Mr. Chairman, the Investment Canada Act provides a framework that aims to encourage investment in Canada. It gives power to the Minister of Industry to receive notice and review investments in Canada by non-Canadians. However, it exempts transactions that would already be approved by the Minister of Finance with regard to financial institutions. To do so, the Investment Canada Act borrows wording from the financial institutions statutes. Bill C-37 makes changes to the Insurance Companies Act to clarify that the legislation as it relates to foreign insurers applies only to their insurance business written in Canada, regardless of the location of the risk, so some consquential amendments were also made in other acts to ensure consistency in the legislative framework governing foreign insurers.
Another such technical amendment would be needed to the Investment Canada Act to ensure language consistency and maintain the broader integrity of federal legislation.
This amendment is designed to do those things.
(Amendment agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]
(Clause 59 as amended agreed to)
(Clauses 60 to 86 inclusive agreed to)
(On clause 87)