Derek Z. • 1) Fundamental. Could not have complete releasing the product to the world. Helped defer to DEV costs and encouraged us to keep developers in Canada, rather than to go overseas.
2) I do not think we could have launched without it.

Gerry H. • When I retired at the end of last year, after 22 years in the program, it was in the highest level of jeopardy that it has ever been in. It is on the verge of being just another aspect of the tax system, with no regard whatsoever for its intended objectives pertinent of supporting and encouraging R&D. Audit utterly controls it; science has virtually no say.

It is important, beyond a doubt, to make it very clear that this program is important to industry. When I retired, it was managed for recovery, not effectiveness in its supposed objectives.

Lance K. • The SR&ED program is abused and needs a serious rewrite. From what I hear about/have seen, the extend of the abuse is 35% of the SR&ED dollars go to Non-SR&ED "agencies". This includes "Consultants", "Auditors", "Advisors", etc that put in two days work to scoop 30% of a SR&ED claim. This nonsense has to stop.

For my company, SR&ED has helped a lot; money always helps. Without SR&ED there would be a substantial hole in our budget; SR&ED allows us to hire more people than we otherwise would have.

Brian E. • 1) How important a role SR&ED has played in the success of your tech company?

Most years, we were profitable after SRED, but "in the red" before SRED.
Most "bleeding edge tech companies" depend on it.

2) What impact you would have faced had you not had access to SR&ED?

We wouldn't have been able to develop our key products, which have brought many millions of foreign revenue (mostly US, but also from Europe and Asia) into Canada over the years.

Gerry H. • Do we have a disease here, or a symptom? When I started in the program, claim preparers were unknown. The program was such that people could access it with their own resources. But the program changed with "the bulge", and preparers proliferated and prospered. Yes, some do very little for what they charge. Some fight tooth and nail when that wasn't necessary before. Some simply take advantage of the fear that now surrounds the use of the program. These people are all over the map.

I wonder: If people who knew and did R&D could, once again, access the program themselves, how would the preparer market change? The door has been opened for abusers; they didn't barge in. That said, they are bad news, no matter how they got in.

David T. • SRED is extremely important. If it needs more scrutiny to weed out the illegitimate companies that are abusing it, then so be it. I think it's an invaluable program and would be happy to discuss with the review panel how it's positively impacted our company, created jobs, and brought innovation to Vancouver.

Mike W. • In my (not so humble) opinion, SRED has been turned into a shadow of what it used to be. Where previously SRED was considered to be 'research that was new for YOUR COMPANY' is now being applied as 'ground-breaking research that no one in the entire world has ever done' - which completely destroys the small business 'internal research' focus that many companies use to investigate new technologies and potential markets.

As well, the fact that the CRA's insistence on separating 'productization' from 'research' makes things so complicated and prohibitive, I don't see much future for SRED for anyone outside of an extremely narrow field of academic, scientific research. Companies looking to create new, profitable products (and through this, companies) are simply shut out.

What was supposed to reward Canadian companies for building technology that was to the benefit of Canadian industry has turned into a massive potential penalty.

The situation is so bad that for my new company, there's no way that I'll touch SRED or any other Govt money with a 10-foot pole, and will recommend that other business owners stay far away from SRED as a result. It's a minefield that can easily blow up in your face unless something is seriously changed with how they are considering the rules currently.

Paul H. • I've been working in technology for 21 years, 11 for my own company. I've never used this credit. Instead of ridiculous programs that require experts to apply that take 30%+ off the top, how about an across the board tax break for the sector (or all businesses)? Much easier to administer!

Jason L. • 1) SR&ED has been critical for our continued development of new technologies for our target markets. Manufacturing in our industry continues to run offshore but we have remained competitive by leveraging research and technology to continuously reinvent our product line offerings. SR&ED and reinvestment of the credit enables us to maintain a research & technology development staff level that we otherwise would be unable to afford.
2) We would likely have lower staff levels focused on research & technology development or we would be forced to seek other external funding sources. The latter often means sacrificing IP, which is a tough pill for a small manufacturing business.

Paul B. • 1) SR&ED has been critical to our business when we were in the early stages of technology development. It enabled us to justify several riskier initiatives which we would not have otherwise funded, helped hire new university graduates and coops who worked on these riskier eligible projects, and consequently groomed these young innovators to be highly competent/skilled engineers who we would hire. Many of the eligible projects helped advance our technologies which maintained/extended our competitive advantage helping to secure high tech manufacturing jobs in Vancouver.

2) Without SRED we would have hired less engineering coops, and less new grads. We also would have risked losing competitive advantage which was gained through many of our SRED eligible activities. Generally lower staff levels.

I do think that SRED with non-refundable tax credits may not be optimal. The target companies who the credit is intended for often are not profitable for years and either go out of business or get acquired - usually unable to leverage the credits since they paid little to tax anyways. The criteria for eligibility is also is inconsistent from auditor to auditor and it also appears to be getting narrower - broadening the program to fund 'productization' (ie. how to leverage/monetize a technology) in addition to the 'expanding knowledge from existing base knowledge'.

Tim V. • SR&ED is a critical factor in the development of Canadian technology in the key companies that are taking risks to create innovations. Mainly small businesses with little access to capital from any other sources than the founders and Government programs that combine to make companies, like ours, possible.

