The Globe and Mail reports, “(The Harper government) is expected to release (its) decisions (on the proposed $15.1-billion takeover of Calgary’s Nexen Inc. by Chinese state-owned enterprise CNOOC Ltd., as well as Malaysian-based Petronas’s $6-billion bid for Progress Energy Resources Corp.) by the end of day Monday (December 10), and perhaps as early as Friday (December 7), though the ruling could encounter last-minute snags and be delayed further. …At the same time, (the Harper government) will release new foreign-investment guidelines that will signal to Asian governments and their state-owned enterprises the extent of Canada’s appetite for further takeovers in key sectors.”
Council of Canadians trade campaigner Stuart Trew has commented, “The Nexen buyout will mean significantly expanding the environmental destruction of the tar sands to water, the climate and Indigenous peoples. It might be a good money-maker investment for CNOOC, but China is clearly hoping this investment and expansion will put renewed pressure for unsafe and unpopular pipelines to the West Coast. All of this becomes more difficult to control and regulate under Canada’s free trade and investment deals (including the Canada-China Foreign Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement) and should be reason enough to cancel the purchase.”
We have also commented that Harper government approval of the Petronas takeover of Progress Energy would mean a major expansion of fracking in the Montney shale gas area of northeastern British Columbia, including the expansion of a proposed LNG export facility on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert. Canada is currently in free trade talks with Malaysia through the Trans Pacific Partnership.
Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders wrote this past weekend, “In the three decades since (Brian Mulroney said ‘Canada is open for business’ in 1985), Industry Canada has received 1,664 applications for foreign takeovers of Canadian companies, leading to a foreign-ownership stake of $915-billion. So far, it has formally rejected only one. (But) Canada remains a hyperglobalized country: That $915-billion in foreign ownership is still smaller than the $941-billion Canadian companies have spent buying foreign firms.”
Council of Canadians commentary on the foreign takeover bids can be read at http://canadians.org/blog/?p=16632 and http://canadians.org/blog/?p=18329. Today’s Globe and Mail article is at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/ottawa-poised-to-rule-on-nexen-progress-energy-foreign-takeovers/article6066464/.
