Is foreign investment a benefit to Canada?

[ExtraSlow]

So, I am no kind of expert on this, hoping to get educated.

- When foreign companies sold out of the oil sands it was seen as a negative.
- Chinese companies have been repeatedly blocked by the federal government from buying large Canadian companies. This seems to align with the public sentiment.
- the acquisition of Rona by Lowe's, and the purchase of Tim's by RBI were both seen as losses of important national symbols.


I guess, could someone explain to me if it's beneficial for Canadian companies and assets to be purchased by foreign companies or not?

[Tik-Tok]

Im no expert either, but the way I see it, the more of Canadas economy foreign investors own, the more power they wield over our government, and help introduce laws that are against Canadians interests.

[Buster]

Foreign investment is good, yes.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[ercchry]

Depends I guess

The way I view this global economy is that each country is essentially a corporation... they need trade outside of their borders, cause shuffling around money internally isn’t building wealth... so does the investment inject cash into the country... or is it stripping it out?

Keeping in mind money today is more valuable than money tomorrow

[killramos]

I see no issues with foreign investment as a general concept.

However we need to be cognizant of strategic/security concerns with foreign entities connected with foreign governments, I think we would be ignorant to think that effective economic imperialism isn’t a thing. So long as we maintain transparency and controls over what happens in our country I think this can be mitigated and I see no issue taking their money.

We need to be very careful over how different international entities and businessmen approach our laws, and these people need to be held to the highest standard for issues of tax avoidance, proceeds of crime, money laundering etc. When they are caught we need to throw the book at them to make it abundantly clear how seriously we are. That’s not me saying we should be discriminatory, we should do this to literally everyone.

I think our current system of representative government does a reasonable job of preventing our political systems from being bought with foreign dollars, we could do better but I think our politicians are reasonably independent of foreign money. Now their greed for spin and schemes to get more of our tax dollars is a different story.

Anyways that’s my thought, there have been good and bad stories with the issue of foreign investment, I think it needs to be encouraged but we need to also learn from our mistakes and ensure companies continue operating in the nations best interest after the investment happens.

[Buster]

If you issue is with government corruption, then your issue is with government corruption, not FDI.

It's always entertaining watching people try to argue against FDI (not you Killramos)

/grabs popcorn

[Gestalt]

Selling canadian assets to foreigners is moronic.

You want to sell them our products and goods, not control over our resources thats dumb as shit.

Liberal thinking . short terms gains so in the long term we dont own or control our own country

[tonytiger55]

It can work both ways.

Foreign investment can bring in new ideas and and investment to industry. The English Premier League is a good example if we were to look a examples abroad.
In principle yes. But it can go the other way where a foreign company comes and just strips out the good bits of company and then leaves. BMW did this with the Mini and Land Rover. China did this with Rover. It had a masive impact on jobs in the midlands. Maybe it was needed as some of the engineering on the vehicles was shit.

There has to be strategic thinking when allowing foreign investors in, are they bringing anything new, long term benefits and competition. Or does it weaken our governments/country position when negotiating with x country?

[suntan]

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the acquisition of Rona by Lowe's, and the purchase of Tim's by RBI were both seen as losses of important national symbols.

Just remember, no company is ever "acquired". They're sold. And they're sold because the owners were looking to sell.

[killramos]

Question, if the company is public and the majority of the share ownership is held outside of the country, does that also bother you?

This whole concept of “losing control” is a joke, our government never had control of any of these companies in the first place.

[phreezee]

Haha, I never shopped at Rona, and I hate Tim Hortons. That said, bigger companies have more buying power which could mean cheaper products for consumers. From that perspective, its beneficial to me as a Canadian consumer.

[Disoblige]

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That said, bigger companies have more buying power which could mean cheaper products for consumers. From that perspective, its beneficial to me as a Canadian consumer.

Cheaper, but possibly worse quality too. Tim Horton's used to bake their donuts in-house rather than get them all frozen through central distribution. Not saying this happened from the RBI purchase, because they stopped baking fresh in-house since 2002.

[Xtrema]

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Cheaper, but possibly worse quality too. Tim Horton's used to bake their donuts in-house rather than get them all frozen through central distribution. Not saying this happened from the RBI purchase, because they stopped baking fresh in-house since 2002.

RBI has make it worse but I believe Timmy's is well already going down hill long before RBI got them. And on top of the Trump tax cut, RBI will fuck over Timmy even harder to prove to shareholder the tax dodging scheme is worth it.

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Question, if the company is public and the majority of the share ownership is held outside of the country, does that also bother you?

This whole concept of “losing control” is a joke, our government never had control of any of these companies in the first place.

I think if it involve resources and have sensitive government contracts (defense etc) we shouldn't allow foreign ownership.

But since our mobile and government network already run on Huawei gears instead of Cisco, the point is moot. Chinese already knew everything there is to know in Canada.

Most industry tho, like Bombardier/Rona/Timmy's etc, there is no reason not to allow foreign ownership. And even some resource companies, who cares which country operates it as long as governments get a fair share via royalties.

[Buster]

You think we shouldn't allow foreign investment into resource development? Why.

[suntan]

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You think we shouldn't allow foreign investment into resource development? Why.

Because some Chinese guy might go in front of the sensitive Canadian workers and tell them what a terrible job they have been doing.

[lasimmon]

Things like sequoia resources and Lexin don't reflect well. But that was a failing of the AER more than anything.

[ZenOps]

Most definitely maybe.

[Xtrema]

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You think we shouldn't allow foreign investment into resource development? Why.

Not all of it, we have to keep some for strategic reasons. Same reason why OPEC have huge influences.

[Buster]

We shouldn't allow fdi in resource development because we want to manipulate global commodity pricing?