Industry committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My name is Mark Rowlinson. I'm the executive assistant to the Canadian director of the United Steelworkers Union. I'm here to comment on the amendments to the Investment Canada Act found in part 4, division 9 of Bill C-43. The United Steelworkers represents more than 200,000 workers across Canada, including many thousands of employees employed by the former Inco, the former Alcan, and the former steel company of Canada, Stelco.

Industry committee  No.

Industry committee  Employment levels at Vale facilities in Sudbury have been dropping steadily since they purchased the operation, both before and after the year-long strike that was provoked by the company. I don't have the exact employment levels, but roughly a thousand or so people have lost their jobs, and the community has certainly not benefited from the foreign investment from Vale.

Industry committee  I am now. What we're proposing is a broad review of the Investment Canada Act. If I can echo what Jim Stanford has said, we don't disagree that the test for foreign investments should ultimately be of the net benefit to Canada and to Canadian communities. The problem we have is with the manner in which that has been enforced and the lack of transparency with respect to the process.

Industry committee  Thank you very much for having me. As it was mentioned, I am the Assistant to the National Director of United Steelworkers. United Steelworkers is among the largest private sector unions in North America. We represent over 200,000 members in Canada and over 800,000 members across the continent.