Thank you very much.
Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members.
As the president of the Petroleum Products Institute of Canada, I certainly want to thank you for the opportunity to be here today and to share the views of the institute on Bill C-14. With me today is Monsieur Carol Montreuil. vice-president of the institute's eastern Canada division.
The Canadian Petroleum Products Institute is the national association representing the public policy interests of the downstream petroleum industry for all aspects of petroleum refining, distribution, transportation, and marketing for transportation, home energy, and industrial uses. Collectively, CPPI members operate 17 refineries across Canada, representing 80% of Canadian refining capacity, and supply some 10,000 branded stations with transportation fuels across the country.
CPPI members include Chevron Canada Limited, Husky Energy, Imperial Oil Limited, North Atlantic Refining, Parkland Income Fund, Shell Canada Products, Suncor Energy Products Inc., marketing under the brand name Petro-Canada, and Ultramar Ltd.
At the outset, I want to emphasize that CPPI and its members are committed to the principle that consumers should get what they pay for. CPPI members operate with the highest levels of integrity and have developed trust with their customers by providing full value for high-quality and reliable energy products.
CPPI members support the concept of mandatory periodic device inspections that are enabled by Bill C-14. Having a two-year mandatory inspection cycle was a principal recommendation of Measurement Canada's 2004 retail petroleum trade sector review. CPPI was a participant in that multi-stakeholder consultation and endorsed the recommendations of the review.
I would also like to take this opportunity to reinforce some remarks made by Measurement Canada officials when they appeared before the committee last week. First, I would like to acknowledge that the retail petroleum sector has a very high compliance rate, which met Measurement Canada's standards: 94% for gasoline pumps over a 10-year period. In 2007, the compliance rate, as reported in the Canwest story referenced by Measurement Canada last week, was 97%. Clearly our goal is to get to 100%, but the mid- to high nineties--and certainly in comparison to the other sectors that were described last week--are very high.
Moreover, Measurement Canada officials confirmed that the calibration error threshold is low at 0.5%, which is really about one cup of fuel for a 50-litre fill-up. They also confirmed that there was no evidence to suggest that calibration errors are the result of intentional actions on the part of refuelers. I think this is an important point to make in the context of some of the public commentary on the issue at the time that Bill C-14 was first tabled.
The last point I would like to make refers to the title of Bill C-14, the Fairness at the Pumps Act. Given that the act amends both the Electricity and Gas Inspection Act and the Weights and Measures Act and is applicable to a broad range of trade sectors, I would respectfully suggest that the committee consider recommending a change to the bill's name to better reflect this broad application.
I would conclude by reaffirming our position that our members are firmly committed to the concept and the principle that consumers should get what they pay for.
Thank you for your attention. Mr. Montreuil and I would be happy to take your questions.