Mr. Speaker, I am rising on this adjournment proceeding today to follow up on a question I had on February 2, and it concerns the Aecon purchase by CCCC. I know that the parliamentary secretary is going to be attentively looking for his notes to be able to answer this one.
There has been a lot of activity since I brought up the question. The government did one thing correct, which is that it went to a secondary review, a more in-depth review, to allow national security officials to look at this proposed purchase by a state-owned Chinese company. It was the Conservative opposition that pressed the government to do it, and, to the government's credit, it listened to us.
Brian Tobin and Michael Wilson have written an editorial in The Globe and Mail entitled “Why the Aecon sale is a good deal for Canada”. My concern is that the article says it is going to be a partnership, but it is nothing of the sort. In fact, Aecon is going to be purchased by a state-owned Chinese company run by the Government of China, the People's Republic of China.
The article goes on to reference a good example of what can happen if foreign direct investment from state-owned China-based companies invest. It uses Australia's John Holland Group. It says that “More Australians work for John Holland today than before the transaction was completed and there have been no issues with compliance or adherence to local or national laws..”. Now we know that is not true. It is simply absolutely not true.
I love Yiddish proverbs and I use them quite often, such as “You don't have to be wise to be lucky.” The government is in luck. The Australian government made all the mistakes with the exact same company, which is now offering to have a partnership with Aecon, and it did the same exact mistakes with the John Holland Group. We know this because there is a $1.2 billion children's hospital that is being built in Australia, and it has a litany of problems, including a roof made of asbestos that was purchased in the People's Republic of China and brought to Australia. They have problems with lead in the water and substandard construction. We are lucky. Australia made all the mistakes when it approved the purchase of John Holland Group, a very large construction company in Australia, to a state-owned company from China, which is the same one now offering to purchase Aecon.
Brian Tobin and Michael Wilson stand to benefit greatly from this purchase. As it so happens, Mr. Tobin is chairman of Aecon and the vice-president of BMO Capital. One of Aecon's financial advisers is Mr. Wilson. Therefore, of course they have a vested interest in ensuring that this company is purchased by this China-based, state-owned enterprise that does not have the best interest of Canadians at heart. In fact, it has the best interest of the People's Republic of China, specifically the Communist Party of China in mind.
I have a few questions for the parliamentary secretary, and he can pick which ones he wants to answer.
I would like to know what standard the Government of Canada is going to use to judge this foreign direct investment from the state-owned enterprise, in light of what is going on with the John Holland Group in Australia. What mechanisms will the Government of Canada use to hold this particular state-owned China-based company accountable for any type of undertakings it has with the federal government?
I should mention as well that the parliamentary secretary cannot say that this is still under review and he cannot provide further details, because The Globe and Mail, in an article published April 25, 2018 by Robert Fife and Steven Chase, said, “Federal Officials have already told The Globe and Mail that a Chinese-state owned Aecon would not be allowed to bid on building and operating the $4.9-billion Gordie Howe bridge that will connect Windsor and Detroit.”
I need to know from the parliamentary secretary if there are other projects that Aecon will not be able to build should this deal go through. If there is the Gordie Howe project that will not be approved, and we see the example of the John Holland Group in Australia with this completely botched construction of a children's hospital, why should this deal go through?