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| Peter Hadekel: Montreal leads Canada in venture capital funding | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 5 2013, 01:47 AM (107 Views) | |
| Darcie | Sep 5 2013, 01:47 AM Post #1 |
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Skeptic
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Economists have been nearly unanimous about the need for more private investment if Quebec’s recovery is going to pick up steam. Now there are signs that private money is starting to become more substantial. Montreal led all Canadian cities in venture capital investment activity over the first half of the year, according to the latest survey by Thomson Reuters. Venture capital investments are usually made in startups or early-stage companies by financial institutions looking to make a profit over a five- to seven-year horizon. As such, they are a small subset of overall private investment, but they remain an important indicator of business activity. These investments tend to flow into knowledge-based businesses or technology companies, so they are a good sign of the strength and diversification in the local economy. The report, published by Quebec’s venture capital association, Réseau Capital, suggests the investment outlook may be brightening for many local companies. The Montreal area claimed 41 per cent of all new venture investment in Canada in the first two quarters. “VC investments are booming and Quebec is favourably positioned to take advantage of these market conditions,” Réseau Capital president Jack Chadirjian said in a statement. Quebec companies received more venture capital disbursements in the first half of the year than in all of 2012, with more than $433 million invested. In the latest quarter, Montreal took 85 per cent of the $246 million invested across the province. Leading the way were deals in the alternative energy and clean-technology sectors. Notable was a $50-million financing that closed in June for the Montreal clean-tech company Enerkem, which helps turn waste products into biofuels. http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Peter+Hadekel+Montreal+leads+Canada+venture+capital+funding/8867287/story.html Surprising that the Separatist Government there doesn't seem to scare any private investment. |
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| Dana | Sep 5 2013, 04:22 AM Post #2 |
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WWS Hummingbird Guru & Wildlife photographer extrordinaire
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Meanwhile, prison building contracts in the rest of the country. http://www.canadianprogressiveworld.com/2012/07/05/enbridge-executives-company-awarded-first-bill-c-10-38-5-million-prison-project/ Opponents of the Conservative government‘s crime Bill C-10 were justified to argue that private companies would profiteer from the new jail system the legislation proposed for Canada. On Tuesday, the Canadian Press reported that a Toronto-based construction company, Bird Construction Inc., has been awarded the contract to build the $38.5-million North East Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Nova Scotia. The 200-bed facility is due to open in 2014. Turns out there’s a connection between the company and Enbridge Inc.: a man named J. Richard Bird, who also has a strong connection with the federal government. The 62-year old Harvard Business School and University of Toronto graduate served as a member of the Minister of Finance’s Advisory Committee on Financing from 2009 to early 2010. Even tough-on-crime Republicans of Texas warned Canada not to follow America’s failed path of mandatory minimum sentences and massive prison expansions, which cost them billions and drove crime rates up. But the Harper government brushed aside all these arguments. It used its acquiescing majorities in the House of Commons and Senate to pass the legislation with minimal debate and public input. The progressives also argued that Bill C-10 would grow mega jails and a war on drugs in Canada, which would punish vulnerable communities where high crime rates are rooted in poverty, lack of opportunity and historical disadvantage. Last March, a group of former high-ranking Canadian justice officials said in the Kingston Whig-Standard newspaper: “There is something unethical with having corporations seeking profits from locking people up.” During the heated public debates on the controversial legislation, progressives also argued that Bill C-10 was the beginning of the privatization of Canada’s prison system. Two weeks ago, The Guardian newspaper reported that two of the biggest U.S. private prison companies, Geo Group Inc.and Management and Training Corporation (MTC), had begun exploring opportunities in Canada. In the U.S., both companies “have consistently been the subject of critical media reports due to a long line of legal actions against them for trouble and neglect at some of their facilities.” GEO, a major player in the global private correctional services industry, lobbied for Bill C-10 through The Parliamentary Group, an Ottawa-based consulting firm linked to Patrick Gagnon, a Liberal MP from 1993 to 1997. RELATED: Coming to Canada: Prison industrial complex, punishment and profits The North East Nova Scotia Correctional Facility is the first of numerous multi-million prison projects expected under Bill C-10, the Conservative government’s flagship tough-on-crime legislation. The bill passed into a new law, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, in Parliament in March. Bill C-10 is a suite of crime legislation that will radically stir the Canadian justice system away from the prevention and restorative measures which have proven to be more humane, effective and cheaper for Canada, towards billion-dollar vindictive and exclusionary measures. It favors punishment over compassion and rehabilitation. It will result in a massive and costly overhaul of system, a transformation expected to cost Canadian taxpayers at least $19-billion. Ontario and other provinces are expected to shoulder significant costs, and divert funds from public goods to implement the law. During the debates, legal experts, activists and opposition MPs advanced numerous progressive arguments against Bill C-10. They argued that the bill violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, particularly: the right to equal protection before the law; the right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment; the right to liberty; and the rights of Canadians convicted overseas. They suggested that the law’s mandatory minimum sentences undermine the judiciary by taking away judges’ discretion. The mandatory minimums and tougher sentences on young offenders nuke futures, they said. They grow tomorrow’s hardened criminals, and meaner streets. The lifting of publication ban on young offenders stigmatizes the offenders for life. Even tough-on-crime Republicans of Texas warned Canada not to follow America’s failed path of mandatory minimum sentences and massive prison expansions, which cost them billions and drove crime rates up. But the Harper government brushed aside all these arguments. It used its acquiescing majorities in the House of Commons and Senate to pass the legislation with minimal debate and public input. The progressives also argued that Bill C-10 would grow mega jails and a war on drugs in Canada, which would punish vulnerable communities where high crime rates are rooted in poverty, lack of opportunity and historical disadvantage. Last March, a group of former high-ranking Canadian justice officials said in the Kingston Whig-Standard newspaper: “There is something unethical with having corporations seeking profits from locking people up.” |
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