Compas Poll / Survey

The 30% RSP foreign investment limit must be raised or eliminated entirely, according to an overwhelming majority of CEOs and other business leaders in a National Post/COMPAS study of business executives conducted under the sponsorship of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and CIBC. The desire of business leaders to raise the foreign investment limit is motivated in part by the desire to protect individual investors, in part by a widespread belief that there is no need for a limit, and in part by a rejection of the notion that it is only fair to make RSP holders keep most of their money in Canada because they are using pre-tax dollars.

According to the business leaders surveyed, the most valid reasons for raising the limit are that the current 30% rule reduces the ability of individual, RSP-holding Canadians to earn good returns for their retirements and it increases their risk by limiting their ability to diversify. Business leaders show low levels of support for any argument in favour of leaving the foreign investment limit at its current level.

Analysis through inferential statistics shows that the fundamental belief that a limit on foreign investment is not needed at all drives the desire of business leaders to raise the limit or remove it entirely. Causal modelling also shows that the suggested limit on RSP foreign investments is driven by the rejection of the notion that it is only fair to make RSP holders keep their pre-tax dollars in Canada, albeit to a lesser degree