Ottawa taps panel to review competition, ownership laws

Industry Minister Maxime Bernier and Jim Flaherty announced the creation of a panel to review the country's investment and competition rules Thursday the day Alcan Inc. agreed to a takeover by a foreign firm.

The ministers said the panel will examine the Competition Act and the Investment Canada Act, including sector rules that limit foreign ownership. The panel will also assess how Canada's policies may encourage outward investment.

Flaherty said the government's current policies on investment and competition have not changed in more than two decades.

The creation of the panel comes after several notable Canadian firms, including mining companies Inco Ltd. and Falconbridge Ltd., were bought by outside buyers, prompting fears of a "hollowing out" of corporate Canada.

The latest takeover news came as Montreal-based aluminum company Alcanreached a friendly deal to be acquired by Anglo-Austrialian mining giant Rio Tinto.

The panel will be chaired by Lynton "Red" Wilson,formerly thepresident and CEO of BCE Inc. and the chairman of Nortel Networks. He iscurrently the chairman of CAE Inc.

The panel also includes: Isabelle Hudon, the CEO of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal; Thomas Jenkins, the executive chairman and chief strategy officer of Open Text Corp.; Brian Levitt, a mergers and acquisitions expert at the law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP; and Murray Edwards, the owner and president of merchant banking firm Edco Financial Holdings Ltd.

The panel is due to report back to Bernier by June 30, 2008.