Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members. I only have two brief points to add to Mr. Facey's submissions, which I base on my experience of applying the Investment Canada Act in my practice.
In the past we could give advice to a state-owned enterprise investor that its proposed investment of a 20% interest in a Canadian business could proceed unconditionally under the Investment Canada Act. If the amendments become law, those same facts give rise to a far more complicated legal question. Investors in Canadian businesses will now need to consider whether that same investment will result in an acquisition of control in fact, which may require them to consider a whole host of factors, including the distribution of voting interests, the types of votes that attach to those interests, shareholders' agreements, financing arrangements, and other factors.
The amendments will make giving advice to investors, and Canadian businesses seeking to do business with those investors, a far more difficult exercise as a matter of practice.
My second point relates to timing. If the amendments become law, the minister may make a control-in-fact determination either before closing or well after closing. Again, a state-owned enterprise investor could make a 20% investment in a Canadian business and two years later the minister could decide to inquire whether that transaction was an acquisition of control in fact or even decide to review the investment on net benefit grounds.
These points underscore the views of the CBA of the need for additional guidelines and timely opinions to allow for greater predictability in the application of the Investment Canada Act.
Those are my submissions, subject to any questions.