CUPE National President Paul Moist was invited by the House of Commons Industry Committee to discuss changes to the Investment Canada Act to prevent damaging foreign takeovers of Canadian businesses.
Unfortunately, Conservative party members of the committee prevented witnesses from appearing because they spent the time filibustering a motion by the opposition parties to have Parliament consider a private members bill to improve the census.
Brother Moist called the existing legislation little more than “a large rubber stamp” that has allowed many damaging foreign takeovers that have often hurt communities and led to a weakening of Canada’s economy.
He called for legislation to be improved by:
- Requiring transparency and accountability for the ministers decisions.
- Explicit criteria for these decisions including consideration of jobs, workers wages, pensions and impact on local communities.
- Reduce the threshold for review.
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Stronger monitoring and enforcement rules.
