International Trade committee  Let's agree on one thing. I completely agree with you that we are not performing well, and this is where we may disagree. I believe this is the best time to create this agency. If we were performing off the charts, then we would be proving that we didn't need the agency. Yes, Can

International Trade committee  We will not be able to do a cybersecurity deal with a Chinese company without it having gone through the processes you've just alluded to. One of them is the billion-dollar process. That goes for any company. Any foreign direct investment in Canada is a billion dollars or more. O

International Trade committee  I would love to come back, Mr. Chairman. I think accountability is important, so as a chairman I would like to come back and be accountable for how we perform. Thank you.

International Trade committee  I might add one thing, which is slightly more aggressive. A number of countries' business communities are less comfortable investing with our neighbour to the south, but need a presence in North America. Taking advantage of that current situation would be a smart thing for us to

International Trade committee  You're right. I'll agree with you. London, Silicon Valley, Israel, are much better venture capital, angel capital countries than Canada. I don't know how to fix it today. It's not in our mandate, but it's something that I'd like to be able to work on, because we certainly want

International Trade committee  What percentage of companies invest in Canada, take advantage of our benefits, and then leave?

International Trade committee  You're asking it as though it's a major challenge, or as if it's a.... If I don't know the percentage, then I don't know how to answer it. Maybe it's very small.

International Trade committee  Maybe it's almost de minimis. I don't—

International Trade committee  Sure.

International Trade committee  Sure. Let me give you a practical example. Then you maybe you can answer the Aecon question. I participated in the acquisition of the Cirque du Soleil, a foreign direct investment by an American and a Chinese firm, Fosun and TPG. We got 10% of the equity from the Caisse de dépô

International Trade committee  I think we should have a very high moral and process standard when we are attracting foreign investment, especially when we're giving incentives. If we're giving an incentive, it's like any other incentive: it comes with terms and conditions. Those terms and conditions will have

International Trade committee  I do see our being that sort of coordinated negotiating arm. At the same time, it's imperfect. We're not the Americans. We're unlikely to offer the same level of incentives, but we must be creative. Because we do have such a large part of our economy generated by foreign affiliat

International Trade committee  I think you're right, but at the same time we've been very competitive in access to capital. Our pension funds, our banks, and our governments have been competitive in terms of access to capital. I don't believe that people have not come to Canada, because they couldn't raise the

International Trade committee  I think we can both answer the question. Amazon is not an ideal example, because they got to set the rules in a way that was mostly advantageous to them. If they hadn't set their RFP the way they had, I would love to have been able to bring Canada together and say, “Okay, no o

International Trade committee  Right now it would be a hope, and the hope is the following. I'll use the example of my hometown of Montreal, because I know it best. Along one of the busiest highways of Montreal, you have all of the pharma companies, from Merck to Abbott to Pfizer. How did they get there? In th