Mr. Speaker, I encourage the member opposite to read the statement by the Prime Minister on why the oil sands was chosen in this case.
As I just stated, there are very few players in the development of the oil sands. The issue today is that we need to look at where we are going as a country in the development of that Canadian resource. Because there are so few players, 15 at present, the decision was made that we needed to ensure that this Canadian resource, in future, would not progress further to foreign-owned entities and that there should be some guidelines, some criteria, placed in that area. That is why it was chosen. It is very simple. The Prime Minister stated it clearly at the press conference.
I do not understand why, if this is such an issue to the Liberal Party, it did not want to study the criteria in the Investment Canada Act two years ago when I was on the industry committee in a minority government? We said that we should be studying the criteria in the Investment Canada Act but the Liberal Party was opposed to studying that. The Liberal members wanted to deal with other items that they considered to have more political importance at the time. I think that was a mistake. I am glad to hear that those members are at least interested in the topic now.