Mr. Speaker, I commend the member for Pickering—Ajax—Uxbridge for bringing forward Bill C-235. This bill would amend the Competition Act and reverse a devastating trend against small business, entrepreneurs and the consumer.
The member for Pickering—Ajax—Uxbridge has pursued this issue for years because he sees a long established Canadian industry, our independent gasoline retailers, being pushed out of existence by unfair and predatory wholesale practices. He also sees consumers with less and less real choice and an overwhelming sense of powerlessness at the hands of the large integrated producers.
In many ways Bill C-235 is about protecting the fundamental elements of Canadian entrepreneurship. Throughout this country in every business sector there are Canadians who have mortgaged all they own to establish their own enterprise, their own business, their own job. They are determined to compete by working harder, by working longer hours, by being more innovative, by taking smaller margins and, most important, by serving the customer better.
It is these entrepreneurs who have built Canada's thriving retail sector. They have provided consumers with choice, with service, with better value. In return these retailers eke out a living for their families, are a main source of first jobs for young people and contribute to the local community through their taxes and community work.
These independent entrepreneurs are able to offer the consumer competitive choice only when there is genuine competition among their suppliers, only when they can get an acceptable margin because suppliers want business and are willing to provide product at legitimate market rates. Regrettably, this is not the case today in several sectors, most particularly in the gas industry. It is now proven beyond serious debate that integrated suppliers of gasoline have sought to forward integrate into the consumer market, not by buying successful retailers or establishing more efficient retailers but by exterminating independent competition through manipulation of wholesale prices.
Recently the stories of gas retailer being forced out of the market have been publicized because of the threat posed to all small resellers by the same practices. In one report documented in the Financial Post illustrative of the overall situation a retailer in Georgetown near Mississauga received a notice from his supplier Shell Canada informing him that after more than 65 years as a retailer of Shell products he would be cut off from any supply at all. It was not enough that his margin had been squeezed as Shell raised wholesale prices and independent look alike outlets emerged in his markets.
Clearly Shell was not satisfied with the retail market share it was winning by normal business practices and had to use its power as a producer to weaken retail competition. It is my view that we cannot allow Canadian consumers to be at the mercy of a few large integrated providers of gasoline or any other commodities. We cannot allow Canadian resellers and small entrepreneurs to be driven out of the market by predatory pricing by less efficient integrated competitors. Canada will be most productive if we reward and protect efficiency at every stage of service delivery.
If Canada's oil companies want to win 100% of the retail market they should have to win it by fair competition. They have enough natural advantages, brand names, access to capital, ability to build service centres and restaurants to fuel sales. They must not be able to win the market by squeezing out the competition by raising wholesale prices close to or above retail.
We need Bill C-235 most because the current Competition Act is failing to protect Canadians against pricing that is clearly intended to reduce their choices and ultimately increase prices where no independent competition remains.
This week again motorists in southern Ontario awoke to another holiday weekend price gouge. Yet there is nothing they can do because there are so few independents left they have no choice but to buy from one of the big integrated producers. So let us not pretend we have an acceptable level of competition even today.
I ask all members of the House to cast a vote for Canada's small independent business people and protect consumers at the same time by supporting Bill C-235. If we want to preserve a country where independent, hardworking entrepreneurs can thrive we need more legislation like Bill C-235. We need more legislation to guarantee competition, more legislation against producers and brokers constricting and manipulating supply to destroy the small retailer, and more legislation to protect consumers from being at the mercy of those industries where genuine independent competition has already gone extinct.
It is time to send a message that this House will always put consumers first and will act decisively whenever confronted by an industry that abuses its position in the market to deprive Canadians of the competition.
Let me close by commending once again the member for Pickering—Ajax—Uxbridge for his unbending resolve on this issue in the face of an intense lobby. Consumers need this kind of initiative to put the spine back into competition laws in Canada.