Without SR&ED, our company would not have been able to develop our cloud based platform and maintain our strategic direction. As a result of SR&ED, we have been able to not only afford to continue to innovate, and bring to market our platforms, in partnership with our customers who have provided valuable input and resources, but we have created a unique product platform which is deployed for eHealth internationally, financial services in the Exempt Market in Canada and is now rolling out into the market for SME's in multiple sectors where small businesses must remain compliant with regulations, while at the same time leading and reaching customers in their markets.

With SR&ED, we have been able to employ a workforce solely in Canada to develop our technology - over this time we have employed hundreds of Canadians. We have been able to deploy all of our technologies from Canada. SR&ED has enabled us to take leading edge risks of innovation in areas such as social networking in regulated industries. When a company can afford to take these highly innovative approaches, only possible with SR&ED, it leads to completely unique and marketable products for Canada and Canadian jobs. It takes years to develop these types of technologies, in our case we've been developing for a dozen years, with SR&ED helping during half of that time.

Without SR&ED companies like ours would simply never start or cease to exist, innovate or produce viable patented products that are industry leaders - and that keep Canada at the fore front of critical, global development. This is a Canadian resource that should be nurtured adding a new value to Canada beyond the mineral rich commodity's that drive our economy. This engine will continue to delivery productivity - SR&ED is a model globally for innovation to other countries. Continuing to support innovation in the Small Business Sector is crucial.

Colin S. • 1) How important of a role has SR&ED played in the success of your tech company?
SR&ED has been crucial for our current company. We seek the long term growth potential that innovative industrial research can deliver. However, we lack experience planning appropriate return on investment risk assessments for research. SR&ED, combined with MITACS and IRAP facilitated collaborations, enable us to transfer university research into successful new products and services.

2) What impact would you have faced had you NOT had access to SR&ED?
SR&ED was the deciding criterion that enabled my current employer to hire me as a researcher in a small Canadian city. I probably would have moved to California or Illinois if SR&ED did not exist.

Thomas K. • SR&ED was the single most important factor determining how much I invested in R&D over the past two years. The innovation SR&ED allowed me to invest in lead to breakthroughs that 1. allowed my business to leap ahead of our US competition and 2. kept us in business by helping us to raise our required level of capital.

Without SR&ED, I can say with about 80% confidence that I would have moved my company to San Francisco to try to acquire the right elements needed to take big technical risks last year.

Paul C. • SR&ED is a strategic financial tool that ABSOLUTELY promotes investment in R&D, and, is fundamental to the success of tech start-ups.

I recall a few year ago Brent Sauder hosted a forum on SR&ED and we uncovered in the forum a dramatic inequity between provinces in application of SR&ED credits. This has been fixed ONLY because CEO's were involved and understood the OPPORTUNITY from a significant tax incentive, fairly applied.

Since then the topic regularly rises and is discussed as a 'critical success' program in our CEO Roundtable. Why? Most of the tech businesses are early stage and NOT cash rich...this state usually lasts for at least a decade. During that time as revenues rise, there is typically less access to investment funds. SR&ED tends to grow in importance as the company grows and is seen to be a tool for ensuring the exec team focuses on R&D.

Stated in the positive, SR&ED, again, is a CSF, it is essential to employment, innovation/IP creation and the financial 'maintenance' of early stage companies. Alternately, the loss or diminishing of this program would clearly demonstrate a lack of understanding of the process of tech innovation and company creation.

SR&ED must be maintained as a long-term and strategically permanent program.

Jim U. • 1) Not only does this provide an extreme competitive advantage over US companies, but especially in early stage startups (such as my own), it literally has been a sustaining life line during some very lean years.
2) Quite literally we would not have survived those lean years. Not only was the SR&D itself welcome respite, but it was used extensively as an asset in order to acquire debt financing.

We are now an exponentially growing company having evolved over the past two years form literally 3 employees to now about 55. The SR&D program has been money extremely well spent for the government of Canada if you look at these job gains.

Aaryn B. • 1) SR&ED is extremely important to a company like Esporta Wash Systems. Similar to many companies out there, the technology that we use is patented so there is absolutely no information available anywhere that we can draw on for our company. All of our research and information gathering needs to come within our own company because no one else in the world is allowed to do what we do
2) Over the past 6-7 years, our company has saved the insurance industry over $61million on insurance claims. 488 tons of soft contents that would have normally gone to the landfill have been restored and returned to home owners because of what our machine can do. As the number of our machines begins to grow more rapidly around North American and the world, those numbers are going to jump higher and higher. The only reason why have been able to do this across the industry is because the SR&ED program has helped fund our technological successes (and failures...which lead to success).

Toby R. • 1) How important a role SR&ED has played in the success of your tech company?
As a startup with patent pending technologies, the SR&ED program has been an invaluable tool to the continuing development of Solegear Bioplastics and to the growth of the Green Chemistry industry in Canada. In the early days of startups, financing is difficult to come by and the SR&ED program provides the much needed stability for the successful rollout of new technologies like ours.

2) What impact would you have faced had you NOT had access to SR&ED?
SR&ED has allowed us to invest in building key partnerships that have supported our commercialization. These partnerships bring critical mass to our capabilities that have helped us to realize the full potential of our business model. Without SR&ED, our profitability would be significantly delayed, which impacts our employee hiring rate, returns to investors and corporate tax payments.