for the studio are currently being considered