As I tried to say in my opening remarks, the rates of return to venture capital firms have not been particularly good. In fact, I would say the policy is broken in Canada, as we've had such a poor performance. I think we have to remember there's a difference between what the shareholders get as a rate of return and what the economy gets.
The shareholders will look at all the tax benefits they get on top of the economic returns that they might get from an investment in venture capital. But if you look at the actual rates of return, without taking into account taxes, the tax credits, and the RRSP treatment as well, the system does not actually generate very good returns. In fact, they're much inferior to what you find in the United States.
I think there are a number of reasons for that, as I've tried to explain. There have been a number of papers that have made it very clear that there's been a crowding out effect, that we've been squeezing out perhaps better performers in the market. I think it's been a policy that has not worked well. Theoretically, you end up encouraging too many poor projects coming into the market because of the way we subsidize equity, which is an important signal to the market.