Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On June 27, 2025, the Government of Canada, by the Governor in Council, ordered Hikvision Canada Inc. — the Canadian subsidiary of Chinese video-surveillance manufacturer Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. — to wind up its Canadian business and cease all operations within 120 days, following a national security review under the Investment Canada Act. The order requires Hikvision Canada to immediately stop sales, marketing and after-sales support, and to terminate staff and contracts within the wind-up window. Alongside the order, the government prohibited federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations from purchasing or using Hikvision products and directed audits to remove existing installations from federal facilities.

On 4 July 2024 the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (François-Philippe Champagne) issued a ministerial statement on Investment Canada Act net-benefit reviews of Canadian critical-minerals companies. Acquisitions of control of important Canadian mining companies engaged in significant critical-minerals operations, including large Canadian-headquartered firms, will be found of net benefit only "in the most exceptional of circumstances." The statement extends the October 2022 state-owned-enterprise policy to foreign capital generally for this class of target. It states no size threshold and no effective date beyond the announcement.

Bill C-34, the National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act, received Royal Assent on 22 March 2024 — the first major overhaul of the Investment Canada Act (ICA) national-security review regime since 2009. Non-regulatory provisions came into force on 3 September 2024 by Order Fixing P.C. 2024-826 (SI/TR-32, Canada Gazette Part II). The Act creates a pre-implementation filing obligation for investments in prescribed "sensitive sectors" (final list set by regulation), gives the Minister of Innovation new authority to extend reviews and impose interim conditions or accept undertakings without a Governor-in-Council order, raises monetary penalties, and establishes information-sharing authorities with allied screening regimes. ISED's updated NSR Guidelines (5 March 2025) elevate "economic security" to a standalone factor and align the prescribed-sector list with the Sensitive Technology List (STL).

On 28 October 2022, Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (François-Philippe Champagne) and Minister of Natural Resources (Jonathan Wilkinson) issued a new policy on how the Investment Canada Act applies to investments by foreign state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Canada's critical minerals sector. Acquisitions of control of a Canadian critical-minerals business by a foreign SOE will now only be approved "on an exceptional basis," and any SOE participation in a Canadian business operating in a critical-minerals sector or supply chain will automatically trigger national-security scrutiny. The policy applies to the 31 minerals on Canada's Critical Minerals List (established 11 March 2021) and preceded, by five days, the 2 November 2022 orders forcing three Chinese-controlled companies to divest lithium-junior stakes.

On 24 March 2021, Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (François-Philippe Champagne) issued updated guidelines on the National Security Review of Investments under the Investment Canada Act. The revised guidelines (superseding 2016 guidance) identify four areas of heightened national-security concern in foreign direct investment review: sensitive personal data, sensitive technology, critical minerals, and investments by state-owned or state-influenced investors. The critical- minerals designation references the 31-mineral Critical Minerals List Canada had announced two weeks earlier (11 March 2021).