Sometimes the government gets it right and deserves to be congratulated. On Thursday, Jim Flaherty (Finance) and Maxime Bernier (Industry) announced a new panel to review key elements of Canada's competition and investment policies. The hope is that they'll devise rules to ensure a healthy atmosphere for foreign investment - one that enhances both Canadian entrepreneurship and jobs.

I was happy to see they put partisanship aside and appointed Murray Edwards to the panel. Murray is a great Calgarian, a true business leader and an excellent strategic thinker. His experience in the oil patch and broader western economic interests will provide valuable insights to the panel's deliberations. The panel has been given a year to come up with its recommendations, which is generous given the spate of foreign takeovers that have occurred recently.

Now, wouldn't it be great if the government followed this praiseworthy precedent and came up with a similar panel to review income trust policies?

Well, I like the idea of a judicious review.  I don't know the people involved and assume they have a good idea of what makes foreign investment work, and how it affects Canadian owners and workers.    If, as Bast suggests, it's the income trust policy that's prompted the mergers etc., then I would expect the panel to put that issue at the top of their agenda.  Maybe this is just a face-saving way for the government to change its position.

However, if this is all about putting up "firewalls" around Canada, I thought we went through all that with the free trade debates 15 or 20 years ago.  Surely we're not going back on that?