Replay of the NACO Roundtable on Canadian Angel Activity

We have Ginette Mailhot, Chair at Anges Québec, a prominent angel group and member of NACO that does extraordinary work in unlocking capital in the Province of Québec.

Also, joining is Derrick Hunter, President and CEO at Bluesky Equities based in Calgary, Alberta. Derrick was recognized this past year as the BDC Angel Investor of the Year at the NACO World Angel Investment Summit and is a member of Valhalla Angels.

We also have Lynn Davis, Chair at SWO Angels based in Southwestern Ontario and part of the angel cluster called Equation Angels.

Derrick, as an active angel investor, what are you seeing on the ground in Alberta? And let me set the stage here. The innovation ecosystem in Alberta was emerging in a significant way after years of work, including NACO being quite active in the region. But, there were also challenges in the broader environment.

Are we at risk of the startup and scaleup ecosystem losing the momentum that we built up over these past years? It would be great if you could also situate us around the policy environment and what you're seeing within your portfolio. 

[Derrick Hunter] 
I will talk about the policy environment and then about some data from within our portfolio.

Last October in the provincial budget, Alberta slashed the provincial component of Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) and also its Investor Tax Credit (ITC), which made Alberta the only province without SR&ED. And to my knowledge, the only jurisdiction in the developed world that doesn’t support entrepreneurs through the tax system specifically. As a result, they took a lot of heat from a lot of people.  In December, they created what they called the Innovation Capital Working Group...

Originally Recorded on April 2, 2020. Click here to join future roundtables.