On January 7, the Ubisoft Halifax studio was shut down and all 71 workers lost their jobs. This happened only three weeks after 61 of those workers became unionized members of CWA Canada.

Ubisoft has received approximately $11 million from Nova Scotia’s tax credit program since 2017. Across Canada, they’ve received nearly $1 billion in tax credits between 2020 and 2024. It is unacceptable for a company to receive this incredible amount of public money only to be allowed to shut down their studio and lay off workers without any consequences.

The studio was closed with no advanced notice to staff or to the Labour Board, as is required by law. The workers had been gearing up towards winter 2026 deadlines on multiple projects and had just released a new update for one of their games.

It is illegal in Canada to shut down a workplace as retribution for workers exercising their right to organize, and CWA Canada has filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia Labour Board.

We are calling on Ubisoft to do the right thing by these employees and Canadian tax payers by immediately re-opening of the studio and reinstating all workers.

We are also calling on the federal and provincial labour ministers to immediately tie corporate tax credit programs to minimum labour standards. It is unacceptable that a global and successful game company like Ubisoft can take over a billion public dollars and then shut down their operations. Our governments must hold Ubisoft accountable and ensure that this never happens again.

This cannot be allowed to happen at Ubisoft. Games are nothing without those who make them.

Please send a letter to Ubisoft Yves Guillemot, urging him to immediately re-open the studio, and to the Canadian minister of labours, calling on them to implement measures to hold Ubisoft and other companies accountable.