Switzerland-based Xstrata PLC bought Falconbridge, whose treasure trove includes its Sudbury nickel operation and the fabled Noranda and Kidd Creek base-metals deposits.
Inco, which pioneered nickel production at Sudbury and in Manitoba, was snapped up by Brazil's state-owned Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD).
Alcan is second only to Alcoa among the world's biggest producers of aluminum, a strategic metal in aerospace and defence also used in more prosaic applications including beverage cans and auto parts.
If there's to be a tipping point at which politicians and public opinion finally balk at foreign takeovers – after the recent loss of domestic stewardship of Dofasco Inc., Hudson's Bay Co., Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. and other commercial icons – this may be it.
Alcan is Canada's eighth-largest company, and fifth-largest Canadian-controlled firm, with 64,700 employees, annual revenues of $24 billion and assets of close to $30 billion. Alcan's removal from the Toronto Stock Exchange would mean the further dwindling of the ranks of large-cap, widely held companies in which big institutional money managers can invest. And it would further diminish Canada's claim to be among the world's most important centres of mining finance and managerial expertise.
"It's a disaster for Canada," Doug Davis, money manager at Davis-Rea Ltd. in Toronto told Bloomberg News yesterday. "Anything and everything is for sale. We'll run out of companies to invest in."
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/211483
[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on May 9, 2007]
Note: http://www.thestar.com/...
Another Big Bite Out Of Canada?
Posted on Tuesday, May 08 at 16:51 by truepatriotContributed By
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concern? As for tipping point, I almost believe that we passed it and have gone
over the edge to a point where people just accept that we no longer have a
country and we sit holding our breath waiting for the next loss...its like we are in
mourning and don't know what to do, or where to turn for help...this is very sad
for Canada! I've never seen people so beaten, so in denial and acting so
helpless... when we are not helpless, not without hope, not finished, but we are
acting like we've already gone to battle and lost...Very sad...
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"aaaah and the whisper of thousands of tiny voices became a mighty deafening roar and they called it 'freedom'!"' Canadians Acting Humanely at home & everywhere
a brilliant scam of scams
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"It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities."
—Sir Josiah Stamp
THats GOOD for the workers because, unlike now, they can't sponge off the patriotism theme of 'being from here' which let Falconbridge get away with hundreds of environmentally damaging policies.
So those are REAL policies, not just the 'stick a canadian flag on there and get them cheering' approach to business.
That being said, most in the mining community state that 'the jury is still out'. Being from the maritimes I know full well what CAN be the long term repercussions. Being from a 'have not' province and being forced to move over a thousand kilometers from home to find a decent job to live in a province where the maritimes is constantly derided for being lazy slackers, I will admit that one thought in my mind was "ha ha, lets see how you bastards like it!". However, I'm not that vindictive. You need only look at what happened in New Brunswick in the decade right after confederation, there was a HUGE investment, unfortunately it was all to buy up local industries, which then sent the economy into a century old crapper.
If you want to see the long term effects, take a look at the maritimes. Hell, at least these are FOREIGN investors that may screw over Ontarians, the maritimes got screwed over by our own country! However, this is not a hundred years ago and Ontario has all the federal representation, so don't sound the death knell just yet. Personally, I'd welcome the day that banking in canada were 'americanized' and those big five bastards put out of business.