If I may, Mr. Rioux, I will start. Then, I will let you round out my answer.
My colleague, Mr. Rioux, is in charge of our pre-budget brief. We presented it this summer as part of the federal government’s consultations on the expectations we had for the next budget. He also looked into the venture capital issue.
When it comes to businesses and entrepreneurs in particular, you did well to mention from the outset that duplex and triplex owners put a lot of money into their properties. Then, on June 25, less than two months after the federal budget was tabled, they were penalized even more significantly on a tax level at the moment of sale. Some of them made those investments to fund their retirement. They had a short notice of just two months to react to the government’s tax measure.
When it comes to venture capital, compared to OECD countries, Canada is lagging behind right now, even if it’s only in terms of the funds businesses need to invest in research and development and capital expenditures, as well as to increase their productivity. We’ve seen a decline since the early 2000s. In 2022 alone, research and development spending fell from 60% to 55%. Meanwhile, in the United States, south of the border, they’ve progressively increased it, especially since 2010. The average is 78% for American businesses.
We think it is important to avoid sending mixed signals when it comes to business investments in research and development.
I will let Mr. Rioux answer your second question.