Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Outremont today.
I am pleased to rise in the House to address the motion brought forward by the member for Wellington—Halton Hills. Canada takes economic security issues very seriously. Gone are the days when security concerns were limited to national security. Increasingly, economic tools are deployed by state and non-state actors that can pose threats to security.
Our government recognizes such economic threats can affect not just traditional national security concerns but also Canada's long-term prosperity and economic competitiveness. Canada is increasingly subject to both of these types of threats to our economic security. Fortunately, our government has responded to this ever-changing environment by utilizing existing regulatory tools as well as creating new initiatives that will protect the integrity and robustness of Canada's economic security.
Protecting Canada's economic security is crucial to ensuring we have a strong economy that provides good, middle-class jobs, provides revenue for important government services and keeps Canada at the frontier of innovation and technological development.
For decades, Canada has been a strong supporter and builder of the rules-based international order. We believe in and support these rules because we know that when companies compete in a predictable and level environment the positive outcomes are tremendous: rising living standards, improved choices for consumers and new technologies that improve quality of life, to name a few.
In short, the rules have helped to support both prosperity and security. For many years, Canada has benefited from these arrangements. China too has been a beneficiary of the multilateral trade system. After joining the WTO, China became much more integrated with the world economy, and in doing so was able to lift hundreds of millions of citizens out of poverty.
However, the success of this system is not guaranteed. It must be fostered. It can be undermined when some countries do not abide by the rules or disregard the reciprocity. As the Prime Minister has repeatedly said, Canada will continue to work with like-minded nations around the world to impress upon China that the approach of coercive diplomacy is not a productive path for itself or for all of us. At times, this extends to the economic field and in turn creates risks to Canada's economic security.
Canada takes a clear-eyed view to such issues. Protecting our market access against arbitrary or retaliatory actions remains paramount for this government. Even when times are good, there are asymmetries when it comes to the economic openness of our systems. Canadian companies have to compete in uneven foreign markets that can be at times tilted by discretionary administration and implicit and explicit favouring of domestic companies, both state-owned and private. Take, for example, China's made in China 2025 industry policy, which not only includes domestic market share targets in emerging industries but also explicitly seeks to substitute imports by favouring the domestic sector.
Canada supports a globalization that is equal for all partners. Canada's economic security concerns are not limited to the economic base. There are also economic tools that create threats to national security. China has a stated policy of civil-military integration, which seeks to reorient civilian technologies, in particular advanced emerging technologies, to dual-use and military ends as this policy is carried out by countless state and non-state actors. This can blur the lines of seemingly beneficial or neutral co-operation between Canadian firms, researchers and their Chinese counterparts.
Fortunately, Canada has robust tools to deal with these challenges. Our government has also responded with new initiatives to protect Canada's economic security. For starters, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry oversees and utilizes the Investment Canada Act to ensure investments coming to Canada are of net benefit and not injurious to national security. The act applies to all investors, regardless of their country of origin.
Further, our government is responsive to changing circumstances. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many companies suffered declines in valuations putting them at risk of opportunistic investment behaviour, ISED responded with a policy statement on foreign investment review and COVID-19. This subjected all state-owned investors or private investors assessed as being closely tied to foreign governments to enhanced scrutiny under the act, among other areas.
Another important component of Canada's economic security tool kit involves support and guidance to Canadians engaged in research. Science and technology is an important domain that contributes to Canada's international competitiveness. The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the intense competition and aggressive targeting of Canada's advanced research. Earlier this year, the Communications Security Establishment and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service published a joint statement assessing that it is near certain that state-sponsored actors have shifted their focus during the pandemic and that Canadian intellectual property represents a valuable target.
The government remains committed to the principles of open science, but espionage and foreign interference activities pose real threats to Canadian research integrity, intellectual property and business interests. Therefore, our government has launched a Safeguarding your Research portal to help Canadian researchers access helpful tools, information and resources to assist them in protecting the knowledge and innovations they are developing.
Through the trade commissioner service and our network of diplomatic missions in China, the government also continues to provide advice to Canadian companies and stakeholders doing business in China to equip them to pursue opportunities when beneficial, while mitigating risks and troubleshooting where necessary. This co-operation helped Canada weather some of its darkest hours during the pandemic, as was the case when our government worked with Chinese authorities and manufacturers on addressing supply shortages in the health sector. China is a key supplier of personal protective equipment in the global supply chains and has accounted for a significant portion of medical supplies procured by the Government of Canada.
These are just some of the actions our government has taken to respond to the threats to Canada's economic security. Despite current difficulties, Canada continues to work with China and industry stakeholders to resolve bilateral commercial challenges. We are not losing sight of the fact that China is and will remain an important commercial partner for Canada while, at the same time, always defending Canada's interests when it comes to economic security.