Prince Edward IslandSustainable. Scalable. Beautiful.

Prince Edward Island … Where rush hour doesn’t exist... and the beaches are everywhere

Where almost 1 million tourists come every year to get away

... a place voted Canada’s #1 golf destination

A place that Royal LePage calls Canada’s most affordable housing location...

Location

Within a 3-hour drive of Prince Edward Island:

•2 Million People•18 Cities•19 Universities•27 Community Colleges

Access

Destination Carrier Flight/Week

Seats/Week

Halifax Air Canada 27 850Montreal Air Canada 16 773Ottawa Air Canada 5 236Toronto Air Canada 10 483

Westjet 7 919New York Delta 1 38TOTAL 66 3,463

Vibrant Sector

• There are more than 2200 ICT professionals in the province

• More than 100 companies in a diverse sector ranging from multinationals to start-ups, in all stages from emerging to established.

• Growing verticals include ehealth, gaming, IT consultancy and shared services

A Diversified Sector

Game Development

Yodoki games

Made in PEI

Why Prince Edward Island?

1. Low operating costs 2. Skilled and available workforce3. World-class infrastructure4. Government support

The KPMG 2010 Competitive Index compared business costs in more then 100 cities:

Prince Edward Island ranked as one of the most cost effective locations in North America for Advanced Software and Shared Services.

1. Cost Competitiveness

KPMG Competitiveness Index

Advanced Softwarewww.competitivealternatives.comStudy completed with Can-US dollars at par

1. Cost Competitiveness

• Favourable commercial real estate prices and new construction offer grade “A” office facilities and amenities at lower costs.

• $14-$25/ sq ft

• Dramatically lower residential real estate prices (1/3 of major U.S. metropolitan areas), translate directly to lower costs to hire and retain more highly skilled employees.

• $200,000 = 2,000 sq ft

1. Cost Competitiveness

Average ICT salary in PEI is $52,000

Junior coders =$40K

Intermediate = $50K

Senior = $75K

- Average job tenure in Prince Edward Island is 8.5 years

- 43% of workers have been with the same employer for more than 6 years

- Days lost per worker in Prince Edward Island is the lowest in Canada

2. Workforce

-Many of the companies in PEI have been able to attract staff to PEI from the US, the UK, India , Brazil , etc

-Great place to raise a family

-The Province has a program to allow for permanent residency by-passing some of the Federal limitations

- 200+ resumes on hand for game development

2. Workforce

2. Workforce

-UPEI offers specialization in Video Game Programming

-Holland College offers a 2 yr program in Video Game Art & Design

-GameForce: Government offers introductory sessions to teach Jr. high school students how to make their own game

- CGI located in PEI in 2006 and ramped up to 50 people within 6 months. They surpassed 100 within a year.

- Invesco (Trimark) located in PEI in 2007 and ramped up to more than 100 people within a year and now have more than 200 people in their Charlottetown location.

- Other Ocean Interactive (game developer) started with 9 people and now have more than 70 in development and testing.

2. Scalable Workforce

3. World-Class Infrastructure

Bell Aliant is investing $20 million to roll out Fibre Optic network to 30,000 homes and businesses in Charlottetown and Summerside by end of 2011.

Basic services such as Telephony, Internet and Entertainment Television, but also has the potential to support advanced applications such as Tele-medicine, Tele-working, Security, Power Monitoring, Remote Home Control, Network Storage, Video on Demand, Video Gaming, Video Conferencing and e-Learning

3. World-Class Infrastructure

The University of Prince Edward Island features a Usability Lab for video games, networking and ehealth technologies.

Software & Game testing is available in PEI through Sculpin QA, who specializes in iPhone, Android, PC and Dsi testing

Data Center services are available through the Atlantic Technology Centre, a 136,000 sq ft smart building

Audio support is available through Taris Studios and others

- 30% Video Game Labour Rebate Program , rebated quarterly. This is not tied to taxes, and therefore ideal to help cash flow projects. It is also available to middleware companies in the game space.

- Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency ‐ ACOABusiness Development Program provides interest‐free unsecured loans

- Access to Federal Programs ; IRAP, NRC, SRED

- Levels of government work together seamlessly - an agile business environment without red tape

4. Government Partner

The Government of Prince Edward Island initiated an Innovation and Prosperity Strategy in late 2008 for specific sectors including ICT. Part of the Strategy included grants to company’s who presented innovative, next generation projects to assist with the development of proof of concepts, development and commercialization.

-23 projects have been funded to date in the ICT Sector to 18 different companies with a total contribution of $929,342

-The projects include: data security, smartphone embedded technology toolkits, medical technologies, new improved means of data management, cognitive assessments of video games, remote education tools, and others

-Pilot Fund provides up to $25,000 to explore a concept

-Development Fund provides up to $100,000 for Development and Commercialization

-Research Chair provides up to $1M for high level leadership and guidance

Why Prince Edward Island?

Companies that have located in PEI have done so for various reasons but most have found it to be one of their lowest cost locations in their organization.

• We are a near shore solution for back end support• Like many parts of Canada is an ideal location for R and D work. • Project Management. Other companies who have clients in the Pacific Time Zone

and Europe have used PEI as their mid point to locate their project management. • Game teams have come together and stayed together. Reducing ongoing

retraining costs and creating team concept. • Most West Coast Game Studios – have to be twice as productive to

match location costs in PEI

Support, R & D, PM, Game Dev

Some of the strengths in doing business in PEI (as referenced by companies that have

relocated or expanded to PEI):

• Responsive Prospecting Group• Ability to access high ranking decision makers• Ease of doing business in PEI when it comes to processing claims and other

paper work• Employee loyalty which reduces ongoing training costs• Generally lower employee costs

Easy Place to do Business

Next Steps

• Summary of Work - 2 pages• Highlights Scale and Scope

• Funding Proposal Response• Letter of Intention

• Business Plan• Letters of Offer

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Visit www.innovationpei.com to learn more.

Contact

Nancy RobertsProspecting & Innovation Programs DivisionInnovation PEI902 368 5336 ndroberts@gov.pe.ca