While Canadian firms raised a record amount of venture capital in the first quarter of 2021, the amount of money flowing to Ottawa-based companies continued its downward slide, the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association said Tuesday. The CVCA said Canadian companies received $2.7 billion in venture capital over 178 deals in the first three months of the year, three times the total of $916 million that VC firms invested in 128 deals a year ago. But here in Ottawa, VC investments in local companies plummeted sharply year-over-year to $9 million across four deals. That’s down more than 50 per cent from the total of $19 million in the first quarter of 2020 reported by CPE Analytics.