FOREIGN CAPITAL

Press, Volume C, Issue 29501, 1 May 1961, Page 19

FOREIGN CAPITAL

Legislation In Canada OTTAWA. Foreign-owned businesses operating in Canada will have to divulge detailed financial statements under legislation now before the House of Commons.

Among the well-known companies affected will be General Motors the Chrysler Corporation and the Hudson’s Bay Company, which has been doing business in Canada for 300 years although its financial control is in London.

One of the main purposes of the new legislation is to allow the Government to measure precisely the degree of foreign control over Canadian business and labour. In some sections of the economy, this control is estimated to be as much as 75 per cent. Most of these holdings are American. Government sources here suggest that the new law may be no more than a prelude to further action. When the financial report* (tart Sowing in, the Government will be able, more accurately, to assess the problem than has ever before been possible. If it is decided, in the light of this information, that the degree of outside control over business and labour is dangerously high, further action io reduce the control might be taken. Penalties provided in the Government’s bill are severe. Officials connected with failure by a company or a union to provide the required information will be liable to a fine of SO dollars for every day the report is overdue They may also be imprisoned for three months. . • . A.