In brief On 7 December 2022, Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (Minister), announced the Canadian government introduced legislation to amend the Investment Canada Act (ICA), known as the National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act. While the proposed amendments at first appear to be a dramatic overhaul of the existing national security review framework for foreign investment in Canada, they are generally consistent with other recent legislative amendments and policy developments related to Canada’s…

In January 2022, the Canadian government allowed a Chinese state-owned investor, Zijin Mining Group, to acquire Canadian lithium miner Neo Lithium Corp (“Neo Lithium”) for approximately $960 million. As the decision comes in the wake of two significant recent developments, the finalization in January 2020 of a Canada-US plan to secure supply chains for critical minerals; and the issuance in March 2021 of updated National Security Review Guidelines that list critical minerals, including lithium, as…

On 24 March 2021, the Canadian Government announced updates to its guidelines on national security reviews (Guidelines) under the Investment Canada Act (Act). The updated Guidelines identify additional areas that, in the Government’s view, could present national security concerns in foreign investment, including sensitive personal data, certain sensitive technologies and critical minerals, in addition to expressly re-emphasising the Government’s views on investments by state-owned or state-influenced investors. More specifically: With respect to the identity of…

The Government of Canada recently announced the 2021 thresholds for a mandatory, pre-closing economic “net benefit” review and approval under the Investment Canada Act (ICA). The new thresholds will be published in the Canada Gazette in February 2021. Updated thresholds 2021 In most cases these thresholds will decrease for the first time on a year-to-year basis since the introduction of regulatory amendments in 2015 (which established an “enterprise value” calculation for certain private sector investments).…