I can start.
I'm not familiar with the Canadian Bank Act, but with respect to the Income Tax Act, there are very specific rules under section 146 and in the companion provisions thereof that require the definition of what's called a “qualified investment” to be met before RRSP funds can be deployed into, say, start-ups, as in your example.
As I understand it, the policy intent of those rules is to make sure that those investments are rather safe, so as to provide retirement funds for Canadians. I understand that a good chunk of funds are there in order to provide leverage for start-ups—I get that—but to me it's very difficult under the existing legislation to allow for that in many cases. To me, it's a policy question whether or not it should be done, and I can see both sides of that coin. Start-ups are more risky. Therefore, there's the question of whether allowing that complements the risk aversion policy that's probably consistent in the act right now versus allowing funds to be deployed for the future.