Madam Speaker, just over a month ago I raised a question in the House about the competition problems in the gasoline industry. I raised it in the context of Statistics Canada saying that energy prices and gasoline prices were “the major driver of inflation” in Canada. The inflation rate had just hit 2.6% at that time. This is significant because the Bank of Canada has an inflation target of between 1% and 3% and when inflation threatens to go higher than 3%, the bank raises the ceiling on its overnight rate and all the banks follow suit and before we know it, interest rates everywhere are going up.
The Bank of Canada mainly looks at increases in the so-called core inflation rate which is the CPI for everything but food and energy. Nevertheless the reason analysts were starting to be concerned last month is because once energy prices go up for a period of time, they start to affect the cost of other goods and services in our economy. Then the core inflation rate goes up, the bank gets worried, it hikes interest rates and we all end up paying higher prices and mortgage rates as well as the higher gas prices and energy costs.
If anything goes up, such as gasoline, another thing goes up is that oil company profits go up. The same week I asked my question, oil refining companies like Suncor and Imperial were posting record profits and the crude price had not even jumped as high as it got a month later.
I asked by question very deliberately about competition problems in the gasoline industry, an issue clearly within the jurisdiction of the federal government and the Minister of Industry.
The minister chose not to hear the question that way for his own reasons. The fact remains that he has done nothing about monopoly pricing in the gasoline retailing industry and now high gas prices are threatening to hike inflation and interest rates which will affect the entire economy.
The minister has done nothing, but others have tried to do something. For example, I led a group of six individuals who asked the Competition Bureau to investigate why prices had gone up after competition was reduced in gasoline retailing in my province of Saskatchewan. I received the bureau's report just last week. It said “sure there is less competition now”. It said “sure that can lead to higher prices”. The bureau just did not see that the prices have gone up.
But they did go up. Everyone in Saskatchewan knows they went up. I put out a press release in September 1998, over a year ago, after my office was swamped with phone calls about a four cent a litre gas price increase at the pumps. However, this four cent price hike did not show up in the Competition Bureau's database of prices that it showed me when it tabled its report. So it had to find that there were no competition problems. I am not convinced nor are my constituents.
If Canadians believe there are no problems in gas pricing and that gas prices are lower in Saskatchewan than in seven other jurisdictions, then they can vote Liberal, as I am sure they will, as they did in the Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar byelection where 15% voted Liberal, an amazing increase from the last election.
In any event, the next CPI numbers are due out on December 17. Gas prices remain high and the Minister of Industry remains uninterested in doing anything about them. He is more anxious about hockey than he is in protecting consumers from gas prices. So what else can be done?
Clearly, it is time for a different approach. I am convinced more than ever that we need an energy price review commission to hold oil companies accountable to justify their price increases in this country and to take a more active role in bringing the oil companies to account.
That is why I am moving now to update and table my private member's bill calling for an energy price review commission, which I hope can accomplish those very objectives in the near future.
In the meantime, I wonder if the parliamentary secretary will actually speak to the question I posed last month or whether he will repeat the industry's mantra that there is no problem, it is all in our imagination, just relax and trust the oil companies, and if Canadians believe gas prices are lower than they have ever been, they should vote Liberal, don't worry, be happy.
What is the answer from the parliamentary secretary?