 Good morning, and thank you for joining us for the BCID as exchange economic development webinar on BC's venture capital tax credit program My name is Jessica Ritchie. I'm with the regional programs and engagement branch Which is part of the Ministry of jobs economic development and competitiveness I'm going to be about providing technical support for today's session as well as moderating the Q&A session At the end of the webinar before we begin I'd just like to acknowledge that I am in located in Victoria, British Columbia on the unceded Coast Salish territory of the Lekwungen people Known today as the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations We're very lucky to be joined with by two guests today who you're going to be seeing who you can see on your screen First you're going to hear from Matthew Brown Matthew is the director of tax credit programs with the Ministry of jobs economic development and competitiveness And he's going to be providing everything you need to know about the venture capital tax credit program And how businesses in your community can get it get involved and get enrolled Second we're going to hear from Mike Williamson. Mike is the CEO of Cascadia seaweed Which started in 2019 to farm wild seaweed Cascadia has used the program for the last two years to raise capital And he'll be sharing part of their experience as well as the some of the things that they've learned along the way And then at the end we'll have an opportunity for you to ask any questions that you might have of either Mike or Matthew um and um and then we'll But before we get to Matthew, I just like to go over a couple of quick housekeeping items before we are on our way We're becoming increasingly familiar with online platforms But if you're new to go to webinar, there's a couple things you should know First um, don't worry. You're muted. Um, you can raise your hand if you have any questions And we'll respond to you through the chat window If you are having any difficulty with the audio connection, you can always try calling in with your phone So that option is um just by clicking the phone phone option a phone number will pop up and you can call in that way and then You'll see at the bottom of your screen Drop down menu that says handouts. That's where you're able to access today's presentation slides as well as Drop down menu for questions. We are having a Q&A at the end of the session And I'd recommend don't leave the questions till the end ask them as they come up So that I can ask them on your behalf and they aren't forgotten One final reminder is that today's session is being recorded If you know of other people that would be able to benefit from the session and the information that's being shared Visit gov.bc.ca next week Sorry a backslash economic development next week and look under the bc ideas exchange for past webinars and success stories And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Matthew Give us one moment to change presenters Thank you, Jessica for the introduction It's my pleasure this morning to talk about a program that's helping bc small businesses Raise investment capital the small business venture capital tax credit program What I'll do over the next few minutes is get into the details of how the program works The types of businesses that qualify for registration And how the tax credits are claimed To begin with I'll start with some program basics The goal of the tax credit program is to leverage equity investment in bc's small businesses Particularly those in manufacturing and processing businesses that diversify rural economies and the tech sectors Some of you may be familiar with the concept of venture capital and maybe others not so much So I'll start with a brief explanation of venture capital If you think of the different types of investments such as bonds and treasury bills Securities commodities real estate each of them has a different risk profile Some of them are considerably more risky than others Venture capital can be characterized as an equity investment that is volatile and high risk And the features that make venture capital businesses high risk are that they are typically startup or early stage companies And many of them including many that are in the tax credit program are research focused And so being research focused they have few tangible assets Maybe have no products and no revenue And so the attractiveness of these businesses to investors is that with high risk comes the opportunity for high returns And venture capital investors aren't looking for stock price appreciation of the type an investor might expect If they are investing in say a mutual fund or the TSEC What they're looking for is something called an exit event And exit event is A an event that happens when a business has got to a stage Where it is bought out by either a venture capital fund Or more hopefully for the business to mature and the shares to have an initial public offering Or the business to be acquired in a merger and acquisition And so venture investors typically are looking for a considerable return and that's typically Something of the order of 30 times the initial investment The means by which the program stimulates investment in small businesses is through a tax credit The program offers a 30 percent tax credit to investors to help offset some of the risk that would otherwise Be investing in high risk propositions And the tax credit goes to the investor The tax credit doesn't go to the business itself that's registered in the program The tax credit goes to the investor for making the investment in the business And so the advantage for companies that are registered in the tax credit program Is that they are more attractive if the business can go out and market its Equities to investors in the knowledge that those investors are eligible for a 30 percent tax credit back on the value of the investment made Now not every company is eligible