44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 3, 2023 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, I really enjoy sitting on the fisheries committee with the member for Nanaimo—Ladysmith. She brings a lot of good value to that committee, as does the member for Cape Breton—Canso.
That is an important question because this is below the threshold. The fisheries industry, which is a strategic food industry for Canada, is not, in any of the lists I have heard from the minister, generally listed as an industry that should be protected. Our food industry is below the threshold for review because these acquisitions are smaller companies that are way below the review, whether it is from China or the United States.
We are seeing more and more on the B.C. coast that many of the fisheries licences are owned by Chinese state-owned enterprises, and on the east coast we are seeing the processing side of things and the fish-buying things in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia being acquired by countries from all over the world, but primarily China.
I understand there is nothing in this bill that would stop those types of things coming. I would like to explore this a little more in committee. Perhaps the only thing would be, at this stage, if the minister put fisheries as part of the food strategic investments on his list.
220 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, I appreciated the speech by my colleague from Windsor West, who I enjoy working with on the industry committee, and the former chair who did marvellous work on it. It is a great report. My personal favourite is recommendation number one, which is that the state-owned enterprises be reduced to zero for review.
The Investment Canada Act focuses on the acquisition of companies. However, it does not focus at all on the acquisition of individual assets. These would be things like a mine sold by a company to a foreign interest; or a technology sold, without the company being sold, to an interest that may not be in Canada's best security interest or net benefit interest. I do not recall hearing about this. Could the member comment on that?
133 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, I just wanted to follow up on the question from my colleague from South Shore—St. Margarets about individual assets ending up in the hands of foreign state-owned enterprises. I am thinking particularly of state-owned enterprises from nondemocratic nations, as the member for Windsor West mentioned. When we fund research chairs at Canada's research universities, at the end of the process, we end up owning an asset born of Canadian ingenuity. This does not go to national security necessarily, but it certainly goes to the strength of our economy.
95 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the member for Nepean about state-owned enterprises from not-so-democratic countries, or hostile countries. It was recommendation number one of the industry committee's report from the last Parliament on this issue that the threshold for consideration as a national security or net benefit test under this act be reduced from the $415 million to zero dollars, so that every transaction in every type of industry by a state-owned enterprise from a nondemocratic country would be reviewed. That is not in this bill. Would the hon. member support it being amended that way?
103 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, investment by state-owned enterprises from non-friendly countries obviously needs to be looked very deeply into. I am not sure whether we should have a minimum threshold, but as I said, every single investment by state-owned enterprises needs to be looked into.
At the same time, in addition to state-owned enterprises, I also want to highlight investment by global multinational companies in the steel and aluminum sector, as I mentioned, that have made direct investment. One hundred percent of the sector is foreign owned, which is leading to Canadian companies becoming the branch offices of these multinational companies and is curtailing the potential to grow Canadian exports around the world.
115 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
