The Kelowna-Lake Country MP finds herself in the midst of a debate about Canada protecting its natural resource interests from state-controlled China company.
Conservative Tracy Gray sits on a standing committee on an industry that is pushing the Liberal federal government to explain the absence of a security review regarding the acquisition of a Canadian mining company, Neo-Lithium.
“Critical minerals such as lithium are essential for the future of Canada’s economy, especially as the auto industry continues to shift towards the domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles,” Gray said.
“The foreign takeover of companies like Neo-Lithium without due diligence may further weaken our strategic interests in developing a domestic supply of these critical minerals.”
The committee meeting on Thursday (Jan. 20) made a recommendation for a six meeting agenda for due investigative process on the acquisition proposal to gather input from stakeholders, national security experts and economy academics.
The response from the government has been for two meetings.
Francois-Philippe Champagne, federal minister for innovation, science and industry, has also been asked to appear before the committee to explain the government’s position on the Neo-Lithium acquisition.
Gray said concerns about China’s investment intervention in Canadian national resources have been a concern expressed by her constituents and also has the attention of the Conservatives.
Prior to the 2021 federal election, Gray said the existing thresholds under the Investment Canada Act to protect our country’s natural resources interests were considered by her party to be inadequate and needed updating.
The all-party industry committee conducted a study and tabled recommendations to the government in the House of Commons last year.
Those recommendations were not acted on and then any work was sidelined, however, by the electioin call which also effectively ended all unfinished government business.
As well, Gray said the committee structure to offer a critical review of proposed government legislation and conduct studies has not been fully functioning for some eight months.
“We were willing to sit through last summer and debate some of these issues but that did not happen, the election was called. We were ready to reconvene Parliament after the election but the Liberals have delayed the process…it won’t be fully functioning again until February,” Gray said.
“That is eight months of government not doing its normal work and that is not how we should be operating.”
The resource control issue is one of global concern as China investment firms, largely controlled by government influence, have been investing in natural resource control rights in countries around the world.
Neo-Lithium identifies itself as a firm developing critical mineral mining of lithium to meet the demands of the expanding electric car market.
“Lithium is something that is essential to our economy moving forward. It is basically a strategic asset,” Gray explained.
“It is an important component in the production of rechargeable batteries for everyday electronic purposes, from smartphones to electric vehicles.”
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