moved for leave to introduce Bill C-401, An Act to amend the Investment Canada Act (committee members).
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to table my bill entitled “An Act to amend the Investment Canada Act (committee members)”. I am pleased the bill is being seconded by my colleague from Thunder Bay—Rainy River.
Liberal and Conservative governments have consistently rubber-stamped foreign takeovers of Canadian companies without any transparency or accountability to the Canadian people. When parliamentarians seek details of these takeovers they are told by the industry minister that they are not allowed.
This bill would change all that. It seeks to expand section 36 of the Investment Canada Act to include members of the Standing Committee on Industry. Amending section 36 in such a way would provide meaningful oversight by parliamentarians and would allow a multi-party review of foreign takeovers. This would provide greater public confidence in the process.
For too long, federal industry ministers have hidden behind section 36 of the Investment Canada Act to deny stakeholders and the public access to the terms of agreements between foreign companies and the federal government. With this bill, the Minister of Industry would now have to co-operate with parliamentarians and the industry committee, which is a much-needed improvement over the current act.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)