Mr. Speaker, it will be a pleasure to speak to the NDP opposition day motion, which seeks to make amendments to the Investment Canada Act. I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar.
I should say at the outset that I believe all legislation from time to time needs to be reviewed. I believe that there should be reviews on a regular basis of all legislation to see whether or not current legislation can in some way be improved.
While there are some elements of the motion before us today that I agree with, there are others that I do not accept. I agree with the spirit of the motion, which states that we should be reviewing the Investment Canada Act to see whether there are ways to improve the current provisions of the act.
I would point out that, since we first came to power in 2006, our government has made changes to the Investment Canada Act. We included provisions that required us to consider national security when determining whether foreign takeover bids should be approved. We did this a couple of years ago, when there was a proposed takeover of the MacDonald Dettwiler organization, which was heavily involved with robotic arms and other technologies for the aeronautics and aerospace industries. At that time, we turned down a bid from a U.S.-based company, because we felt that, in the interest of national security, it was best to keep that company in Canadian hands.
Beyond the motion itself, I want to speak to a political dynamic that I think has seized the House and the country over the course of the last couple of days. Most important, I want to talk about the role that the Saskatchewan members of Parliament have played in the deliberation process during the last few weeks.
More specifically, I want to talk about the role we have played in helping the Minister of Industry to decide whether or not to accept the BHP bid in the proposed takeover of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan.
The 13 Saskatchewan members of Parliament have been fully engaged on this issue for several months. We had meetings with the Premier of Saskatchewan. We had meetings with many ministers of the Crown in the province of Saskatchewan. Even more important, we met with our constituents, the people of Saskatchewan, to get their feelings about this proposed takeover.
Opposition members, in a self-important exercise, have gathered themselves before the nearest camera or reporter to tell the world of their efforts to influence the government. I can assure all members of the House, however, that their attempts to influence the government in its decision-making have been futile. They have had no effect whatsoever. I would also point out that actions speak louder than words. Opposition members, particularly the member for Wascana, have tried to convince the public that they were leading the charge on the rejection of the BHP bid. But in fact, the opposite is true.
They had no influence. The member for Wascana had absolutely no influence on the government decision, nor did the leader of the NDP. But day after day in this House we heard them asking, “Why will the 13 members of Parliament from Saskatchewan not stand up and oppose this deal?” The answer is quite simple. If the members had taken the time to review the Investment Canada Act, they would find under “disclosure” that members on the government side were prohibited from expressing opinions or commenting on the merits of the proposed takeover bid. In fact, members of Parliament, departmental members, and cabinet ministers can be criminally charged if they do not follow this part of the law. We observed these legal prohibitions, but we worked diligently behind the scenes with the Minister of Industry, expressing our opinions and the views of our constituents on the proposed BHP takeover.
Opposition parties attempted to get publicity, feather their own nests, and convince their constituents that they were working on their behalf. But it was political pandering and nothing more.
Our members of Parliament, by contrast, worked hard and long to express the wishes of the people of Saskatchewan, talking to constituents, consulting with members of the provincial government, and speaking with ministers of the Crown. Let me say once again that opposition members had no influence on the government. Opinions on the government side count. The opinions of the opposition members, in contrast, have no impact whatsoever.
I hear a lot of caterwaul, bombast, and bluster from members opposite. This is only another attempt to get their message heard through the media, to convince Canadians that they are actually relevant. On this issue, however, they are not relevant at all.
I want to congratulate all of my colleagues from Saskatchewan, because I know how hard they worked on this file. We were under intense pressure from the media and members of the opposition, who stated incorrectly that we were invisible, that we were not standing up for our province.
I know different. Every one of the 13 members of Parliament from Saskatchewan also knows different. We know the effort that we put in to speak with the minister and the Prime Minister, to gather information to assist the Minister of Industry in making his final decision. Our efforts were entirely successful.
For the next 30 days, we will be prohibited from making extensive comments on the decision. However, after that 30-day period, the minister and all members of Parliament from Saskatchewan will be more than pleased to explain to all Canadians what went into the decision and what we did to bring it about.
We will not ignore or oppose legal prohibitions, now or in the future. We will comply with all legal provisions contained in legislation in the House. Members opposite, of course, being in opposition, do not have to observe these legal prohibitions. They can comment, scream, yell, and whine, but they have no influence. They have absolutely no influence.
In this case, which was one of the most controversial foreign takeover bids of the last 20 or 30 years, the opposition members had nothing to offer the debate. Knowing that government members were prohibited from speaking publicly, they tried to make a political case to further their own interests. It was nothing but partisanship, pure and simple.
On the other hand, the deliberations of the Minister of Industry were in great part shaped by the information he received from Canadians, business people, the bidder, the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, and members of the Saskatchewan caucus. I will not stand and say that our efforts alone caused the Minister of Industry to come up with his decision, but I will state emphatically that the members from Saskatchewan played an integral part in the minister's decision process.
I am proud of each and every one of my colleagues from Saskatchewan, and I know the people of Saskatchewan are proud of us as well.