Mr. Speaker, I am glad that I am the next speaker, because it gives me a chance to answer the question by my hon. colleague.
Yes, the Liberal Party understands the importance of the oil sands, and my question did not suggest otherwise. In fact, my question asked if the government really believed that it was the only such sector.
Yes, it is an important sector. That is why the Atlantic Liberal caucus was there in the last month, meeting with people there. Of course, there are a lot of Atlantic Canadians working there. It is important to the national economy. I certainly enjoyed my visit and found it very interesting.
We recognize its importance, but is he really suggesting that it is the only important sector of our economy? Is he really suggesting that the government should not have an overall strategy? Is he saying that our economy is so weak in other respects that there is no other sector in the country worthy of this kind of preservation and protection? I find it a very strange policy for him to have said that the only important asset to us happens to be in one province, the province of the Prime Minister. Yes, it is an important asset, but if that is their strategy it simply shows their lack of planning, their lack of an overall strategy and the fact that the Conservatives are giving a knee-jerk reaction to what is before them without much planning.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to this motion. As a matter of fact, the industry committee last spring passed my motion to study the Investment Canada Act and to look at these questions like the net benefit test and how it ought to be reformed. However, the Conservative Party of course has the majority on the committee and defines or controls decisions on what the committee will study, and the committee has not chosen to study this topic. I can let people draw their own conclusions about that, because these meetings at committee on what we are to discuss are all held in camera, at the Conservatives' insistence. I cannot say what happened at those meetings, but I can certainly let people draw their own conclusions about them.
I suspect it is because the Prime Minister's Office prefers that these discussions be held in private, even though the Prime Minister promised back in 2010 to bring more clarity and transparency to the process of foreign investment review.
I very much look forward to the debate to see what members on the government benches think about the need to clarify the net benefit test or to change this process in various ways, and what they think the criteria should be for investments by state-owned enterprises.
As well, I believe the issues of reciprocity and transparency need to be fully explored. I hope there will be some discussion around what sectors of our economy besides the energy sector ought to be protected from the potential for government interference or state-owned enterprises from outside Canada.
Perhaps the most important issue, though, in terms of foreign investment will be how we make sense of the Conservative government's incoherent policy that it seems to be making on the fly.
Liberals believe that foreign investment is necessary and welcome in Canada, but we believe that we have to let the world know that while Canada is open for investment, it is not for sale. We have been clear that the rules surrounding foreign takeovers under the Investment Canada Act must be made transparent and be applied consistently. We do not see that, though, with the government. What we saw announced last Friday is likely to make the process even more arbitrary and even more subjective.
Ever since the failed potash deal, we have been asking the government to clarify the definition of net benefit, and the Conservative Party has failed to do so, despite the Prime Minister's promise otherwise. Considering his promise to provide more clarity and transparency to the review of foreign investment and the whole process itself, let us examine the kinds of questions that the Conservatives' mismanagement of this file have left unanswered.
First, what exactly is the definition of “exceptional circumstances”, those circumstances in which the government would allow more acquisitions in the oil sands by state-owned enterprises. We do not know; that is up in the air. There has been no definition of that. It is a new phrase that the Prime Minister has pulled out of some hat.
Second, would the CNOOC and Petronas deals be approved under these new guidelines to be applied from here on? We do not know the answer to that.
Why is there a separate set of rules specifically for the oil sands and for no other sectors? Are there no other sectors the government thinks are particularly important strategically? For example, there are many who argue that shipbuilding is an important strategic industry, because if we were in a conflict, for example, we had better have the ability to build our own ships, or perhaps aerospace is a strategic industry. There are so many other areas, including high tech and so forth, that are important for various reasons.
We should examine the reasons why a particular industry is strategic, critical and worthy of this kind of protection from the government, when others are not. What is it that is particularly important about these industries? I am not questioning that the oil sands sector is an important one, but are there no others? That is the point. If they are going to talk about others, which others and why? Is it because of the industry's capacity to create jobs in the future? Is it because of some other important criteria? This is the discussion we should have had two years ago, not just now.
Does this mean the government does not believe that other sectors are as important? That is the point. What would be the criteria today, if there were an offer for PotashCorp? We do not really know. That is another question up in the air. Would it be net benefit, net benefit plus exceptional circumstances, or something else entirely?
We also do not know whether CNOOC, the Chinese company that the government approved to purchase Nexen, improved its original proposal to meet the concerns raised by Canadians, particularly, for example, those discussed by Premier Redford of Alberta. For instance, she said that in her view at least half of the directors on the board of Nexen should be Canadian. My own view is that they should have a majority, but I am not very far from Premier Redford on that point. We have to assume that has not happened because we have not heard it from the government. However, the Conservatives, despite all their promises of transparency and clarity, have not told us whether that is the case or what other conditions have been met or what the details of the agreement are.
What changed in relation to the Petronas deal to make it acceptable now, when the Conservatives determined it was not a net benefit to Canada earlier this fall? What happened in that deal that made the government change? We do not know. The Prime Minister, in all his transparency, has not told us because, apparently, as Canadians, we do not deserve to know. It is not important that we should know. The Conservatives feel we should rely on them and trust them. That is the message.
Did the Conservatives get any guarantees that Canadian companies would have reciprocity in China? We do not know the answer to that. Do we know whether any of our businesses would have an easier time operating there? There is no indication to that effect. Industry Canada documents state:
Non-controlling minority interests in Canadian businesses proposed by foreign [state-owned enterprises], including joint ventures, will continue to be welcome in the development of Canada's economy.
That is the statement that came with the announcement on Friday. Therefore, the government would approve other CNOOC-type deals, as long as they involved only minority interests. What is the definition of a “minority interest”? Is it 20%, 30%, 40%? We know that in a widely held public company, they do not have to have 50% to have effective control. It could be a lot less than that, sometimes as little as 20%. Is that what the government means?
What we do not know is what would happen if Nexen were to apply to the Alberta government to expand dramatically or to go into other areas and get other leases and become a much larger player in the oil sands than it is now. If the Conservatives are concerned about that happening, what measures are there to prevent it? I do not see any.
The most ironic thing, though, about last Friday's decision is that while the Conservatives are dead set against Canadian state-owned companies being involved in the oil sands, we see now that they are perfectly content to allow foreign state-owned enterprises from China or Malaysia to be involved in the oil sands. It is quite a thing. I find it incomprehensible as a matter of fact.