Sure, and thank you for the question.
How will increasing the ticket size stabilize venture capital in Canada generally and in Ontario specifically? First, it will make the product more appealing to mid- and high-income investors. Right now, 50% of our shareholders have incomes of less than $60,000 a year. People with more money to invest simply aren't interested in a $5,000 investment. For them it's so-called “small potatoes”.
Second, more financial advisers and brokers will be interested in selling the product because their commission will increase, along with the ticket size. Right now, they can't be bothered to become licensed to sell the product because the small commission is not worthwhile. What we have witnessed over the last dozen years or so, since the inception of the program, is that commission structures have moved away from selling small-ticket items. In most cases, the investment advisers receive very little, if any, commission when selling those products. So we've lost their interest, and it greatly inhibits our ability to sell the product to the retail public.
Third, being able to move to a larger ticket size, we can attract larger investors, who have a larger appetite for high-risk investments such as these, and be able to find a place in their portfolio. When it's a $5,000 item, it's just not a large enough item to consider for their personal investment portfolio.