To begin with, you talked about a reasonable profit. As I explained, it is not up to us to set prices or determine what constitutes a reasonable profit. We can do this type of analysis to see whether or not there is a reason for suspecting anti-competitive behaviour. Just because one price is higher than another does not mean that there has been collusion or anti-competitive conduct.
I will turn the floor over to my colleague, who can explain how we view the situation. We are part of the North American market, if not the global market. We make comparisons, perhaps not every year, but we do compare our margins with those of the United States to determine whether or not there really is a collective aspect to them. I believe that the representatives from Natural Resources Canada who will be testifying before this committee will be able to discuss this matter with you. They monitor market prices much more closely than we do, because this is part of their mandate and not ours.
You said that there has been a decline in the number of refineries. We did a study, because we are responsible for mergers. There have been no mergers in the oil sector for ten years. If we look at the trend over many years, we can see that the current concentration in the sector is not any higher than it has been in the past.