Thanks, Chair.
My questions are for Dr. da Mota.
The government keeps using buzzwords and empty Liberal rhetoric like “sovereignty”, “buy Canadian” and “defence industrial strategy”, but your work has raised a concern that some of the early spending is going to Canadian subsidiaries of foreign multinationals. When we look at the buy Canadian label that the Liberals define, it does not require the vendor to hire Canadian citizens or permanent residents, or require Canadian ownership. For example, you mentioned that nearly 25% of the Liberals' $6.6-billion industrial strategy funding went to local subsidiaries owned by foreign multinationals within a week. That's over $1 billion. The Liberal government is asking Canadians to treat them as authentically Canadian companies under their vague buy Canadian label.
Is it really a Canadian defence industrial strategy if the company may have a Canadian address but the ultimate ownership, profits, intellectual property and strategic control sit outside Canada?