Foreign Ownership News

David Emerson's advice to Canadians about building "Canadian" technologies for world markets sounds very like one more argument for selling out the country.

BC Liberal Americanization of Formerly Public Assets and Services:

When Prince Charles claimed thousands of Indian farmers were killing themselves after using GM crops, he was branded a scaremonger. In fact, as this chilling dispatch reveals, it's even WORSE than he feared.

What follows is just a small extract from the article by the Daily Mail which gives some specific examples of the havoc caused by the push to use GM seeds. Anyone who has any questions as to the real aims of Monsanto and their ilk MUST read this (Rural)

 

Stephen Harper recently announced that if re-elected he will begin further removing barriers to foreign investment in the airline and uranium sectors. His plan is based on proposals set forth by the Competition Review Panel. Harper stayed clear of other more controversial recommendations from the panel, such as allowing bank mergers and opening up Canada’s telecommunications to further foreign investment. You can bet that if the Conservatives are able to secure a majority government, more of these recommendations will be implemented. The corporate agenda is further shaping public policy. Big business is a driving force behind the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), and deeper integration into a North American Union. Trade agreements, such as NAFTA, ultimately benefit multinational corporations at the expense of workers and the environment.

http://intelstrike.com/?p=305

OTTAWA, June 26, 2008: - A panel of top Canadian business executives appointed by Stephen Harper last year to take the heat off the government in the wake of a wave of foreign business takeovers, has recommended more of the same.

The Competition Policy Review Panel has recommended that the federal government water down most foreign investment controls and allow the mergers of major banks.

 

From http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=00154

The report may be viewed at ….

http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/cprp-gepmc.nsf/en/h_00040e.html

 

 

Lisa Wright, Toronto Star
June 27, 2008

Canada as a nation just doesn’t work well enough, says panel head and former BCE chief

[Ed. Note. Both Lynton R. Wilson and co-panelist N. Murray Edwards are Bilderberg attendees. Mr. Wilson attended the global power broker’s conference in King City, 1996, whereas Mr. Edwards was an attendee at this year’s confab in Virginia. Note that imm

I had also wondered what it would have meant for the government's science & technology strategy if they approved the sale...

As far as I know, an Industry Minister is allowed to block takeovers with no penalty if they aren't shown to be of "net benefit" (whatever that means) to Canada. Or maybe if they are shown to not be a "net benefit." It's just that Industry Canada has never blocked a single one before. The Mulroney government agreed to the proportional-sharing thing & they castrated the Investment Canada Act but they didn't agree to that part of the FTA & NAFTA...

At issue is whether the 13-member management board of the company clearly keeps control in Canada, or whether the real power will rest with the U.S. partners Providence, Madison Partners and Merrill Lynch.

Who Gets $2 Billion for Job Skills? US firms may scoop fed funds handed to BC. By Andrew MacLeod Published: February 25, 2008 TheTyee.ca The federal government is getting out of providing employment programs across Canada. In British Columbia it is handing the province $2 billion to do the job. The province touts it as an opportunity to create a "made in B.C." system of employment services, but critics say "made in Tucson" may be more accurate. For a decade B.C. has been moving towards for-profit delivery of job programs, which critics say has led to windfall profits for big companies, but worse service for people who need help. Last year a big American company, Providence Service Corporation, bought B.C.'s biggest employment program contractor, WCG International Consultants Ltd. Thanks to federal Human Resources and Social Development Minister Monte Solberg, the province will soon have a lot more money it could spend with Providence.

That stings: Billy Bee Honey falls into U.S. hands Seasonings company buys private Toronto firm Last Updated: Thursday, February 21, 2008 | 4:59 PM ET CBC News Billy Bee Honey Products, maker of Canada's leading brand of honey, has been bought by McCormick & Co., a Maryland-based spice and seasonings giant, for $75 million US. The private Toronto company, in business since 1958, was owned by the family of its 91-year-old founder, Jack Grossman.

Parizeau says National Bank of Canada vulnerable to foreign takeover 2 hours, 51 minutes ago By The Canadian Press Former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau argued Monday the National Bank of Canada is vulnerable to foreign takeover. Parizeau told a meeting of a group to protect and educate shareholders that at least two foreign institutions, including France's Societe generale, had tried to take over the bank and had come "very close" before being rebuffed by the National Bank's board. Parizeau, 77, said the Bank Act states that shareholders can own up to 65 per cent of the Montreal-based National Bank while the ceiling has been set at 20 per cent for major banks led from Toronto, such as the Royal Bank of Canada, CIBC, Bank of Nova Scotia, the Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal.

U.S. firms driving Canadian venture capital Karen Mazurkewich, Financial Post Published: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 Finally, there is some good news in venture capital in Canada. Investment in the Canadian sector jumped to $2.1-billion - a 21% increase from the $1.7-billion invested in 2006. But with upswing comes with a kicker: the increased activity is coming from record investments by U.S. venture capital firms - not by Canadian investors. Whereas Canadian VC investment dropped last year, U.S. venture firms increased their spending in Canada by 53%. Foreign capital now represents 41% of all investment dollars across Canada and 53% of investments in Ontario, according to a statistical report released by Canada's Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and Thomson Financial.

Competition Bureau Failed To Disclose Jim Middlemiss, Financial Post Published: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 The office of the Commissioner of Competition failed to properly disclose information to a Federal Court judge when it sought to obtain a motion asking that Labatt Brewing Co. Ltd. and Lakeport Brewing Ltd. Partnership cough up more information about the impact of its merger on Canada's beer market last November.

2018: What will Canadian business look 10 years from now? From Friday's Globe and Mail December 20, 2007 at 7:33 AM EST WE'LL BE SQUATTERS ON OUR OWN LAND By Peter Newman It is 2018, and the hollowing out of the Canadian economy is complete. The last surviving outer crust of the country's corporate doughnut has long since been swallowed up by foreign investors. Economically, Canada has been reduced to the Manchuria of the 21st century, supplying raw materials for others to process, while we export jobs and lose our best talent. The last to go was Nortel, when a vulture fund out of Hoboken, New Jersey, took over its tattered remains. Canada's once proud digital giant had downgraded its revenue projections so often that its main asset was a broken calculator, stuck at a minus sign. Unconfirmed reports point to a harness shop in Red Deer and a cod-fishing-supply depot on Bell Island in Newfoundland's Conception Bay as token examples of the odd, overlooked or perpetually unprofitable enterprises still in domestic hands.