Finance committee  Yes, it's marketing and.... These are all special projects, though, and not part of our operations. We do them when there is funding available. When there's not, we don't do it.

Finance committee  Yes, I can speak to that. Opera Atelier does a lot of international touring. Just before I started here, two years ago, the first thing I did before I came was cancel a tour. It wasn't because there wasn't the federal funding—it was in place at that time—but the numbers weren't working.

Finance committee  Perhaps I could add to that. Our experience when people were able to donate stocks without capital gains was that our company got 2% to 3% more in fundraising. That was $5,000 to $15,000 a year for us, which for a small company is significant.

Finance committee  That's a very good question. I think it really depends on how well we can sell it. The majority, about 60%, of our donations come from people who are donating less than $10,000. Really, for our organization it's less than $500. For us, it would probably result--knowing the numbers as I do--in about a 3% to 10% bump.

Finance committee  The proposal in the briefing documents suggests that about half of that would go to touring. It goes two ways. One way is to bring presenters here to Canada to see the product so that they can then book at such things as the Hong Kong festival and Singapore. Beijing has all these fantastic new facilities that they need to program.

Finance committee  Opera Atelier is a unique and world-renowned company that specializes in baroque and early classical opera and dance. We have toured over the last 25 years extensively in Europe, the United States, and Asia, most recently in Korea. We support the recommendation made that the Government of Canada invest $25 million in a market development program that will help connect Canadians to arts and culture, and help export-ready Canadian cultural products reach the global marketplace.

Finance committee  Good afternoon. My name is Jane Hargraft, and I'm the general manager of Opera Atelier, which is a $2.5-million opera company located in Toronto. It produces two operas per year and tours internationally every two to three years. I'm joined by David Ferguson, who is the chair of the Canadian Opera Company, a $34-million company also located in Toronto that produces seven operas every year.