Effective April 24, 2017, the review threshold under the Investment Canada Act for an investment to directly acquire control of a Canadian business (i) by a WTO investor (that is not a state-owned enterprise) and (ii) by a non-WTO investor (that is not a state-owned enterprise) where the Canadian business that is the subject of the investment is, immediately prior to the implementation of the investment, controlled by a WTO investor has been increased from $600 million to $800 million in enterprise value.  Additionally, in furtherance of an announcement made in the Liberal government’s Fall Economic Statement 2016, Bill C-44 was tabled in the Canadian Parliament on April 11, 2017 which includes an amendment to the Investment Canada Act to increase that direct review threshold to $1 billion; however that amendment is not yet in effect.

For investments to directly acquire control of a Canadian business by WTO investors that are state-owned enterprises and for non-WTO investors that are state-owned enterprises where the Canadian business that is the subject of the investment is, immediately prior to the implementation of the investment, controlled by a WTO investor, the review threshold for 2017 remains at $379 million in asset value.

For investments in Canadian cultural business by non-Canadians, the review thresholds for those investments remain unchanged at 5 million dollars in asset value for direct investments and 50 million dollars in asset value for indirect transactions.