to raise tax credit supported investment The tax credit program operates under the small business venture capital act Which has registration requirements, which i'll get into over the next few slides However, there are three things that the company has to do so that its investors are eligible for tax credits The business must be registered in the tax credit program by us And we must issue something called an equity authorization Because we operate under a budget each year We have to issue an authorization to the company to raise investment capital each year And the authorization is the right for the business to go out and market itself to investors In order for those investors to be eligible for the tax credit on their investment And the final thing is that it's equity issued for cash Loads things such as loans or shares issued for work in lose sweat equity Loans converted to shares are not eligible for the tax credit It is a program based on shares issued for cash injected in the business I mentioned earlier that not every business is registered to be registered in the tax credit program In order for a business to be registered It must meet the criteria and the criteria is set out in the act And and here is the basic list of the criteria that businesses must reach must meet in order for them to be able to submit an application and for the business to be registered First off, the business must be incorporated and it must be registered to operate in BC So it must be registered with the BC registrar of corporations Which authorizes a business to operate in British Columbia The business must must be a small business and that means no more than 100 employees It must have already have raised $25,000 of equity capital And we want to know that the founder owners have either risked their own funds or they secured investment before applying for registration This amount is not eligible for the tax credit And businesses must be Substantially engaged in one or more of the qualifying activities, which I'll get to in the next slide Also, 75% of wages and salaries must go to employees who report to work in BC And the business must maintain 80% of its assets in BC These are the eight qualifying activities that that each of the businesses must Operate in And the test for determining whether a business is substantially engaged in one of these activities is that it must have A minimum of 50% of its assets plus its expenses Involved in one of one or more of these activities And each of these activities has a particular Test that we apply to determine that a business is in a qualifying activity and is substantially engaged in one of these qualifying activities The first one is manufacturing and processing The test for this one is that companies must create value in the manufacturing process In other words, it must be taking input raw materials and must be changing the form of the raw materials Into an intermediate product or a finished product The next one is research and development of proprietary technology And the test for this one is that the company must own or must control And be able to commercially exploit the technology that's being developed A company that that comes to us that is doing contract research So it's doing R&D under a contract with a for another company would not be eligible because they don't own The or don't control the proprietary technology such as a an impending patent or some sort of Trade or business speciality so proprietary technology Involves owning or controlling the intellectual property The next one is destination tourism resort and and this is a little large for venture capital But it is a throwback to the very early days of the program and the program started in the 1980s And there aren't that many businesses under the tourism category Registered in the program, but there are a few This would cover operations such as a tourist resort or a tourist service or a tourist attraction And the test for this one is that more than 50 of the revenue must come from tourists and a tourist is someone Defined as living More than 40 kilometers away from the tourist location The next is interactive digital media. This one First started in the program back in 2003 when the video gaming industry was starting to take off in Vancouver And and so it was for video gaming companies, but there are also a lot of life science companies companies that are developing interactive medical Technologies, but also would meet the interactive digital media test And for this one the The test is that the user has to interact with the product if you imagine something like youtube or netflix You're viewing a screen, but you're not interacting with a product And so the test is interactivity the the product has got to have one of three of sorry two or three of Producing images sound and text in which the user is interacting with the device The next one is clean technology This would be for companies doing research and development in clean technology or manufacturing and processing a clean tech product And the the short term definition for a company that qualifies for clean tech would be a company that is involved in doing r&d or manufacturing That contributes to clean air clean land or clean water the advanced commercialization Qualifying activity is fairly new. It came into effect last year And this is for companies that are using online digital technology tools to market products So technologies that track online viewing habits and market products based on those viewing habits are advanced commercialization Community diversification is the next one This is specifically for businesses outside metro vancouver and the crd And the test for for this one in addition to being Aurora business outside vancouver and the victoria area Is that there must not be a similar competing business in the same vicinity and the same vicinity would be a municipality or a regional district and it's contributing to