If you look at the last 10 years in Canada, there has been a dearth of venture capital generally. The challenge has been trying to get institutional pension funds, endowment funds, and corporations to invest in the asset class.
The federal government has attempted to motivate these groups to match their funding. They are putting their money in and hoping to attract private sector money to match those funds. In concept, this is great, and we support that. I think the issue is going to be how long it is going to take, and whether those players are ready to play ball and match the federal government's efforts in this area. The concern we have is that by eliminating the federal tax credit for the retail investors, there could be a significant gap until those new funds are up and running.
We just don't know how long it's going to be before these new pools of capital will be available for entrepreneurs to access. On paper it sounds great. I hope it's very successful, but we think it's going to be months, and maybe a year, before these new funds have the ability to cut cheques.