Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members. I very much appreciate your invitation to take part in these consultations on the Investment Canada Act, ICA.
The Business Council of Canada represents CEOs of 160 leading Canadian companies, and we're represented across the country in every sector and region. Our members employ around 1.7 million Canadians and account for about half the value of the TSX.
I would like to begin by underlining the critical importance of foreign investment to the Canadian economy. Prior to COVID-19 and the associated economic downturn, advanced countries around the world were already experiencing slower growth prospects, largely driven by demographic forces and weak productivity growth. In addition to those challenges, though, Canada faced heightened trade uncertainty, ongoing tensions with China, crippling rail blockades and a deteriorating investment climate due to regulatory uncertainty.
The already weak outlook for the economy pre-pandemic has now reached previously unthinkable lows. According to the PBO's analysis released just today, the economy is expected to shrink by 6.8% this year, and that is the weakest on record since the series began in 1961.
As we start to think about economic recovery, trade and investment absolutely have to play a central role. We are a trading nation. We depend on open access to the world. Foreign investment not only produces jobs, it enables technology adoption, promotes new management techniques and creates market access opportunities. We have a clear interest in creating stability, transparency, predictability, non-discrimination and protection for Canadian companies that invest abroad, but also for foreign investors wishing to invest in Canada. We need to ensure that any changes to the rules governing investment in Canada are as consistent and stable as possible. We absolutely cannot afford, as a country, to be perceived as a difficult place to invest.
Unfortunately, I believe that Canada could do better when it comes to attracting investment. Global FDI stocks have increased dramatically over the past 25 years, but Canada's share of global investment has been on the decline. Looking at the 2018 data, our share of total world inward investment stocks fell to 2.8%, which is the lowest level in about 20 years. Meanwhile, countries with more competitive business environments have witnessed an increasing share of global inward investment stocks. We must do better.
Turning to the ICA specifically, we support the government's recent policy statement of April 18 enhancing scrutiny under the ICA, given the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves in. The pandemic and the associated economic fallout could create opportunities for acquisitions by companies that are motivated by non-commercial factors. That could put Canadian interests at risk. However, because we depend on trade and investment, we believe that the government should be very careful not to discourage commercially motivated foreign investment activity, and given that markets have rebounded somewhat since the depths of the crisis, the opportunity for predatory acquisitions by SOEs, for example, is diminishing. We think that these measures should be temporary in nature.
Finally, on the question of strategic industries and the ICA, the legislation clearly provides provisions to protect Canadian national security and absolutely must continue to do so, but I do think what requires a bit more thinking is identifying exactly what industries should be considered strategic and make sure that we have the economic framework in place to support those sectors.
For example, I think what we've witnessed throughout this pandemic is the importance of a strong—