local economic diversification Just as there are the qualifying activities. There are some prohibited activities These are the prohibited activities Financial services. So banking lending brokering investment services trading securities are prohibited activities We wouldn't register businesses that are involved in retail and commercial services So shops gift stores that type of thing real estate development is also a prohibited activity And resource extraction exploration and extraction in areas such as forestry and mining and oil and gas and finally Food and beverage services would be a prohibited activity So businesses in that are substantially engaged in any of those activities would not qualify for registration in the program There are two ways that an investor can invest in a small business an investor can purchase shares Directly from a company registered in the program This is the direct investment model and these companies are called eligible business corporations Alternatively, there's an indirect investment model where investors can purchase shares in a venture fund called a venture capital corporation The venture capital corporation will then invest the proceeds into one or more small eligible small businesses The vcc is the the route by which investors can get together and pull their funds and spread the risk further By investing in several small businesses This graphic is the eligible business corporation model Where investors purchase shares directly from the company investors can purchase preferred shares common shares or Convertible rights directly from the company and as I said before it's purchase for shares for cash An important concept here is the five-year hold period When an investor purchase their shares They should hold their shares for the five year for a five-year period And there are a couple of reasons behind this one is that it takes time for a business to develop its technology or develop its product And so this is a means by which the the program Really prevents investors pressuring the company to Seek an exit event or go to market or finish its r&d sooner than it's ready to do so So there's a five-year hold period For the investors after they purchase tax credit eligible shares from the business Another feature of the program is that a company can raise up to a maximum of 10 million dollars of tax credit investment This is the the venture capital corporation model the indirect investment model And under this model the investor purchases shares in the vcc and receives tax credit The vcc then invests the proceeds into one or many eligible small businesses And as with an eligible business corporation having to meet registration criteria The same criteria applies to those eligible small businesses Unlike the ebc model the vcc investors don't have to keep their shares for five years But the vcc must keep the investment invested in small businesses for a five-year period and again, this is the concept of patient capital giving businesses the time to develop their r&d and commercialize their product Vc that can raise up to 10 million in equity a vcc can invest up to 10 million in a single business Not every one is eligible for a tax credit Tax credits are only available to individuals and corporations Residing in bc at the time the investment was made An individual and corporate investors are treated differently for tax credit purposes Individuals can receive a refundable tax credit While corporations are only eligible for a non-refundable tax credit What this means for an individual is that an individual can claim a tax credit up to a maximum each year of 120,000 So an investor could invest up to $400,000 a year which with a 30% tax credit They can get a $120,000 credit For corporate investors, there's no limit on the amount of tax credit a corporation can get However, the tax credit is non-refundable Which means it must have bc income tax owing against which to offset the credit And for both individuals and corporate investors Tax credits can be carried can be claimed in the year of the investment And they can be claimed over the next four years So again, this goes back to the five-year hold period where an investor must hold their shares for five years Or a vcc must keep the investment in a small business for five years The eligible business corporation investor And the vcc investor can claim a credit over a five-year period Here's a slide on the process of claiming the tax credits Let's suppose a company has done all of those things. It's been registered in the program. It's got an equity authorization It's gone out and raised investment and claimed the tax credit The way that the investor actually gets the tax credit It involves a few steps The first step is that the company has to claim the tax credit on behalf of its investors And it does that through our online tax credit application system website. So it's not the investor Claiming the tax credit and getting it claiming the tax credit. It's the the registered company claiming the tax credit on behalf of its investor Through our website, the company will enter the details of the investment such as the the name of the investor social insurance number investment amount Date of the investment the type of investment whether it's a common share or a preferred share or a different class of share and once it's The company has claimed the tax credit We have to do some due diligence on our end and processing in the background But the end result is our system will create a pdf document of a tax credit certificate That states the amount of tax credit That the investor is eligible for Our system will generate a an automatic system generated email that will go back to the ebc Or the vcc saying that the tax credits certificates are ready to download And so the company will go back to the system and download the pdf documents Of the tax credit certificate and they can then email those certificates or