Reflections from Task Force Members

"As a society, we need to find more sustainable ways to solve some of our structural social challenges. Innovative business models that generate both financial and social returns hold great promise. At the moment Canada lags behind a number of other countries in creating a favourable environment for these hybrid approaches."
-Bill Young, President, Social Capital Partners

"Canadians have a long history of community building. Impact investing would allow the country to augment that spirit of building with financial resources in order to materially accelerate and improve social and environmental outcomes."
-Tim Jackson, CEO, Accelerator Centre, Associaite VP of Commerialization at University of Waterloo

"Leveraging private capital for social purpose is not only a growing international trend; it has become a necessity. Increasingly investors are looking for more than financial return. Communities need capital to assure sustainable socio-economic development. Government must come on board to create the conditions to scale successful models and allow new and ambitious initiatives to develop."
-Nancy Neamtan, President and ED of the Chantier de l’economie sociele

"We have had tremendous success in Canada in unleashing business to create wealth. We have learned that entrepreneurship is an unbeatable force. Government unleashed the power of business entrepreneurs when it provided them with needed public goods and functioning capital markets. Government needs to do the same for social entrepreneurs by providing them with the wherewithal to succeed."
-The Right Honourable Paul Martin

"The Task Force is laying the groundwork for the expansion of the pool of available capital to achieve social good in Canada. Investors are increasingly looking for more than just a financial return and philanthropists are seeking greater impact and engagement than ever before. Impact investing has the capacity to transform both the way we do business, and the way we see ourselves as business leaders."
-Sam Duboc, Chairman, Pathways to Education Canada and Founder, Edgestone Capital Partners

Contact: For more information about the Task Force on Social Finance, please email (taskforce@socialfinance.ca).

SocialFinance.ca is pleased to serve as the online repository for information and discussions about the Task Force.