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unbillable time racking their brains and Rolodexes for opportun- ities for funding, says Atcheson. "To the extent we're able to mine our contacts for other advisers, for actual other sources of funding that might be interested in meeting our clients, we do that." As an example, Atcheson and a group of lawyers attended a venture capital forum in Mont Tremblant, Que., earlier this year, with a view to providing an opportunity for a client to present to a group of venture capitalists. Similarly, Kratz has worked with the Banff Venture Forum, which creates an environment for clean tech companies to get exposure and for venture capitalists to look at investment opportunities. "The issue there is to help those com- panies to attract and then conclude venture investment that allows them to expand either across Canada in their niche or into the United States or into other markets," he says. Meanwhile, Gowlings is one of the founders of CleanTech North, which brings together clean tech companies, angel investors, strategic partners, and investment banks to see if there are opportunities to do business. For another potential solution, Sutin draws an analogy to the resource sector, where the government introduced flow-through shares more than 25 years ago. They allow the issuer to transfer resource expenses to the investor, who in turn receives investment tax credits on qualifying resource expenses in the mining sector. This concept kick-started the ability of smaller companies to raise capital, he says. Providing clean tech companies with access to this program may be the answer to the huge capital deficit problem, he says, so that the public markets can take the place of private equity and venture capital funds in the capital formation process. There are some signs this is happening if you look at the suc- cess of the TSX Venture and the number of clean tech listings it has. So far, this year is proving to be better than 2009 in terms of raising capital, explains Saltzman, evidenced by an uptick in financing activity for some companies in the sector. According to TSX data, clean tech companies listed on the TSX and TSX Venture raised $152.5 million in the first five months of 2009. By comparison, in the five months to May 31, 2010, the 127 clean tech and renewable power companies on the exchanges raised more than $574 million in equity capital. "What we're seeing more and more are a number of clean tech companies that are looking to access capital through the capital pool program of the Venture Exchange, and they're looking to be qualifying transactions of a capital pool company, hoping to raise anywhere between $5 and $15 million," says Saltzman. Atcheson says there are Canadian and foreign entities looking to list if the conditions are right. "There are definitely some good stories and there are some funding announcements happening and some deals being struck. I would just say what we're seeing more of is a lot more interest in having conversations." In contrast to last year, Saltzman notes law firms are now pos- itioning clean tech companies so when the window for an initial public offering opens, they will be ready. "We're working closely with a lot of companies, getting them ready for an IPO, helping them be acquired by other companies for that option, and also on the CPC side, so it's been quite active this year," he says. In the first five months of the year, six clean tech firms went public on the TSX and Venture exchanges, compared with four in the same period last year. However, IPOs themselves are still tough, says Sutin, with reverse-takeover transactions being the preferred method. "I anticipate that we're just in the very, very early stages of a very exciting public market in clean technology companies as opposed to the project side," says Sutin. The trend of more Canadian small and medium-sized clean tech enterprises becoming global and international firms coming here to list and do business is likely to increase, says Kratz. He says he is seeing the most activity in the biogas, wind, smart grid, greenhouse gases screening, and enhanced recovery technologies subsectors. PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY Investment Dispute Consultants / Forensic Financial Auditors MACGOLD DIRECT INC. Providing Canada-wide expert witness reports on Securities Industry Litigaiton Robert Goldin Tel: (905) 709.1892 Email: robertgoldin@rogers.com Web: www.macgold.ca Free E-Book. Investor Beware! Canada's leading book on Investor's rights and issues available free on web site (click on INVESTOR BEWARE) oldin_CL_Sep_10.indd 1 8/5/10 3:55:13 PM ntitled-5 1 Supreme Court of Canada Counsel and Agency Services Henry S. Brown, QC (Chair) Brian A. Crane, QC Martin W. Mason Graham Ragan Guy Regimbald Eduard J. Van Bemmel, Law Clerk 4/6/09 4:20:13 PM 160 Elgin Street Suite 2600 Ottawa Ontario K1P 1C3 T 613-233-1781 montréal ottawa kanata toronto hamilton waterloo region calgary vancouver moscow london www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com SEPTEMBER 2010 45 owlings_CL_Sep_10.indd 1 8/3/10 2:34:36 PM