mail the certificates to their investors Each investor claims the tax credit when they file their tax return with the cra And for or individuals if they have no bc income tax owing They will get a refund check from the cra for 30 percent of the amount of their investment in addition to our role of registering Businesses and issuing tax credit certificate. We have a Compliance obligation as well and well, there are a couple of reasons for this if you remember that Investors have got to make an investment and hold their shares for a five-year period And ebc's and eligible small businesses Have got to be in one of the qualifying activities and maintain being in one of the Qualifying activities for a five-year period And so we have a role in ensuring that both investors hold their shares for the right period And that the registered businesses are in the qualifying activity for a minimum of five years And the way that we do this we do this through a a couple of means first of all Each registrant each eligible business corporation and venture capital corporation Has to submit to us an annual return so that we can determine that Their investors continue to hold their shares And that the business is in the qualifying activity And the annual return consists of an application form that's completed Confirming that the business continues to be in the correct activity that Financial statements so we can determine the tax credit supported funds haven't been used for prohibited purposes such as paying dividends or paying a debt obligation And Something called the central securities register, which is a register of all of the shareholders in the business And so that's the means Which we can determine that the business continues to be in a qualifying activity And investors continue to hold their shares for the required period of time And part of the reason for ensuring Compliance is that we don't want businesses to come to the program With an application saying for instance, they're going to be doing research and development And raise some tax credit Investment and then turn around and Embark on an activity that's one of those prohibited activities such as real estate investment or securities trading If we determine that a business is out of compliance for some reason We we give a period of time for companies to get back on side but If they are unable to get back on side, there is a risk that the Eligible business corporation or the VCC May to repay some or all of the tax credits back to the province This is the penultimate slide for my presentation. Here are some program stats from 2019 Typically each year we we register over a hundred businesses in the program. I think in 2019 it was about a hundred and 10 or so businesses registered In 2019 again over 230 businesses raised equity capital So that will be some of the businesses that we registered in 2019 plus businesses that we had registered in previous years For each of those 230 or so businesses that raised capital We would have had to have issued an authorization for the business to go out and and raise equity That was eligible for tax credits for their investors The total amount of equity raised was over 115 million dollars And in terms of processing tax credit certificates, we processed over 2000 individual tax credit certificates to individual investors and to corporate investors And the the total value of those tax credit certificates was of the order of about 30.5 million dollars of refunds Going back to those investors And finally the the contact information for the program Including our website address and our email address And this is typically the process the means by which companies First contact the program they they use our generic numbers and email address and and we have a member of staff who is On duty each week to field inquiries coming in from potential investors and companies Inquiring about registering in the program And and so it's through these contact numbers that we start the relationship with the the businesses That can ultimately lead to their the registration And so the invitation to people watching this webinar is that if you are aware of a business or Are in a business that is interested further about the tax credit program you can Call the 250 number or the 1 800 number or send an email to the email address And that will be direct to to one of our portfolio managers Who will will be able to answer your questions and talk about the program in a lot more detail And and this is the route by which the portfolio managers Get receive applications and then Subject to companies meeting the registration requirements Will get registered in the tax credit program And that concludes my presentation. I'll now hand control back to jessica Fantastic. Thank you so much Matthew for sharing kind of the nuts and bolts of Of the program and giving a little bit more insight into the eligibility options and the investment options I'm just going to take control back over So what we wanted to do next was we we wanted to provide an opportunity to show A company that was using the program that's immersed in the program To share how how what their experience has been like and some of the things that they've learned along the way So i'm going to hand it over to mike from cascadia seaweed and he's going to share their story Thank you, uh, jessica Thanks jessica and thanks matthew for that and good morning or good afternoon to all the attendees depending on Where you're listening in from i'm going to speak a little bit about Who cascadia seaweed is? Our experience with the program and then we're going to show you A promotional video that we've recently done that will talk a little bit more About the story of seaweed farming slide, please So cascadia seaweed Was incorporated over a year ago And we set out to become One of the largest cultivators of seaweed in north america And cultivation of seaweed is distinguished from harvesting of