Measuring U.S. Influence

Ever since Canada's Prime Minister John Diefenbaker served notice in Parliament last November that his Tory government would seek legislation requiring "Canadianization" of foreign-controlled corporations in Canada, U.S. executives have uneasily wondered precisely what he had in mind. Last week the government introduced a "disclosure of information" bill that, as a first step in the program, proved unexpectedly easy to live with. For all the rambunctious tone of recent expressions of Canadian nationalist sentiment, the bill is sensibly designed to elicit the facts on the operations of U.S. business concerns and labor unions in Canada before the Tories consider further legislation.

According to a recent survey by the Canadian-American Committee, a prestigious binational economic research group, the overwhelming majority of U.S.-controlled corporations in Canada have no objection to publishing financial reports, provided that the rules are the same for everyone. The new bill sees to that by extending its compass to all "public" corporations (those trading shares publicly and having more than 50 shareholders), foreign and Canadian alike. In detail, the bill requires corporations to file such data as balance sheets, directors' fees, the nationality of directors and officers, and a rundown on the division of shares between foreign and Canadian stockholders. Unions will be required to submit a similar range of information, including copies of their constitutions, an accounting of their Canadian members' dues and of the benefits paid in return.

The Canadians consulted U.S. legislation in drafting the bill, and by and large, it establishes no more exacting standards than those which most U.S. states set for the companies they charter or which U.S. federal law sets for labor unions. The difference lies in the Canadian measure's avowedly nationalistic intent: to determine whether or not the Canadian branches of U.S. organizations are conducting themselves as good "corporate citizens" of Canada.

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