In this segment of The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast, we are going to have a great conversation with Pierre Paulyu, the Member of Parliament for Charbonneau-Saint-Charles, the Public Safety and Security Shadow Minister. We're going to talk about ACON, the takeover by a Chinese company, and why this is important for national security.
00:00:00.000For this segment of The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast, we are going to have a great conversation with Pierre Paulyu, the Member of Parliament for Charbot Haute-Saint-Charles, the Public Safety and Security Shadow Minister.
00:00:13.060We're going to talk about ACON, the takeover by a Chinese company and why this is important for national security, that it be done right and overseen right.
00:00:23.640You're listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
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00:00:54.660And now, here's your host, Tony Clement.
00:01:04.100Welcome to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:01:07.060I'm your host, Tony Clement, Member of Parliament.
00:01:09.660And we are going to be talking about a very important file with Pierre Paulyu, who is the Member of Parliament for Charbot Haute-Saint-Charles in Quebec.
00:01:22.120It's great to have you on the program.
00:01:23.500We're going to be talking about a file involving a Canadian company, ACON, and its takeover, I would say literally, by the Chinese Communist Party.
00:01:34.100So, first of all, Pierre, give us a bit of an explanation.
00:02:02.220Now, you're the shadow minister for public safety and security.
00:02:06.760So, this is why you're interested in the file because ACON has capacity and has experience building in things that would be considered part of our public safety and security.
00:02:21.400Exactly, exactly, especially for defence or, I mean, if you have a new infrastructure for a communication company or whatsoever, it's important to keep the control of everything there.
00:02:33.600And it's why we have a lot of concern with Chinese, you know.
00:02:38.160So, ACON, which is a Canadian company, a massive construction firm, as Pierre has indicated, has also been the target of a takeover by a Chinese company.
00:02:53.400Yes, the company is called, it's a CCC, four times C, international.
00:02:58.520And it's, this company is used to have overseas investment.
00:03:02.780And, actually, the problem is we're supposed, our government is supposed to make some investigation to the purpose of the company, who isn't, and they don't want to.
00:03:14.240So, Government of Canada and Mr. Trudeau don't want to investigate.
00:03:18.920So, because of the size of this takeover bid, it automatically is reviewed under the Investment Canada Act because it's a foreign company buying a domestic company.
00:03:31.280The other side of this is there, what the Conservative Caucus is trying to say is there should be a national security review on top of just the regular review, whether this is a net benefit to Canada.
00:03:45.820Yes, like you said, we have a process here in Canada to review this kind of transaction.
00:03:52.900And, each time a foreign government wants to buy a huge company like Aiken or some other company, there's some procedure that we have to have some critical investigation to see who is behind this company, where the monies come from, that kind of question.
00:04:15.660And, actually, for Aiken, we asked last year the government to make some investigation, and they don't want to.
00:04:49.420So, if, for example, they built some infrastructure for a military base somewhere in Canada, they can put some mics or some camera or whatever you want in the building.
00:05:02.860So, it's a very important security concern for us.
00:05:06.320And, again, we really don't understand why the Government of Canada, Mr. Trudeau, and his government don't want to check everything around this control.
00:05:16.360Now, one of the things that came out in the media investigations on this was that this company was not only a company from the People's Republic of China, but that there was a subsidiary controlling interest by the Chinese Communist Party.
00:05:34.940This was of even greater concern when that came out.
00:05:37.240Yes, because, you know, sometimes when we talk about China, people may be confused.
00:05:43.420You know, there are some Chinese interests who are OK, can be OK with us.
00:05:50.340But when it's the Communist Chinese government who is in control of this interest, it's totally different for us.
00:05:58.440You know, we cannot let the Communist, the mainland China Communist Party of China control our company.
00:06:06.940And this is this is the thing, because, you know, we do have companies that are, you know, in state run economies like China or Russia or Saudi Arabia.
00:06:18.000But if they're acting as market based companies, if they're listed on the New York Exchange, let's say, or the Toronto Exchange, then they are reacting to market based signals.
00:06:32.980But if you're a state owned enterprise taking direction from, in this case, the Chinese Communist government, that's an entirely different thing, isn't it?
00:06:42.680Yes, exactly. And at this moment, you cannot have any control, the bank or anyone you can't think.
00:06:50.940You can't control. And at the moment, you can't control the business.
00:06:55.480You cannot have any information. So it's very critical for us, for Canada.
00:07:00.100And, you know, a few weeks ago, when the Public Safety Committee, we asked some question to Richard Fadden, the former National Security Advisor.
00:07:11.460And he's very concerned about China, actually.
00:07:15.100He said that our government, the liberal government, is not really serious with the threat from China.
00:07:22.300Because this is a third or fourth instance where a Chinese-based company has bought something and has become very controversial.
00:08:22.200And all of a sudden, the Chinese government is running the facility.
00:08:24.460Exactly. So, again, it's another time, another big company in Canada, take over by the Chinese government.
00:08:34.720And just to remind listeners on the Norsat deal, that's a satellite technology company that had a lot of contracts with the U.S. Defense Department.
00:08:44.040And they were taken over, and there was no national security review, and the local government ushered that one in without much debate.
00:08:52.100And I spoke with congressmen in Washington last year about that, and they're very concerned about our government.
00:08:57.780They don't understand why it's worked like this in Canada.
00:09:01.020And especially for Norsat, also, it's, you know, the moment you are, the Chinese control, a Canadian company, no, a Chinese company, who are involved in communication, satellite, you know, that's incredible.
00:09:15.080And we can't understand, again, why our government.
00:09:19.120So, in the case of ACON, after the Conservative Caucus, yourself, Pierre Paulus, and myself, others, did raise the issues about the national security side of the deal,
00:09:33.520the Liberal government finally conceded that there has to be a national security review.
00:12:37.700Thank you for listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:12:44.700To find more episodes, interviews, and in-depth discussions of politics in Canada, search for The Blueprint on iTunes or visit podcast.conservative.ca.