seaweed. There's lots of organizations Licensed in the province and they go out and they harvest naturally occurring seaweed for a variety of uses It's a very responsible industry But in order to grow and scale it as a commercial industry and to have the positive impact that it can You have to cultivate seaweed and the process is to get a provincially licensed tenure Work with the coastal communities of first nations where the tenure is located Build a farm infrastructure in the water, which is ropes and floats and anchors seed the lines Mother nature takes over grows the seaweed and then you harvest it and Process it So that makes us farmers We're doing innovation on how the process is and the cultivars that can be used We're turning our seaweed into a number of products food being the highest and best value And we have a goal to scale up british columbia is home to 630 native species. It has a long clean coastline And the province and the communities are used to the aquaculture industry The aquaculture industry has typically been fin fish And shellfish and we say that the third leg of the aquaculture triangle is seaweed As mentioned, we are vertically integrated So everything from design of farms producing the seed right through to package food products And other uses which will be covered in the video. So I don't want to talk too much about that seaweed cultivation is Got a number of positive benefits. It's good for human health because of the the benefits of eating seaweed It's good for economic development for coastal communities and first nations partners And seaweed as it grows in the ocean reduces ocean acidification. It up takes excess carbon It up takes excess nutrients and it provides habitat. So it's triple bottom line So what we really are our farmers fishermen food processors and we're also techies We've worked with a number of organizations that go. Oh, you're you're just farmers But that's not true because tech plays a part in the business right from the start the nursery selection of cultivars Lighting in the nursery. We're doing some seaweed and tanks So the lighting and aeration and ensuring that the crop will be around Regardless of the outcomes of climate change. So that's the quick background On who Cascadia seaweed is and as I said, there's going to be a short video at the end That'll provide you a little more background and feel free to go through Jessica For questions on the industry slide, please So we started off with three investors bill myself and tony And we said, let's raise Some money and like many startups you have to figure out what your value is So we did a lot of research on startups in the tech sector and startups in the manufacturing sector And we picked a corporate value and a number or percentage of the business we'd like to give away To raise startup capital, which we selected as $500,000 for startup capital And we learned about the program that was talked about by Matthew from one of our investors and started to research it and learned that Through application that we would be eligible as a corporation for the tax credit because of a number of sectors that we were in and we met the tenants of the program And it was very attractive to our investors that for for example, $10,000 Invested that they would get back $3,000 of that as a tax credit In the following tax season we have some investors from alberta and we were very clear upfront that the tax credit program in british colombia is only for Eligible bc investors i.e. taxpayers in the province that didn't stop them and we managed to raise money For them as well from them as well And then with the 500,000 we raised a further $470,000 in a number of grants and programs Throughout the year and again fully qualified for those other programs for non-diluted financing After one year of operation We ticked all the boxes we wanted to do with two one-hectare test farms and proved out the system from concept design installation of the farm The nursery to seed the farm Growing and monitoring throughout the year harvesting in april and may initial processing And that the market was there So we've decided to expand from two to 20 hectares this year With the three-year goal of 500 hectares of farms in the water So we're currently doing a second fund raising round right now at a slightly higher valuation And once again, we're using the tax credit program To raise funds and once again the 30 percent is very attractive to our investors and I believe It is a factor in investors consideration to put money Into our company a lot of folks are coming for some of the reasons matthew talked about to make a return on their investment Some folks invest because what we do Can be quantified and qualified as good for the planet and good for communities And some folks are in it because the 30 tax credit Softens the risk of any investment slide, please I'd like to make a little Pitch or kudos to matthew and his team You'll see my application in the talk email dated July 8th 2019 where I filled in the forms on the website And answered a couple of questions over the next day The service delivery promise from matthew's organization is 10 business days In the bottom email, you'll see that we approved or got approval on july 10th Two days after we applied and that is a remarkable positive Supportive government department very keen to to work with industry a very clean website interactive As matthew presented it's all on the website as well There's a wonderful graphic to show you how to do it the rules are clear The support is clear I've asked questions of some of matthew's analysts late on a friday on a weekend and i'm Very pleased that the support is always there and In a really sort of calm professional manner. We're guided through the system. It works well And I certainly highly recommend it for any companies that are looking to raise funds and fit the dictates of the system We learned a few lessons through the