Mr. Speaker, foreign multinationals gobbled up over $25 billion of Canadian controlled corporations in Canada in 1998, an increase of 70% over 1997. For the first nine months of 1999, U.S. corporations have spent $28 billion snapping up Canadian companies, an increase of 16% over the same period last year.
To make things worse, the federal government is planning to reduce the Canadian content required on the country's corporate boards from 50% to 25%. Consequently, Canadians will completely lose control over corporations which still have their head offices in Canada.
As if abandoning national sovereignty was not bad enough, the industry minister said that his decision is in line with recommendations from the Senate.