Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be here today to speak to this topic.
First, I want to point out that committees are masters of their own proceedings, which I think is a really important point when we get into this. This is an Investment Canada Act issue. It is certainly an industry issue, specifically and mostly because there have been different times, as the previous member mentioned, when we have dealt with certain of these issues—the Neo Lithium issue, and other companies—and we just have not got it right.
Especially right now, with the government launching a new Indo-Pacific strategy, certainly, we have all heard reports of alleged Chinese police stations. We can go as far back as we want to. I have an office in an old Nortel building in Belleville. It used to be really big. I know that DND has one in Kanata. There's always talk about having to clean and the amount of bugs that have been in those buildings.
We've had interference for a long time, and whether this government is now making it known that it is more serious, or whether we're changing the strategy, certainly, when it comes to the Investment Canada Act and protecting our security, whether that be critical minerals or telecommunications as a whole, I think that all the members of this committee should warrant that at this point this needs to be studied. It is important to study this issue, not only because this was not from government or something that came out forthright that was discovered. It was from the press.
My colleague brought up the question of whether this was the only instance in which this is occurring. Certainly there was, in 2017, a government review of the approved sale of Vancouver-based Norsat International to Hytera. At that time, in 2017, MPs questioned that. We're now in 2022, almost 2023, almost six years later, and the same issues are there. To say that we have studied this....
Certainly, for two meetings, for two days, given the importance of the implications of this finding, given the importance of strengthening the Investment Canada Act, given the importance of protecting our information, our companies and our sovereignty in this country, it is certainly the right time for the industry committee to have those questions asked.
The government has already suspended the contract. There has already been action. Therefore, there should be full agreement that we can look into how this happened and how it cannot happen again, for a few reasons. The first is the importance of what is happening, and the significance of that to our nation. The second is the future of this committee, of company procurement, and making sure we strengthen the Investment Canada Act to make sure this doesn't happen again.
This is beyond the “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice”. This is happening three or four times. We certainly need to get to the bottom of it.
I don't see why, for two days, to bring the relevant witnesses to this committee and to have a report that goes to Parliament, at a time when we're trying to improve all the other bills.... My colleague mentioned C-27. Certainly, the government has talked about improving the Investment Canada Act. At a time when the Indo-Pacific strategy has been brought forward, although late, by the government, it certainly is the right time, in my mind, to spend two days.
Let's investigate what has happened. The company that lost out on that one bid is from Quebec. Why did a Canadian company lose out on that bid in the first place? As my colleague has mentioned, how much is it going to take to unravel what we've already implemented? Is the contract still in place? What is there? How do we go out and see that a new RFP is put forth that may benefit Quebec at the end of the day?
I think there are a lot of good reasons to go at this. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.