Industry committee  I'll tell you how it's defined in the act, if that's helpful. Investment could be very broadly defined, but in the act it means the establishment of a new Canadian business, and it also means an acquisition of part or all of a Canadian business. The national security regime applies slightly more broadly, but it's still linked to the establishment of a business or an entity with links to Canada, or an acquisition.

Industry committee  I've never actually looked at that question, so I don't know. Obviously, as legislators, you have the ability to come up with a definition. The scope of the Investment Canada Act is currently really focused on those two things—establishment and acquisition.

Industry committee  Regulations are made by the Governor in Council, which effectively is the federal cabinet. It's not the individual minister, and it's certainly not the investment review division. If you figure out what you want to cover and you have a more flexible approach in regulations, the other layer on top of that is guidance from ISED, for example, on how they're going to interpret and apply what's in the regulations and in the law.

Industry committee  As a general matter, when we work on these policy positions and positions on legislative proposals, we certainly have experience in practice in this area and we bring that to bear. Also, some of our comments are legal concepts, like protecting due process, etc. It's a combination, and we represent both foreign investors and Canadian businesses.

Industry committee  If a foreign investor had foreign government ownership, we might represent those, yes.

Industry committee  I think you would find that we have a fair bit of integrity. We come to you as the Canadian Bar Association, and we try to maintain a fairly principled way of looking at legislation.

Industry committee  That's probably a bigger government question as to how funding works. I know some things are self-funded. For example, when you make a merger notification to the Competition Bureau, you pay $82,000 per transaction, whether it's a small transaction or a big transaction. Other government functions do not have filing fees, so it varies.

Industry committee  I think regulations offer greater flexibility than the act does. They're much easier to add on to or subtract from.

Industry committee  One way that the act can address the proper balance is by ensuring that you're capturing the right transactions in the mandatory pre-notification procedure. That requires that when you define “prescribed business activity”, you're focusing in on those areas and those transactions, so it's the acquisitions of businesses in sectors that are involved in certain activities that raise the most national security concerns.

Industry committee  Merci. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee. My name is Sandy Walker. I'm the chair of the competition law and foreign investment review section of the Canadian Bar Association. I'm a partner with the law firm of Dentons Canada. Thank you for inviting the CBA to discuss the proposed amendments to the Investment Canada Act.