Madam Speaker, I would like to split my time with the member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands.
First I want to applaud this government. I want to applaud the Minister of Industry for his careful review of the BHP deal. I fully support this decision. As a Conservative member of Parliament from Saskatchewan, I want to commend my Conservative colleagues. We acted responsibly and were forthcoming in sharing our knowledge and the concerns of our constituents in this matter.
Under the previous Liberal government, every single transaction was approved without investigation knowing full well that the act requires an assessment of the net benefit test. When the member for Wascana was at the cabinet table, he rubber-stamped every single deal and never once took a company to court to challenge it on its commitments. His recent actions were nothing but rhetoric and bluster.
This government believes in foreign investment. It is vital to our economy, especially our resource sector, but the deal must meet the criteria that it be a net benefit to Canada. Yesterday the Minister of Industry announced that he believes this deal is not likely to be a net benefit to Canada and we fully support him in this decision.
Moving to today's discussion, the motion before us states in part:
—the Government of Canada should take immediate steps to amend the Investment Canada Act to ensure the views of those most directly affected by any takeover are considered, and any decision on whether a takeover delivers a “net benefit” to Canada is transparent by: (a) making public hearings a mandatory part of foreign investment review; (b) ensuring those hearings are open to all directly affected and expert witnesses they choose to call on their behalf; (c) ensuring all conditions attached to approval of a takeover be made public and be accompanied by equally transparent commitments to monitoring corporate performance on those conditions and appropriate and enforceable penalties for failure to live up to those conditions; (d) clarifying that a goal of the Act is to encourage foreign investment that brings new capital, creates new jobs, transfers new technology to this country, increases Canadian-based research and development, contributes to sustainable economic development and improves the lives of Canadian workers and their communities, and not foreign investment motivated simply by a desire to gain control of a strategic Canadian resource; and that the House express its opposition to the takeover of Potash Corporation by BHP.
As I have mentioned, under the Investment Canada Act, where an investment is subject to review under the act, the minister must approve an investor's application for review before an investor can implement an acquisition. The minister only approves applications where he is satisfied based on the plans, undertakings and other representations of the investor that the investment is likely to be a net benefit to Canada. The review process under the act is rigorous. It involves careful analysis and extensive consultations with government departments and the provinces.
Let me take a moment to explain the confidentiality provisions of the act. They do not permit the minister responsible to make comments about specific investments without the investor's prior agreement. Divulging confidential information outside of the narrow exceptions of the act is a criminal infraction.
Some members of the House have questioned why the confidentiality provisions of the act are so strict. The confidentiality provisions of the act reflect the fact that the information shared by the investor with the government is often commercially sensitive information, which, if disclosed, could harm the competitive position of the investor and harm its partners, including, for instance, its suppliers. Unless investors are sure that their information will be protected by the government, they will be reluctant to share information that is critical to the rigorous review process.
To ensure the minister can obtain the information he requires to make his net benefit determination, very strict confidentiality provisions have been included in the Investment Canada Act, and these must be followed.
During the review process, the investor generally provides plans and undertakings to support that its new investments are likely to be a net benefit to Canada. All approved investments are subject to monitoring to determine the extent to which the plans and undertakings provided by the investor have been implemented.
An evaluation of the implementation of the plans and undertakings provided by the investor is ordinarily performed 18 months after the implementation of the investment, and additional evaluations are performed based on the duration of the plans and undertakings.
The act provides for remedies where a non-Canadian investor implements an investment on terms or conditions that vary materially from those contained in an application, or where the investor has failed to comply with a written undertaking.
The decision to take enforcement measures under the Investment Canada Act is based on the overall performance of the investor in implementing its plans and undertakings, and decisions to take enforcement measures are made on a case-by-case basis by the minister based on the specific circumstances of the transaction.
I would remind the House that our government is the only Canadian government to take enforcement measures. Under the Liberals, not once did that occur.
Our government's record is clear. We firmly believe in foreign investment. We have taken measures to increase foreign investment in the satellite sector. We are consulting on how to achieve similar goals in the telecommunications sector.
Canada is open for business, but only when the proposal is of a net benefit to Canada.
