Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question from my hon. colleague from the Conservative Party. It is a very important issue that we are very concerned about as well.
First, for the last decade or more, we have felt that the Foreign Investment Review Agency is a toothless tiger. It has not proven to have been effective on any front and is certainly now not likely to provide the kind of careful deliberations around any prospects of a country like China buying up Noranda in Canada.
The member will know that the New Democratic Party has rejected for years and has spoken out furiously over the whole way in which we are selling off our economy to foreign corporations. We are just as concerned now with the thought of a country like China, with a very questionable record on human rights and workers protections, to have that kind of holus-bolus control over our economy. That is a sellout of the worst kind.
There has to be a deliberate new mechanism for dealing with this new situation. I would hope the government does not leave it to the normal procedures under the Foreign Investment Review Agency, but sees this as an unique development that has to have a certain change in approach.
I would hope, especially given the member's comments about CSL, that the government is particularly diligent about doing so. I would not be surprised, as the member said, that Canada Steamship Lines ships are being built in China. I look at the list now. In terms of the flag registry, Liberia, Bahamas, Vanuatu, Germany, Singapore, and the list goes on, of the flags that are flown by Canada Steamship Lines. We know there are some intricate holdings involving many countries, and many questionable interests. I applaud the member for raising the question and I look forward to working with him on this.