Public Accounts committee  The main reason they chose that structure of funds was so they wouldn't have to select the winners. The Department of Finance, BDC, and Industry don't have to identify which investments are promising. It's up to the funds to make those investment decisions.

Public Accounts committee  For each of the selected fund of funds, the government introduced some constraints in terms of the type of investment they could do or the type of research they could invest money in, such as science and tech, IT, and agriculture. These are the broad parameters that were suggeste

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, as far as we know, the finance department did not do that analysis of the crowding out that the $400 million could potentially create. I remind the member that the objective of the program was to create a self-sustaining venture capital market. The ultimate outcome o

Public Accounts committee  We're not suggesting anything here. All we're saying is that sunshine is the best antiseptic, so just publish the results for the return those types of investments are achieving, and this will inform other potential investors.

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  That's right. In the $400-million initiative, $350 million was set aside for the fund of funds and $50 million for what they call the “high-performing funds”.

Public Accounts committee  They are listed on exhibit 1.3, page 15.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, through our discussion with the stakeholders we were told there was a market gap in the agri-food sector and the natural resources sector. The Farm Credit Corporation also does venture capital, but nonetheless there was a belief there was a market gap. The fact that no

Status of Women committee  I have one more thing to add to what Nancy just said. It's a challenge for Status of Women to gather all the information on how effective GBA has been and how implemented it is across the government. I know Status of Women sought more resources in the last budget to improve thei

Government Operations committee  Those tax-based expenditures can account for tens of billions of dollars. What we noted in the report, and the government made some improvements to the reporting of those tax expenditures, is that even though they are not reported in the estimates, there is a tax expenditure repo

Government Operations committee  Tax expenditures would include, for example, refundable tax credits like the GST tax credits, which are not reported in the main estimates, but are reported in the public accounts. One could argue that the tax system is used to determine the eligibility for the tax credit and not

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, when a tax measure is adopted through legislation, it is approved by itself every year through the legislation that gives the authority to the Department of Finance, or CRA in this case, to issue a tax credit, if it's a tax credit. That's something different from the w

Government Operations committee  The fact is that the basis used to prepare the main estimates is not the same as the one used in the budget or the public accounts. In the budget, in the Department of Finance's numbers, you will see embedded in the expense row the cost of those tax expenditures. When you look at

Public Accounts committee  We noted that in the beginning, these people had a lot of work to do to convince private investors to join the project. As we indicated in the report, the fee structure and the tracking of performance, which was a hindrance for the entrepreneurs, were part of their concerns. Con

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I think one can see an exit strategy as the ultimate performance indicator. When the government decides that the system is sustainable enough and the ecosystem is led by the private sector, and it's time for it to divest itself of the investment made by the taxpayers,