Finance committee  There is already a schedule in the Investment Canada Act for the threshold to rise. It started gradually in 2009 and rose to $400 million, then $600 million, then $800 million, and the intention was that it then go to $1 billion in two years from now. This amendment would acceler

Finance committee  That's right, the Competition Policy Review Panel in 2009 made recommendations to raise the threshold to $1 billion.

Finance committee  The Competition Policy Review Panel?

Finance committee  It was led by Red Wilson, and the precise membership escapes me now. There were a number of lawyers and prominent business people in Canada primarily, but Red Wilson was the chair of the panel.

Finance committee  Are you talking about net benefit or national security reviews?

Finance committee  I think 15 reviews were done in 2015. It's in our annual report. If we're looking at the numbers in the last two years, there have been 28 acquisitions of control that were over $800 million, which is the current threshold. We looked at the number of those that were over $1 bil

Finance committee  On the evolution of the threshold, the Investment Canada Act, in its current incarnation, has been around since 1985. Jonathan is more of an historian on this than I am. I can go as far back as 2008, when the scheduled increase was first implemented. In 2008, the threshold was $

Finance committee  The change related to the national security review provisions is just to require annual reporting on the administration of those provisions by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Right now there's very little public information about national security re

Finance committee  To be clear on what would actually be reported in the annual report, it would be high-level information on the number of reviews that have been conducted. It would not give information on the particular investments involved, to protect both national security and confidentiality.

Finance committee  The Investment Canada Act does not define national security. Cabinet is the decision-maker on the national security review portion of the act. It's left fairly open-ended to recognize the fact that threats to national security can evolve over time, and so to provide the flexibili

Finance committee  That's right. The cabinet has the authority to make the decision on whether or not to order a formal review, and the language in the act is that it has the authority to take any measures that it considers advisable following a review to protect national security.

Finance committee  We would never be able to disclose what was said in cabinet because it's a cabinet confidence. The reporting would be done annually on the numbers of reviews, but certainly not the details of cabinet's decisions.

Finance committee  It's the Minister of Innovation who has the requirement under the act to make it public. The way we do that is to put it on our website.

Finance committee  Not last year, sorry, I wasn't clear about that. From 2009 when the national security review provisions actually came into force until 2015, there had been eight over that total period. Going forward, we would report on a yearly basis.

Finance committee  The threshold will remain at $1 billion for the moment, but a provision in the bill sets out that the trigger threshold be increased based on the— growth in GDP, annual inflation. There is an increase every year based on inflation, but it's a smaller increase. For example, last