Finance committee  It's not going to be reused for SR and ED. It's going—

Finance committee  Direct funding, what is it? I couldn't tell, I don't know.

Finance committee  [Inaudible—Editor]

Finance committee  Our general position on trade agreements is that we're in favour in principle, but there has to be a level playing field. If we do sign trade agreements with other countries, we hope that, for example, we're going to have the same access to their government procurements that they

Finance committee  Again, that was in the context of Bill C-45 and I would be happy to circulate to the committee a compilation of testimonies from companies from across the country that gave me their comments about how SR and ED changes would impact R and D in their businesses. I'd be happy to cir

Finance committee  Yes. In our opinion and in the opinion of our members, the complexity of the program is much more related to the interpretation of technology assessment reports and especially to Canada Revenue Agency's change of direction over the past two or three years. The success rate of so

Finance committee  As I said, capital expenditures are more vigorous in our sector than in other sectors. Capital expenditures in software development, for instance, are larger than those in labour force. It is estimated that capital will account for about $123 million of the $750 million that wil

Finance committee  Do you mean in the bill?

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  It happens that SR and ED is part of that particular bill. With regard to the accelerated capital cost allowance, I think that is going to be more of an issue for the next budget since the temporary extension of the measure means it will end at the end of next year. It will eit

Finance committee  The difference comes from the fact that they calculate the impact of those measures on government revenue, while we calculate the impact on incentives for businesses. Since tax credit is non-refundable, large companies that are not profitable can record that in their account ledg

Finance committee  I don't see how reducing tax incentives could resolve the original issue, where the R&D expenditure percentage of the GDP is lower for Canadian companies than it is for companies in other countries. That is kind of like saying that, since Canadians are not saving enough money

Finance committee  That is a bit strange, since those same representatives published a report in 2007 where the SR&ED program was assessed. They said in their report that each dollar spent under this program had an economic impact of 11¢ per dollar. Today, they are saying that the change will n

Finance committee  It's about 10,000 companies.

Finance committee  What I said is that roughly half of the SR and ED claimants are manufacturing companies. I would expect more than 80% of our members to claim SR and ED credits.