Stikeman Elliott is the only Canadian firm that can clearly and strategically integrate government relations and public relations on behalf of our clients. From our involvement in the recent take-over defence of PotashCorp and acting for and opposite governmental authorities in infrastructure, corporate governance and legislative initiatives, to our representation of clients before governmental commissions, securities, competition and telecommunications regulators, and other administrative bodies, Stikeman Elliott has established itself among Canada's leading law firms in the realm of government relations and public policy. We offer considerable advantage to our clients through our knowledge of and access to the players in multiple sectors and our ability to review a situation to assemble the right resources, including outside government relations and media consultants.

The historical and continuing connection of a number of our partners with governmental and regulatory agencies, and in the Canadian legislative process, adds an important additional dimension to the services we offer. We have access to decision-makers at various levels of federal, provincial and municipal government and are consistently able to secure the appropriate audience for our clients. We count several former high level bureaucrats within our ranks, including:

• Lawson Hunter, Q.C. - former Commissioner of Competition and Assistant Deputy Minister at Industry Canada, and head of regulatory and government affairs for Bell Canada Enterprises
• Gregory Kane, Q.C. - former Associate General Counsel to the CRTC
• Ed Waitzer - former Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission
• Simon Romano - former Special Counsel to the Ontario Securities Commission
• Michel Décary, Q.C., Ad. E. - Associate Deputy Minister of the Justice Department of Quebec and special negotiator on behalf of the Government of Quebec
• David Elder - former Vice President, Regulatory Law and Privacy Ombudsman with Bell Canada, and former counsel to the CRTC
• Paul Beaudry - former senior policy advisor to the federal Minister of Industry
• Bill Fox - former Executive Vice-President, Communications and Corporate Development at Bell Canada Enterprise; former Senior Vice-President, Public Affairs at Bombardier Inc., and CN; and former Press Secretary and Director of Communications to the Prime Minister of Canada

The most recent example of our capabilities is our representation of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, in its defence of the US$38.6 billion take-over bid by BHP Billiton. BHP abandoned the bid after the key decision of Investment Canada to reject the proposal, only the second time in Canadian history a major foreign acquisition has been rejected under foreign acquisition regulations. Our experience in Investment Canada review matters and government relations was integral in dealing with the matter.

We have successfully acted on many of Canada's most notable corporate transactions and matters that involve considerable involvement, negotiation and collaboration with government. Our in-house expertise extends to a wide variety of areas impacted by government relations considerations, including:

• publicly sensitive mergers and acquisitions; 
• competition/antitrust matters;
• foreign investment transactions; 
• corporate governance and securities law matters; 
• energy regulation and policy;
• financial services regulation and policy;
• procurement and government contracting matters;
• public-private partnerships;
• telecommunications regulation and policy;
• municipal law and planning approvals;
• tax matters and disputes;
• healthcare licensing matters; and
• maritime and transportation matters.

We are also trusted counsel to various levels of government across Canada. Among recent matters, we led the task force advising the federal government in its current effort to nationalize securities legislation and we advised the Ontario government's Market Design Committee on the deregulation of the province's electricity market. Our level of involvement with federal, provincial and municipal governments and quasi-governmental bodies enables us to forge relationships with policy-makers and key influencers, and to facilitate dialogue between those individuals and our private sector clients, when appropriate.