Human Resources committee  Naturally, because the instrument we're recommending to the committee is based on market principles. From that perspective, then, routine planning and performance measurement considerations would be normal and necessary components of the instrument. It wouldn't necessarily be on

Human Resources committee  I'd like to be the first to answer that, if I may. As I just mentioned, philanthropists in today's society are proud to contribute towards the achievement of charitable goals. But it would be wrong to assume that these people wouldn't be willing to invest in a context that is d

Human Resources committee  I would argue that in our wildest dreams the liability that might arise from the potential to actually pay for a successful outcome under the entire aggregate mass of issued social impact bonds would be a rounding error in terms of the federal government budget. We're not talking

Human Resources committee  I don't see a successive government asking, “What have they burdened us with here?” by having committed to, but not booked, the liability to pay for a successful outcome. In fact, they could solve the problem easily enough by creating the outcomes fund and disbursing the money in

Human Resources committee  I think the answer is that the range of potential uses of this technique is limited only by human imagination. As Sarah has been pointing out, the vast variety of things that this could be made applicable to, which have social impact, is really not something you could start with

Human Resources committee  Really quickly, it's simply because this opens doors for them to do things they can't now do but that are still within the purview of their mandate—their eleemosynary or charitable mandate. They're trying to do good, but their hands are tied. It comes from the mindset that making

Human Resources committee  We were asked, when we went to visit some ministers, whether there was actually a market for these bonds. They seemed to be wondering why anybody would invest at a below-market rate. The answer is that the best businesses in our country already have elaborate and generous progr

Human Resources committee  Ian's last point is very important. You're asking for examples of success when our whole case is that this idea is still operating with one hand tied behind its back. I hope you accept that because of the taxation law limitations and the securities law limitations, which have b

Human Resources committee  Mr. Chairman, if I could just supplement that, it is true that nobody involved in this exercise wanted the government's role to be diminished. Some of the early drafts of the task force report began each chapter with the phrase, “The government should”. Also, I think that no one

Human Resources committee  As a partial answer, this goes to the very first question that your honourable colleague asked about limits and framing the use of this instrument called social finance. Not everything that is worthy of being done is susceptible to measurement, so you have to have a situation in

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the committee for inviting us all to appear. I was also a member of this national advisory board, so I won't repeat what Tim and Sarah have so eloquently expounded, but I would like to drill down a little bit into why we came up with some of