As per section 11.31 of the 2011 public accounts of Canada, available at [http ...]

(ii) for any issues of non-equity securities whose denomination per unit amounts to at least EUR 1000, and for any issues of non-equity securities giving the right to acquire any transferable securities or to receive a cash amount, as a consequence of their being converted or the rights conferred by them being exercised, provided that the issuer of the non-equity securities is not the issuer of the underlying securities or an entity belonging to the group of the latter issuer, the Member State where the issuer has its registered office, or where the securities were or are to be admitted to trading on a regulated market or where the securities are offered to the public, at the c ...[+++]hoice of the issuer, the offeror or the person asking for admission, as the case may be.

The article also states that some $2 billion Canadian will be going into the American private equity funds over the next few years and some $537 million Canadian into European buyout funds over the next few years (1035) There is this move to invest more and more of Canadian taxpayers' money and pension money into foreign funds, foreign equities and buyout funds, to invest in certain equity funds that are highly risky on behalf of the people who are the owners of the Canada pension plan.

And given the fact that the lion's share of Canadian venture capital funds is labour-sponsored, effectively created with public money through tax advantages, why are we continuing this process of picking winners and losers, as with the TPC, when in fact there is already a lot of public money in Canada's venture capital system right now?

In the area of public funding important steps have been taken to improve the overall efficiency of Community risk capital markets: the Commission has clarified its policy towards state aid; the EIF has strengthened and fully defined its role as the risk capital arm of the EIB Group; the EIB Group and the Commission have signed a joint memorandum to co-finance RD activities; risk capital is becoming more involved in regional development; and some Community instruments have been redirected toward early stage finance.

Capital is capital, money is money; whether public or private, money is money and should be treated exactly the same way.