RE:QuestionState Owned is the key. Foreign public or private companies are fine.
This is really just code for China but theoretically others too.
I welcome this decision as it limits foreign governments from
a) owning these critical assets and keeping material for themselves, or
b) owning the assets and not developing them to inflate the price of their own assets held in their own jurisdiction,
c) taking a major stake in an asset in Canada and then loading the board with their agents and devaluing and manipulating the share value so that the foreign entity wins and local investors get crushed.
This HAS happened to me in the Potash space.