process And I will just talk about them Working with communities because as you saw some of the requirements are to get out in the community and work with folks Not just involved in your industry British columbians and folks working on the coast They like you to follow through on what you say you're going to do. We have something like 15 or 20 companies on our vendor supply list And and we work with a lot of organizations. The first thing we've heard is that Doing business with us works because we say we're going to do something And then we do what we've said we're going to do Second bullet point is applicable even more so now in the time of Covid pick up the phone and ask a question be it of a government worker or a supplier or a partner Particularly because so many folks are working from home now I'm astounded at how accessible people are and how free flowing the information is it's actually sped up the system Challenge assumptions and I use this across my Entire business portfolio now People will tell you x is true or y is true or it's always done like z And even after being in business and government myself for four decades I've I've honed my sense of challenging assumptions and if people say something is correct Ask yourself if it really is and if it really makes sense because it'll pay dividends Uh last bullet point on there talks about government support. There are a lot of uh ministries A lot of staffers even politicians your local MLA Folks want business in british columbia to survive and they want businesses in british columbia to thrive and grow And they want businesses in british columbia to be a source of things like by bc eat bc island good The support is there. I didn't put a couple of lessons learned on there But it's important and math you didn't touch on them all And it's to follow the rules And to be pedantic and to be prescriptive the rules are very clear And if you follow them it works The british columbia securities commission will tell you who can invest in your friends and family round How many friends and family investors you could have? Who qualifies as an accredited investor? Uh when you've got to do a prospectus or offering memorandum if you can keep it simple Do that but the rules are there Not to be draconian, but the rules are there to make everybody's process better We uh did that right from the outset We uh worked at punching above our weight and engaged both legal And accounting support and shares registers and issues of certificates and following all the privacy rules with respect to Sin numbers and investment amounts And it works So I highly recommend those that are interested in getting into the system To do Just that Right now i'm going to ask matthew to come back online as well. We do have a number of questions that have come in So it'd be great if he could pop back in So the first one, um, it's really more for matthew What type of tourism businesses have successfully leveraged this program? And do you have any insights into why tourism businesses aren't participating as much as businesses in other areas? the One example of one of the earliest tourism businesses that was registered in the program and this would go back I guess to the 1980s is the way can in a shin and a recent Company registered in the program would be a glamping company. So a company that is Recently taken over. I think I think it's a a camping site and is going to turn it into a glamping type of operation So so those are The the types of Operation we have in the program. We don't have many as I said it goes It's a a category that goes back to the The early days of the program. I guess when the government of the day wanted To encourage more investment in the tourism sector However, we still have it in the program as a as a qualifying activity I think the reason to go to the second part of the question the reason why it isn't popular The moment is that a a lot of tourism businesses are actually family owned businesses and so those Uh might be corporations that for which the owners want to keep the ownership within the family structure I I I can't think of a another reason other than The ownership requirement their their family businesses once the investment has been made to set up the operation that may not be Much need for for further In investment I think also the from the early days of The category being in starting in the program that the province has developed. They're they're now Many more tourism operations They're now established. They're now mature and there may be a a competition factor that if someone is wanting to Enter the market as a tourist operation. They're now looking at the competition That that wasn't in existence. Maybe 30 years ago Perfect. Thank you for that another question about How would Sorry, what a rural cannabis producer value add manufacturing packaging and sales Cooperative be eligible for this program Did you say cooperative? Is that and sales is that the word you use? Yeah, yeah, so so a cooperative is an incorporated business and a cooperative would be eligible for registration in the program So far as a growing cannabis That would be determined to be a A non-qualifying activity However, the processing of it if it is value added processing could be a qualifying activity. We'd have to Look at the the particular case in in more detail and and so the require The eligibility criteria would be manufacturing and processing and and the test would be Is is there value added processing going on? Is there value being created in the manufacturer or the processing of the product taking the raw material input and turning it into an intermediate or a finished type of product if the business is just a growing and Shopping and packing operation. We'd probably look at that as a low value added operation If something more is happening in the business if If there's some processing going on Other ingredients are being added Uh to during the process