Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Industry has announced with great pomp and circumstance that he would, at the cost of $600,000, give the conference board the responsibility for looking into the rising prices of gasoline, whereas in a report published in June 1998, 47 members of his party voiced their concern for the recent tendency of the federal government to turn to outside bodies for data and figures on the oil industry.
How can the minister justify such an expenditure, when the taxpayers are already paying $25 million yearly for the Competition Bureau to carry out this type of inquiry?