Mr. Speaker, let me start by pointing out to my colleague the concerns of the Association pour la protection des consommateurs de carburant, which is responsible for this movement in Saguenay—Lac-St-Jean.
At the Standing Committee on Industry, Natural Resources, Science and Technology, the Bloc Québécois recommended the creation of a petroleum monitoring agency among other things. The members of the committee totally support that.
Earlier, my colleague was asked how this could be done and what our vision was. Perhaps I could enlighten the hon. member by summarizing the role that this office could play.
It could collect and release data on refined petroleum product prices in the American black market; publish an annual report to inform the public about the competitive aspects; assign witnesses and ensure their confidentiality; study every aspect of the petroleum industry; suggest solutions to put the petroleum product sector in order. The consumer protection coalition brings an interesting dimension that the Bloc Québécois has also explored.
Currently, concrete measures are needed, because there is a crisis. People feel its immediate impact. We have no choice but to react. However, we ought not always to be in reaction mode. Instead, we must look to the future. We need to try and sever dependency links or, at the very least, to stop having our hands tied when it comes to the oil sector. We have to propose alternative solutions, which would allow us, for example, to switch from fuel oil to other energy sources for heating, and to vehicles that only use fuel.
I was mentioning earlier that I am from a remote region. A lot of people there use utility vehicles, large pickups and big trucks. We should develop incentives for those people to move away from their 4 x 4s and try and find other solutions, taking into account the characteristics of the area.
The coalition hopes for long-term measures. I think it is up to all parliamentarians to ponder those issues, in particular in the Standing Committee on Industry, Natural Resources, Science and Technology, and to propose solutions in cooperation with all parliamentarians. At the present time, the need is urgent, hence the idea to propose certain measures so as to mitigate immediate effects.
We want to see a tax credit going directly to the consumer, as that seeks to offset the effects of higher oil prices for households, particularly in relation to heating and to the food basket, which result from the rise in transportation costs. Indeed, as I was mentioning earlier, even though some people may not be driving in the regions, the impacts are felt nonetheless. I gave an example about the consumption of a given good, but it is the whole food basket which is getting hit, as well as public transit. The community as a whole is suffering the effects.