Thanks to all of you for spending time and imparting wisdom to us today.
On February 4, I met with the president of MDA Information Systems, and he told me that one of the challenges MDA Information Systems has had is the difficulty accessing NASA and U.S. space industry contracts due to ITAR and other prohibitions. He also stated that this was not merely a financial transaction for the shareholders of MDA but a strategic one, that in order to actually access these contracts you almost had to be owned by and located in the United States.
What I'm hearing here today from Mr. Thompson and others is in fact if this protects MDA jobs, then in all likelihood, based on ITAR, they will not be Canadian jobs; they will be American jobs.
My concern is why the Canadian government isn't seeking exemptions to ITAR, similar to the U.K. and Australian governments, and protecting what is an extremely strategic industry, the aerospace industry here in Canada.
Second, should the minister add a national security test to the net-benefit-to-Canada criteria under Investment Canada and in conjunction with that fight for ITAR exemptions, such that Canadian businesses can actually compete with U.S. aerospace industries and succeed?
In the fall, he indicated he would bring forward the legislation. He hasn't in fact done that, but would those two measures help? Once again, I mean adding ITAR exemptions for Canadian companies, but beyond that bringing in a national security test that would apply to this transaction and potentially block it.