Challenges For State-Owned Enterprises Arising From Proposed Amendments To The Investment Canada Act

Last December, the Canadian government announced that the review threshold under the Investment Canada Act (Act) for investments by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) would be amended and, as a result, would not increase in the same way that non-SOE investments would.¹ At that time, the government also introduced revised guidelines for the review of SOE investments, including its position that acquisitions of control by SOEs of a Canadian oil sands business will be found to be of "net benefit to Canada" on an exceptional basis only. These new SOE specific measures necessitate a change in the law to allow foreign investors to determine whether they are SOEs for purposes of the Act and therefore, whether and how their investments will be treated under the Act.