Commons committee to question ministers on RCMP contract with China-linked company | 24CA News

A House of Commons committee will search for solutions from two authorities ministers relating to an RCMP contract with an organization linked to the Chinese authorities.

Radio-Canada reported final week on a contract between the Mounties and Sinclair Technologies for radio frequency filtering gear. While Sinclair is predicated in Ontario, its father or mother firm Norsat International was acquired by the Chinese telecommunications firm Hytera in 2017.

The Chinese authorities owns round 10 per cent of Hytera via an funding fund. The United States authorities banned the sale and import of Hytera merchandise earlier this yr due to nationwide safety issues.

The House of Commons standing committee on trade and expertise voted Monday to summon Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François Philippe Champagne to reply questions concerning the contract.

The RCMP suspended the contract on Thursday and mentioned it would assessment gear that is already put in.

Rick Perkins, a Conservative member of Parliament on the committee, mentioned the committee ought to discover out why the contract was authorised. 

“The committee needs to examine why the RCMP, our senior law enforcement agency in Canada, was not advised by the minister of industry, the minister of public safety and the minister of procurement to not utilize these Communist Party of China-controlled companies for their needs,” he mentioned.

Perkins mentioned the committee must also ask Champagne why the federal government didn’t assessment Hytera’s acquistion of Norsat. He cited the Investment Canada Act, which authorizes the minister of trade to order a assessment of an funding by a non-Canadian firm if the minister has purpose to imagine the funding threatens Canadian nationwide safety.

“Why did this government not do a full security review and reject the takeover of a Canadians telecommunications company by a state-owned enterprise of the government of China? This committee, and the public, needs to know that,” Perkins mentioned.

Sébastien Lemire, a Bloc Québécois member of the committee, agreed that the committee ought to query the ministers.

“This is a rather complex situation that’s making many of us uncomfortable,” Lemire mentioned of the RCMP contract.

“I think we all understand that we need to get to the bottom of this and understand what happened.”

Committee members voted overwhelmingly to request that Mendicino and Champagne seem as quickly as potential.

Both ministers mentioned final week that the contract ought to be reviewed.

American ambassador happy with Canadian response

In an interview with CBC Radio’s The House final week, United States Ambassador to Canada David Cohen referred to as the suspension of the contract “the right step.”

“You can’t ask for more definitive and more decisive action than what Canada took in reaction to that news,” Cohen informed host Catherine Cullen.

Cohen additionally praised the federal authorities’s strategy to Canada-China relations, outlined in its new Indo-Pacific Strategy. Cohen mentioned the technique, which features a plan to handle China’s rising international energy, places Canada’s coverage on Beijing in alignment with that of the United States.

“I don’t think anyone can question the firmness with which Canada has reacted to to the current China threat,” Cohen mentioned.

“Some people have called it a pivot, and I think that’s fair, because I think Canada is not behaving toward China in the way in which it has historically behaved toward China.”