Finance committee  Certainly, at the general level, as I say, there's a resetting of the balance, as it were, between tax support and program support. Obviously, I can't say how that would play out on a company-by-company basis. Overall there would be a modest reduction in the tax support available

Finance committee  I certainly don't want to speak for RIM. Some of the available programs may be of interest to RIM for sure, but I would leave that to RIM to comment. One thing I would like to note is it's important to recognize that R and D tax incentives in Canada complement a very robust and

Finance committee  Could you be more specific?

Finance committee  A quick response would certainly be that a more competitive business tax environment will facilitate the kind of investment that leads to job creation. This is certainly the link that is hoped for out of that, that it will lead to economic growth and the creation of new jobs.

Finance committee  One of the key criteria that the Jenkins panel highlighted was the need to make the SR and ED program less complex and to make it more user friendly. Of the elements that are eligible in the R and D base, capital is certainly the most complex element. There are rules that govern

Finance committee  Capital overall is less than 5%.

Finance committee  I'd prefer to stick with the fiscal estimates from the Department of Finance.

Finance committee  I would prefer to remain with the fiscal estimates from the Department of Finance.

Finance committee  At the aggregate level, there's in the range of 25,000 tax filers per year who make use of the R and D, the SR and ED tax incentive.

Finance committee  The tax filing data is not ideally suited to that, in that many companies are multi-jurisdictional, so it doesn't necessarily give a good indication of which province the activities occur in. The Jenkins panel may have a regional breakdown. We can check for that.

Finance committee  There's a sectoral representation that's put out in the Jenkins report. They took some of the R and D data and program spending data and looked at the distribution by industrial sector.

Finance committee  Certainly working from the fiscal framework that's set out in the budget, there's $1.1 billion on the spending side and $500 million has been made available for venture capital. The total of the R and D changes is about $1.3 billion, I believe, over the five-year period.

Finance committee  Overall there's $1.1 billion on spending and $500 million in venture capital, so that's new money. On the other side there's a $1.3 billion reduction in the SR and ED tax incentive.

Finance committee  I'd certainly draw attention to the new spending that will be available. On the program side, certainly members of the CME, as would other businesses across Canada, would have the ability to access those funds. Where that comes out in the final analysis is uncertain, but it's cer

Finance committee  In terms of the administration of SR and ED, one of the things that has been raised over time, certainly, is the complexity associated with the SR and ED program and the uncertainty of whether or not an SR and ED application will be favourably reviewed by the CRA. Budget 2012 a