Media Archive 2013

Energy crunch: Canada's future tied to foreign investment

January 4, 2013

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper approved a massive foreign takeover of a major Canadian oil company and laid out rules for similar deals in the future, the decision might have answered one question, but it raised a host of new issues. Last month, the Harper government gave its blessing to the $15-billion sale of Nexen Inc., a large Calgary-based oil and gas producer active around the world. The federal government also said that, in the future, similar takeover bids initiated by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for Canadian oilsands businesses will be approved only "in exceptional circumstances."