View From the Legislature

Manitoba and Canada are still very much economies that are reliant upon traditional economic drivers. Natural resources, agriculture and manufacturing continue to be the backbone of much of the large economic production in our country and many parts of the world.

But the past two decades has also seen a significant shift towards the growth of other innovative and technological companies. In particular, the digital economy has flourished as online communications technology has dramatically grown. The jobs that come with this industry are very different than traditional economy jobs. They are naturally high-skilled, creative and very mobile. These are jobs that are attracted to cities and markets that are vibrant and creative.

This past week, Manitoba was able to officially welcome one of the leading digital media companies in the world to our province. Ubisoft Entertainment is one of the world’s largest developers of interactive entertainment products such as video games. If you have a child who is playing video games, they may not be familiar with the name Ubisoft, but chances are they have played or at least heard of one of the games they have produced.

Ubisoft is a company founded in France that employs more than 15,000 people, including 5,000 right here in Canada. Their annual sales for their products exceeds $1.5 euros every year.

Last week Ubisoft announced that they are investing $35 million in Manitoba and creating approximately 100 jobs for their new Winnipeg video game development studio. They are assisted by a provincial Digital Media Tax Credit which is designed to attract exactly this kind of business to Manitoba.

As the economy continues to change and become more interactive and technology orientated, ensuring that we are attracting these types of businesses is important. They create the types of employment that attract young people to the province and offer young Manitobans the opportunity to stay in the province if this is a field of occupation that they are interested in. As a government, we will continue to market Manitoba as a place to develop traditional business, but also as being on the leading edge for new sectors of our economy as well.