Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This is just to expand on Mr. Ball's comment on scientific research and experimental development credits. There are two pieces that I thought would merit a little extra attention here.
One is that these credits, as they are structured today, do advantage those companies that have the resources to hire consultants and go through the process of filing for SR and ED credits, and that also have a full year's worth of funding in order to be able to wait patiently for these SR and ED credits to be returned to them. That's a lengthy period of time for any start-up company that's typically living month to month.
The other piece there is that if you think about the flow-through tax credit program we were just discussing, it's a very efficient way to be able to allow companies to access private sector funding almost immediately, under the same premise of SR and ED credits, which is that you're taking those tax advantages and are able to bring them to the present day.
The second piece was in our fairness for growth discussion when we talked about the two-thirds of Canadian public companies that have less than $50 million in revenue and under 500 employees qualifying as SMEs under a Stats Canada definition. The refundable nature of SR and ED credits is lost when you go public, which is just another example of how our current structures are disadvantaging companies that elect to leverage public venture capital to continue funding their growth.