Foreign espionage has significant economic ramifications for Canada, including job loss, intellectual property, corporate and tax revenues, and competitive advantages.
With our economic prosperity and our open academic research communities, Canada offers attractive prospects to foreign investors. Although foreign investment is a key driver of Canada's economic prosperity, it also has the potential in certain cases to adversely affect our national security interests. The acquisition of sensitive intellectual property, technology and vast amounts of Canadian citizens' private data for foreign use or with foreign-state control can threaten national security. While the vast majority of foreign investment in Canada is carried out in an open and transparent manner, some state-owned enterprises and private firms with suspected or known ties to their governments and/or intelligence services can pursue corporate acquisition bids in Canada or other economic activities on a non-commercial basis for their own strategic interests.
Foreign states have engaged in espionage and foreign interference, targeting Canada for years.