Canada is basically doing the exact same thing now with videogames that it starting doing with movies and television in the late 90s, giving incentives to bring studios and productions to Canada. It has worked amazingly well bringing massive amounts of money and productions into Canada and now it looks to be having similar success with videogames.
Here's a 2006 article about it:
http://www.slate.com/id/2136064/?nav=navoa
Why are so many movies still being shot in Canada?
By Edward Jay Epstein
Posted Monday, Feb. 13, 2006, at 2:51 PM ET
"Heeding the siren call of the wild in the form of a plummeting Canadian loonie, Hollywood moved north during the last decade, outsourcing to Canada no fewer than 1,500 film and television productions. Producers found that Vancouver could double for middle America, Toronto could stand in for New York City (especially if the director avoids wide shots), and Calgary can pass for the American West. At times, however, some script adjustments were required to accommodate the cold reality of the North. For example, in Final Destination 3, which was filmed in British Columbia, the climactic attack was supposed to occur during an outdoor party on the Fourth of July, but since it was not feasible to have actors wearing summery clothes during Vancouver's chilly spring, the holiday was changed to the town's "Tricentennial Celebration." But for Hollywood's illusion-makers, who have lots of experience in geographically deluding audiences, the northern exposure presents few problems that can't be overcome.
Even though Canada has spectacular settings, it's not the production values that film producers go there to find. The lure is, in a single word, money. In Southern California, the studios have highly efficient soundstages and an abundance of skilled technicians, but the unions' work rules make it extremely expensive to shoot exteriors. For example, a production can shoot for only 14 hours a day with normal overtime and then must pay double time. It also must employ redundant Teamster drivers to chauffeur actors to and from locations (even if they have their own drivers). These costs run even higher for independent producers—about 9 percent on average—who are not part of the National Term Agreement that the studios have with the unions. As a result, the indies need Canada—or another deeply discounted country.
In Canada, producers still have unionized labor to contend with, but they get a huge discount—in the late 1990s, it was as high as 35 percent—by paying labor in Canadian dollars. On top of that, the Canadian Federal Government provides foreign producers with a subsidy called the Film Production Services Tax Credit, which now equals 16 percent of the Canadian labor costs. (It was recently raised from 11 percent to offset a rise in the Canadian loonie against the American greenback.) Also, British Columbia offers an additional 18 percent rebate on labor from that province. Finally, there is a 20 percent break on digital effects, if they are done in Canada. In order to qualify for this tax credit, either the director or the screenwriter and one of the two highest paid actors must be Canadian, which might partly explain the demand for Canadian actresses such as Rachel McAdams and Alexz Johnson, the star of Final Destination 3.*"
