The Quebec government announced Monday a new program to accelerate permanent residency status for foreign-trained workers.

Immigration and Cultural Communities Minister Yolande James made the announcement at the Science Centre in Montreal’s Old Port accompanied by the executives from two of the city’s leading high-tech firms, Electronic Arts, and CGI.

James said the high-tech sector is but one example of an industry that suffers from a lack of skilled workers and must rely on recruiting from beyond Canadian borders.

Bernard de Jaham, the vice-president of mobility for Montreal International, said the new program, which began Monday, will help Montreal retain foreign workers who are recruited to work here. […]

The program also has a marketing aspect to it, selling Montreal as a good place for a career, and for a high quality of life.

Those eligible for the program must have worked for at least one year in Quebec, and must have a intermediate knowledge of French.

EA Montreal general manager Alain Tascan said about 20 per cent of his employees come from outside Canada, hailing from 25 different countries. He said it’s essential to attract the brightest minds to Montreal, and the government has shown it’s proactive in helping retain those workers. […]

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Video game publisher Electronic Arts says its third-quarter loss widened because of a slew of charges and weak holiday sales which the CEO called “a clear disappointment.”

The Redwood City, Calif.-based company, which has locations in Canada, also unveiled more cuts, saying it would now lay off a total of 1,100 jobs, or about 11 per cent of the workforce, and close 12 facilities.

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The company has about 2,500 employees in Canada, about 1,700 of which are in Vancouver’s Lower Mainland, and the rest in Edmonton and Montreal.

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Following the news that publisher Electronic Arts cut its outlook and is looking at laying off more staff in the near future, shares in the company fell more than 15 percent in early trading on Wednesday after opening at $16.84. As of press time, ERTS is at $16.35.

A number of analysts have weighed in on the state of EA. Todd Greenwald of Signal Hill notes that EA’s problems are its own and are not the fault of the sour economy. “Titles such as Need for Speed, Mirrors Edge, Rock Band 2 as well as EA’s entire sports lineup appear to be underperforming at retail due to a combination of low quality scores, tired franchises, and limited innovation vs. the prior year’s release,” he said.

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SCi Entertainment, the owner of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider computer games franchise, is in bid talks once again.

It follows a nightmare year for the firm in which its losses have quadrupled and the share price has slumped 92 per cent.

A source familiar with matter said discussions are at an ‘early- stage’ and that SCi received approaches from two separate firms within the past few weeks.

The first is understood to have come from America’s Electronic Arts, the world’s second biggest computer games company.

It has always featured strongly in bid chatter that has surrounded SCi.

But it faces competition for SCi from France’s Ubisoft, which the source says has also made an approach.

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