If we're focusing on investment in Canada, the basic question is what we think of as national security. This is a question that countries around the world, especially in light of COVID, are re-examining right now. Even six months ago, if somebody had said that basic medical equipment like PPE was to be considered national security, nobody would have taken that person seriously. Now, that is front and centre in everyone's thoughts.
I think one of the first things that we have to think about.... I notice that today we're on Zoom. Zoom is basically a Chinese company. All of their encryption, everything goes through China right now. My understanding is that this video is going to be made public, but if it were preferred to be private or secure in some way, this could cause real problems for the Canadian government.
I think one of the things is that—and I would agree with some of the other witnesses who have spoken about this—there's a double-edged sword here. There needs to be transparency as to the rules and what the procedure is. It also needs to be noted that China uses that transparency against governments like Canada's and has taken steps to make sure that its investments avoid scrutiny or regulatory detection, and then, after they're forced to divest or something like that, they already have the necessary data or IP to go off and make their own product.
There needs to be a balance struck between the necessary transparency, which I agree with the other witnesses on, and keeping certain information confidential for the government.