A and value is being created in the processing chain Then yes, likely that it the business would qualify for registration So so the way that we think about is is the business doing low value added processing or is there some Value being created in the process It's it's a bit of a judgment. There isn't a clear formula for how we apply that we have to To look at the the process that is that is going on If it's a business that's just growing chopping and bagging We determine that to be a low value added business that would not qualify for registration And have we has bc seen a large number of cannabis businesses using the program or is it still just getting into Are they just still just finding out about it? Billions of dollars have been invested into into cannabis. We we fielded quite a number of inquiries The businesses that we've registered in the program have been mainly r&d So they've been doing research and development in cannabinoid substances. So substances that Could be used in life sciences to to treat diseases epilepsy uh nausea For people who are coming around from anesthetic after an operation And so so we did register an r&d business. It was actually based at ubc They actually didn't raise money in the program And they got bought out very quickly by by a One of the larger cannabis manufacturers So our our research and development in the cannabinoid sector is pretty clear cut cut that it does Meet the requirement under the r&d category right um Another question. Sorry. All these are going to math you right now. Um, that's okay What are the requirements for investors and where would a business be able to find that information about The requirements for to invest in their business The requirements are on the website. So I believe everyone has access to the deck and so Use the website address As your first point of inquiry just to get a a basic understanding of the program requirements and then Call the 250 number or the 1800 number. We have a portfolio manager on duty each week They take turns and it's really the route through which each of the portfolio managers Register their businesses and they will provide information and guidance as to whether a business is eligible and And if a business is not eligible, they can provide advice on how a business could become eligible Sometimes the the process is is lengthier than what uh, Mike and cascadia experienced Either because they're just not quite ready to submit the application and they're making inquiries And they submit a partially filled application or the information isn't isn't quite Prepared in the format or or not available at the time they want to to get registered uh, so the first point is go to the website and become familiar then Pick up the phone and call one of the numbers and you'll be put in touch with a portfolio manager who will take it from there Perfect. Well, it looks like we're almost out of time So do either of you have any final thoughts thoughts for the audience before we um end the session Matthew, I hope we didn't set expectations too high on how responsive you were and how Delightful it was to work with the program, but it really was and uh, thanks very much to your ministry for support Thank you. Thank you Mike for the support. I I think when we can turn around an application that quickly It's because the application has been prepared. It's it's full and all we require is a completed application form Uh, a copy of the business plan and it doesn't have to be the full business plan the executive summary or even a slide deck Sometimes it's just enough. We we don't make any judgment about the quality of the business or whether it's a good prospect or not We make a determination as to whether it meets the requirements or not and if it meets the requirements and The business has already raised the initial $25,000 of equity capital and they demonstrate that either through a bank statement Or through the central securities register so they're just really three documents that we need to make the determination And if we have the complete package, we we can often do it very quickly Fantastic well, thank you both for coming on and sharing um kind of the relationship that you've had with one another through the process and sharing um some Some resources and information that I'm sure our audience can use to either support themselves with the process or support businesses That they may be aware of that can benefit it Like Matthew has said if you have further questions or anything else reach out to the investment capital branch either by looking at their website Or giving them a call or sending them an email And before we go I'd just like to remind everyone of a couple of sessions that we have coming up next month First we have uh our second session in the indigenous self-determination through fiscal governance series We're going to be joined by many jewels this chief commissioner of the first nations tax commission and he's going to be chat chatting about um how the First nations tax commission helps members achieve self-governance over taxation and the benefits that flow from these powers And then later in the month, we're going to be creating about the talking about creating value of intellectual property. It's going to be providing Information about how intellectual property supports economic development And what federal and provincial tools are available to support businesses make the best of their intellectual property And then also be sharing some of the real stories about businesses in bc that are benefiting from protection protecting their intellectual assets And that is all from me if you have questions, please reach out to us at economic development at gov dot bc dot ca And thank you for taking an hour in the end of august to spend this time to learn about the program Have a great day everybody and thanks again to mathew and mike Thank you jessica. Thank you mike. Thanks jessica. Thanks mathew