George Riedel made his remarks during an emergency meeting of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.

During the hearing, politicians heard about how Ericsson's offer to buy Nortel's wireless unit could affect national security, negotiations between Research in Motion and Nortel for Nortel's Long Term Evolution wireless patents and whether Nortel will continue operating as a patent licensing company.

"In the last 10 years Nortel has not been able to use federal funds" to develop CDMA and LTE and patents, he said. Nortel has "not used any R&D tax credits" to reduce tax liabilities.

Michael Ignatieff, leader of the Canadian opposition Liberal party, wrote an open letter July 27 to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking for a "full review" of the sale of "to make sure the transaction is in Canada's interest" and "to ensure that the intellectual property developed with the investment of taxpayers' dollars continues to benefit us all."

The letter did not specify which investment he was referring to. Ignatieff's spokesperson, Michael O'Shaughnessy, did not answer a question from Network World Canada asking how much money Ignatieff was referring to and when it was spent. In an e-mail, O'Shaughnessy would only say it refers to tax credits under the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SRED) program and "assistance provided by Export Development Canada."