I think my colleague Mr. Facey made an important point, which is that every time you change a piece of framework legislation it attracts international attention. It's one thing for me to sit here today in 2013 and say that my advice would be, in an ideal world, to change the Investment Canada Act rarely and with very careful consideration. In an ideal world, we may not have changed it in 2009, 2012, and 2013, but rather have done it a single time.
That being said, I would argue that over the last five years we've experienced incredibly unique global economic circumstances. The financial crisis is one that we hadn't experienced in almost 100 years. There are new forms of global capitalism that are looking to gain majority stakes in, and indeed own, Canadian businesses, which is again something new.
All this is to say that I think the government is reacting and looking forward. I think we'll get the best answer to that question when we look at the foreign investment stocks in Canada, and the ability of our firms, both large, such as our members, and small, such as junior mining plays, that wish to attract capital to Canada.
I think it's too early to say if it's better. I think we can all agree that the government's intention is certainly to make this a better system. I do trust in that intention, but the proof will be in how the act and the SOE guidelines are actually executed. In that regard, I would again underscore my point that, given the broad definition of SOEs before you today in Bill C-60, the government also consider advanced rulings so that entities that don't consider themselves to be SOEs but wonder if they'll be treated as SOEs under this legislation can come in and get some kind of guidance about that. I think that is critical in order to create investor confidence.
The proof is in the pudding. The proof is in the numbers. The stock of investment outflows and inflows is very healthy, and I hope it will continue to be, again with the proper execution of the Investment Canada Act.