It is a bit of a contradiction.
Mr. Speaker, as I noted earlier, following the 2010 PotashCorp decision, we called on the government to ensure more transparency with regard to the decision-making process surrounding foreign acquisitions. In fact, the Prime Minister committed to doing that. Our request included asking for greater detail and defining of the net benefit test, and for a more accountable and transparent review process so that Canadians could know what was being negotiated. We have also asked to increase the clarity around the role of the affected province or provinces, and to provide a mechanism for their input.
As far as we can tell, because we have not heard otherwise, the government had no consultation with the provinces. Fortunately Premier Redford came out publicly in a letter to talk about what her view was, but we never heard if the government went to ask her or her government's views and thoughts on how to deal with this situation. With respect to conditions that can be attached to a transaction, we have said that these must be completely transparent and easily enforceable.
Finally, we have also introduced the notion of reciprocity. We are not the only ones to do so. I hear many commentators talking about the importance of that, about reciprocity of access to the country of the purchaser. There is the question about whether countries buying from Canada have to give the exact same access in their own country, or whether it should be access that has equal value and equal impact.
It seems to me that what we are looking for is something that would provide a benefit to Canada that is equal to what another country is getting by investing here. I do not think that it needs to be exactly the same kind of access, as long as we are getting something that is of an equivalent worth, that there is a quid pro quo in the transaction. There is an awful lot of agreement when that happens. For instance, let us hope that the NHL players and the owners find some way to find, maybe not the exact exchange of things in their agreement when it comes, but let us hope they will be flexible enough to find one very soon.
Liberals believe that Canadians deserve to know as much about the terms and conditions of these transactions as possible. Without that, how can Canadians properly evaluate these transactions or determine the impact on our economy? Is it not the right of Canadians to do that, to make that evaluation, to assess for themselves? The government seems to think that we should leave it to the Conservatives and let them handle it quietly and in secret. It thinks that Canadians really ought not to have the details so that they can make their own judgments. That is not a very democratic approach, if I can be forgiven for saying so.
The government has been dragging its feet on clarifying the net benefit test for far too long. This has hurt the Canadian economy and it has hurt foreign investment opportunities. There is a lot of uncertainty out there in the world about where Canada has been standing on this and that probably hurts.
However, I want to agree with my hon. colleague who spoke before me about the fact that we do want to have foreign investment. It is important for our economy. Over the years when the Liberals were in government, I do not recall hearing of any occasion when the Conservatives opposed any of the investments that we approved. On the other hand, nor do I recall hearing of the NDP ever supporting any of the foreign investments that occurred during that time, so that is interesting. I suppose it is partly because of the attitudes. From the Conservatives' point of view all the problems in the world are the fault of government. Governments cause all the problems. With the NDP, government is the solution to all the problems. I do not think either one of those is very accurate, but those are their points of view.
Conservative mismanagement in this process has put thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investment in jeopardy and that is not acceptable. Because the Conservatives have politicized these files, they have created an environment where companies cannot accurately calculate the risk they are taking when investing in Canada. That is a problem. That is bad for the economy and it is another example of economic mismanagement by the Conservatives. Another example of that would be the fact that they took a $13 billion surplus and put the country in deficit before the recession began. If that is not economic mismanagement, I do not know what is.
We need to know if Canadian companies will have the same level of access to foreign resources and other sectors in foreign countries. What is going to happen? We have not heard a word about that from the Prime Minister or the government. If the Prime Minister is going to make an announcement, he has a responsibility to answer some questions about these details. We have not heard those answers.
If the government approves foreign takeovers without building reciprocity into those deals, it is a missed opportunity that will harm Canadian business and the Canadian economy. As well, the government needs to tell us what enforceability measure it has in place to ensure that CNOOC lives up to its requirements. We are talking about having monetary provisions and so forth. We are not aware of any existing in this case. The government has not told us about that. I have to presume there are none, with no particular consequences if foreign investors do not live up to their requirements. That is problematic.
Since 2006 the Conservatives have refused three foreign acquisitions: MDA, PotashCorp and Progress Energy temporarily, all for different reasons. MDA was for security reasons. Potash was labelled as a strategic asset. Does that mean that maybe it is potash and the oil sands and nothing else? The government is not saying that potash will be, so that is not clear. The Petronas-Progress Energy deal was rejected because it was not a net benefit for Canada. However, it was submitted again and now it has been approved, leaving even less clarity.
Following the 2010 rejection of the PotashCorp acquisition, the government said it would revise the regulations surrounding foreign investment. We have seen very little of any substance in that regard. The only change since then has been the following. The government has now given itself the capacity to release in public the reasons for a refusal. That is something, and I am glad to have it, but it is far from what was promised by the government. The government now has the capacity to request monetary guarantees to ensure the acquirer lives up to its promises. That is a small step and we will take it, but we need a lot more.
While the Conservative government promised to bring more clarity to the process, it has only really made it more complex and raised more questions. What is the exceptional circumstance in which the government will allow further acquisitions in the oil sands by foreign state-owned enterprises? I hope someone on the Conservative side will answer that. Why draw a line at the oil sands and not include other sectors? Why is the government not adding more transparency to the process, which is what Canadians are really asking for?
I hope that some of my colleagues on the Conservative benches will provide in the debate today some of the answers that are sorely lacking so far and that Prime Minister did not provide on Friday. I hope that they have been listening to the list of questions that I have given. They can come over and see me and I can give them some of those questions, but there are lots that have not been answered so far.