The good people at Deloitte did a survey of Canadian venture capitalists. Deloitte asked how many firms are making offshore venture investments. The answer? Not many. Unlike their US counterparts who are extending their foreign investments, Canadians are not venturing far.

Canadian VCs continue to stick close to home, with more than half (58%) of Canadian respondents to Deloitte's 2006 Global Venture Capital Survey citing they have no plans to expand investments outside the country over the next five years, compared to 47% of U.S.-based VCs and 44% of investors overall globally. 'Adequate deal flow in existing markets' was cited by Canadian VCs as the primary reason for not pursuing global investments (33%), followed by 'contractual' and 'legal restrictions' (22% each).

Of course, with very few venture dollars available to invest it is easy to see why our VCs are not going abroad.

On the other hand, the upside is that a lot of those US foreign investments are in Canada.

"The survey findings show that Canada is not only viewed as an investment hotspot with abundant opportunity from domestic VCs, but it is also on the radar for investors around the globe," says John Ruffolo, National Leader, Technology, Media & Telecommunications, Deloitte. "These findings are very encouraging for the Canadian market and indicate that investors around the globe are enthused by Canada's economic prospects by continuing to fund emerging companies."