The dearth of Canadian IPOs in the past 30 years can be combated by private equity (PE) investors investing more in Canadian startups, according to a report from the C.D. Howe Institute. The report calls for a capital-gains tax exemption for selling shares in certain businesses with assets below $50 million, opening Canadian infrastructure spending up to private investors and changing the small-business tax deduction so it applies only to firms that are young and growing, not just all small businesses. (The Logic)

Talking point: Between 2013 and 2018, Canadian PE firms invested or sold a stake in 59 deals overseas worth more than $1 billion. They made just 10 such investments domestically. C.D. Howe’s report focuses on how government can change policy to make large-scale investment more attractive to Canadian PE firms. There’s a growing amount of that capital to invest. The market value of PE capital has jumped from 55 per cent of the share of total equity available in Canada in 2000 to 70 per cent in 2018. The federal government has tried to get this kind of capital to invest in Canada via its $35-billion infrastructure bank, but has so far announced just two projects, including one on Thursday designed to improve Go Transit in southern Ontario valued at about $2 billion.