Madam Speaker, it gives me pleasure to say a few words in support of the bill of my colleague from Surrey Central. Bill C-442 is a simple private member's bill. It is common sense yet politics are being played.
I was involved in an extraordinary situation involving a snowstorm. We were marooned in the city of Winnipeg for three days. All the telephone wires were down. All the hydro wires were out. There was no contact with our family at home. The majority of people were awfully good. They did what they could. They helped shovel.
The one restaurant open within walking distance because nothing was moving charged double for everything it sold. That did not bother me as far as the dollars were concerned. However we suffered mental anxiety during those three days not knowing whether our family was safe or alive because it was -35° to -40° and there was no heat. That really bothered me.
The bill is like a warning light. It says that in the case of an emergency where essentials should be available there is no right to profiteer or to ask exorbitant prices.
Free enterprise works very well when commodities are available. The market price will determine what the price should be or the right price. The bill does not say that there cannot be increases in costs if suppliers have extra cost factors. However it would be a warning light for people of the consequences if they take advantage. I would call them gougers, not just profiteers.
I heard my colleagues on the Liberal side saying this was a provincial matter. Maybe it is provincial, but when there are natural disasters the federal government steps in. It has to step in. Why not have some warning lights?
There are stop lights for traffic approaching highways in any province or country. The traffic going up and down on the highways can be seen but there are also stop lights. When I look at the farming industry everybody knows that running pulleys or PTOs are dangerous, but every machine company is forced to put warning decals on them. Shields have to be in place. They are there for our own protection. They are there for common sense reasons. They are there to tell people to hold it, to stop, to look and to listen because there is a danger.
That is what the bill would do. It would give us some protection when we occasionally run into a disaster where people's lives or health could be at stake.
Why would we want to make this private member's bill political? If it comes to punishment of crimes or something that affects each one individually or differently, we can argue politically which is the right sentence or which sentence is probably too harsh or too lenient. But here we are talking of natural disasters that will affect probably everyone in this country. It will come at a time when we do not expect it. It will come when we will probably be short of the necessities of life to get us through the disaster.
Let us think back to the Red River flood of 1997. The House heard that chipboard and other products to fix up homes almost doubled in price. I wonder, why does the government really help people in these emergencies? Because when they know there is money available, these gougers will take advantage of it. If they knew that these people were not willing or able to pay for it, it would not happen. So what are we doing? Are we really putting ourselves into danger of promoting this type of an enterprise?
I want to commend my colleague from Surrey Central for looking at this in a common sense way and for pointing out that it should only affect the cost of goods in a reasonable manner. Everybody in this country who has lived for the last 30 or 40 years knows that we have increases in the cost of living. But we also know what is reasonable and what is exorbitant.
This bill would prevent people from encountering more problems in future disasters and I hope members opposite will realize that.