By Andrew Schopp
The takeover of Canadian resources by foreign interests will not end with the proposed purchase of Calgary-based Nexen Corp. by the China National Offshore Oil Corp., said Edmonton East independent conservative MP Peter Goldring.
“We all know that China has massive amounts of money, but that money came from our manufacturing, at the expense of our manufacturing industry that lose out to their cheap labour, because their standards are not up to what our conditions are,” said Goldring in a telephone interview with Humber News from his Edmonton office.
“I think what they should be doing is studying what these massive takeovers really mean.”
Shareholders of Calgary-based Nexen Corp. have approved a $15.1-billion takeover by state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp.
“We lost our television industry, we lost our small appliance industry, we lost industry after industry,” Goldring said.
“You have got to stop and say where is this going to end? They are being bigger capitalists than we are capitalists. Communists outdoing capitalists, it’s rather ironic.”
In a national survey conducted online by Ottawa-based Abacus Data between September 14-18, 69 per cent of respondents said they did not approve of the Nexen takeover.
“The majority of Canadians are opposed to the deal and think that the government should reject it,” said Abacus Director of Research Alex Monk, summarizing the survey’s results.
“The reason for that is Canadians aren’t so much concerned about the business side of things but are very concerned about the possibility of a foreign company controlling a major strategic asset,” Monk told Humber News.
The $15.1 billion takeover of Nexen was approved Thursday by shareholders and is awaiting approval from the federal government.
“We seem to have a policy to sell anything for money and without thinking about the future,” said Mel Teghtmeyer, a member of the Calgary chapter of the Council of Canadians.
“This is not the first buyout of our assets. We’ve sold off our grain companies, our oil and gas, anything that’s big we are willing to sell. As we sell off all of our assets, we lose control of our own destiny as a country and we become a county that’s controlled by money and forgets other values,” Teghtmeyer told Humber News.
“There are great concerns of whether China is really that trustworthy. I would be familiar with China in different parts of the world,” he said.
“We’ve got to be very cautious here. What dollars are they using to buy our industry with? They are buying it with our own money. We have given up all of our manufacturing to China, everything from television sets to toasters.”
#China buying up Canada- #Nexen shareholders vote to approve $15.1-billion takeover offer ctvnews.ca/business/nexen…
— Gary C. Bizzo (@garybizzo) September 20, 2012
Analysis: China awaits Cfius review of deal for #Nexen, seen as example of potential Chinese bids for US companies. ow.ly/dEwoc ($)
— EnergyTomorrow (@EnergyTomorrow) September 12, 2012