Foreign Ownership and Control? Yes!
 
The latest figures from the Investment Review Division of Industry
Canada are now available. They cover the period from June 30, 1985,
when the Mulroney government put the Investment Canada Act into effect to the end of September, 2005.
 
In that period of just over 20 years, there were 11,380 companies in Canada taken over by non-resident controlled corporations. The total value of the takeovers was just over $548.494 billion.
 
During the same years, new foreign investment for new businesses in this country was  just over $18.040 billion.
 
So, it was just over 96.8%  foreign investment for takeovers, and a pathetic less than 3.2% for new business investment.
 
Fewer that 13% of takeovers were reviewed by the Review Division.
Not a single takeover was rejected.
 
Bear in mind, that however appalling the above figures are, much of the money used by non-residents to take over the thousands of companies came not from outside Canada but from our own good old patriotic Canadian banks and other financial institutions in this country. No one in the Department of Finance, in the Bank of Canada, in the PMO or Privy Council Office, NO ONE in Ottawa knows just how much of the takeover of our country is financed in our own country with Canadian savings. My own educated guess is at least 65%, but it's probably higher.
 
They don't know because they don't care to find out.
 
So, remember, when the CCCE, the Howe, the Chamber or whoever pleads for more foreign investment in this country, the facts, year after year after year, are clear. They are in fact welcoming the increased foreign ownership and control of our home.
 
Only in Canada...........
 
Mel Hurtig
Vancouver,October 17, 2005.
 

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