Two recent developments highlight the significance and rapidly changing nature of national security considerations in reviews under the Investment Canada Act (the ICA):
· In mid-June Industry Canada was reported to have blocked a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE), Beida Jade Bird, from building a $30 million fire alarm manufacturing facility in Saint-Bruno de Montarville, Quebec on national security grounds, due to the proximity of the proposed facility to a site operated by the Canadian Space Agency.
· Later in June Paladin Energy Ltd. (Paladin) of Australia obtained approval under the Non-Resident Ownership Policy of 1987 (NROP), as enforced under the ICA, to allow it to acquire a majority foreign ownership interest in the Michelin uranium mine in Labrador, notwithstanding historical resistance to foreign investment in Canadian uranium mines and a previous intervention by the Minister of Industry under the national security review provisions of the ICA to prohibit a proposed acquisition.
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