Finance committee  I don't have a response.

Finance committee  I couldn't point to anything specific on the level of savings, but I do know that in terms of individual savings in Canada, especially for retirement savings, there's a tax preferred savings regime that's in place where individuals receive an upfront deduction for their contributions to their retirement savings plans.

Finance committee  Yes, it is. According to the latest information that's available on the CRA website, it's in that range.

Finance committee  The tax credit is provided up front at the time the individual purchases the shares. They can claim the LSVCC credit on their tax return for that taxation year. The credit is received up front. One of the conditions is that the shares must be held for an eight-year period. If they are sold within that period, then the tax credit goes back.

Finance committee  No.

Finance committee  As I said previously, in provinces where there is a provincial credit there is a financial incentive for individuals to invest in LSVCCs. The purchase of the shares also continues to be an eligible investment under registered retirement savings plans, so they're still an attractive investment opportunity.

Finance committee  I think it's fair to say the government thought, given the concerns about the LSVCCs and the impact they were having on the venture capital market, that there was a better approach to supporting venture capital in Canada through the venture capital action plan. The new approach will be a better way to support venture capital than the labour-sponsored venture capital corporation tax credit was.

Finance committee  I would say we don't have a study per se. We anticipated that with the elimination of the credit there would still be an incentive for people to invest in LSVCCs because they are eligible investments under the registered retirement savings plan. The government has also introduced a new venture capital action plan which is a new approach to supporting venture capital in Canada.

Finance committee  We don't have any specific studies that....

Finance committee  The situation in Ontario is a little bit different from the situation in Quebec in the sense that the two funds in Quebec are very well established. They have a much different approach to raising funds in the sense that they have a lot of payroll deductions that individuals can make, and the infrastructure for making contributions is dramatically different from what was in place in Ontario at the time.