Mr. Speaker, with your indulgence, I will be splitting my time with the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.
It is certainly my honour and privilege to rise in the House to take part in the debate with respect to the motion put forward by the NDP leader concerning foreign investment in Canada.
Before I begin, let me take a moment to recognize my Conservative colleagues from Saskatchewan. I want to say how responsibly my colleagues have acted throughout this process. I know they probably received more than their fair share of emails, telephone calls and constituency office visits. However, they recognized, as I recognize, that the government and I as their representative have a responsibility before the law to make a public policy decision with respect to the BHP Billiton bid that is in the best interests of the country, that is within the four corners of the Investment Canada Act, a decision that can be defended as one of principle, and as I said, one in the best interests of the country.
The members understood that and they acted on that basis. I want to thank them, as I am sure it weighed on their minds as much as it weighed on my mind.
I cannot say much more, other than what I said yesterday, with respect to the BHP bid. Under the law, under the Investment Canada Act, I made an interim decision, as it is called under the legislation, that the bid was not likely to be of net benefit to Canada.
This has excited a little bit of comment in the media and amongst the opposition benches, because there is a 30-day period under the Investment Canada Act for the bidder to make further representations.
I want to make it clear, because I believe the hon. leader of the official opposition in particular, the Liberal leader, was playing fast and loose with the facts yesterday. Maybe he is more familiar with American law on this matter or British law, but he certainly is not familiar with Canadian law. He tried to insinuate before the cameras that I had some preference or some discretion when it came to the 30-day period, that this was some sort of Conservative conspiracy and that I was not being clear with Canadians.
I want to be clear with Canadians. I have to act within the law. The law is very clear. The Investment Canada Act is very clear that I am only able to make an interim decision at this point. The final decision comes 30 days from last night's announcement. That is very clear in the law.
I am very disappointed that the leader of the official opposition, the Liberal leader, was not clear with Canadians. Maybe he did not understand how the law works. That is possible, too. Or maybe he did not want to understand how the law works. If that was the case, then the member for Wascana, who has more experience, being in Canada far longer than the leader of the official opposition, should have educated his leader on how the law works. Maybe he will do that in the future.
I also took note of what the NDP leader said last night. To my mind, again, he does not want to take our answer on its face as being one of principle, one that is within the four corners of the law under the Investment Canada Act. He is alleging all sorts of conspiracies.
I can assure this House once again that I made my decision based on the facts that were presented to me, based on what I have the duty to do, which is to assess the bid pursuant to the test of net benefit to Canada and to thereby protect the rights and interests of Canada and Canadians. That is what I did.
I can assure hon. colleagues that I am very much looking forward to speaking with greater clarity on the merits of the decision at the end of the 30-day period. That is the period during which I am obliged not to describe in greater detail the reasons for the decision, but I will have an opportunity to do so in a month or so.
I want to use the balance of my time, if I might, to speak about the context. The context is the importance of foreign investment in Canada.
Unlike the members of the NDP in this House, we do believe that foreign investment has a place in our country. We welcome domestic investment. We welcome foreign investment, and in fact, that is a quid pro quo for some of the great investments that Canadian companies have made in other countries, whether it be in the United States or overseas, including countries such as Australia.
The fact of the matter is that our great Canadian companies make more investments overseas than countries make investments into Canada, and this has been a point of concern among some of the commentators in the past. We are a net exporter of capital by a significant margin, and we certainly welcome it when Canadian companies can not only grow jobs here but they can grow their balance sheet by making judicious investments abroad. By the same token, we also welcome investment to our shores.
I would only say this, though. The investments to our shores, if they are reviewable under the Investment Canada Act, because they have to meet certain criteria in order to be reviewable, have to follow the act. There are certain obligations they have. There are certain obligations that the minister of industry has. Those are the rules of the game. I do not think it is too much to ask, when we open our doors to foreign investors, that they follow our rules.
We are a country that is ruled by the rule of law. We are proud of that. We actually export that as a value and principle of our democracy. We believe in the rule of law, but that means that companies must follow our rules too. We do not open the door wide and say, “You can come in and you are not responsible pursuant to our laws and you do not have to be respectful of us”.
We do not say that. We do not mean that. We want them to be responsible and respectful of our laws. That includes the Investment Canada Act and that includes the test of net benefit to Canada under that act, which presumes, if I can be so presumptuous, that in some cases the Investment Canada Act would mean that something is of net benefit to Canada, and there may be occasional cases where that is not the case. Such was the case of BHP Billiton's bid, as I enunciated yesterday.
However, generally there are some good cases. StatsCan reported earlier last year that, in terms of our investments abroad, Canadians owned and controlled foreign assets worth more than half a trillion dollars. That is the importance of two-way trade, so I would say to my hon. colleague that this is a good deal for Canada and a good deal for Canadians.
When Canadians invest overseas, they follow the rules of those countries, including Australia, which I might add has something similar to a net benefit to Canada test. It has a national interest test. I would put it to the House that it is more or less the same thing. We play by the rules of the game when Canadian companies invest in Australia; it would only stand to reason that it would do the same here. That is how we create wealth and opportunity for Canada and Canadians.
I know the hon. members on the NDP benches like to tax companies to death and they like to regulate them to death, and then when they are dead, they like to subsidize them to death. That is the NDP way, but that is not good enough in a 21st century economy.
In conclusion, we are taking our responsibilities under the Investment Canada Act seriously. There is a good opportunity to debate the principles and the clauses of that act and I look forward to further debate.