Mr. Speaker, I commend the member opposite. He certainly made some points with which I would agree. We need to make certain that we keep the oil companies more accountable.
However, I am a little perplexed. The member opposite insisted that we remove the federal excise tax totally but he failed to mention that in Quebec the excise tax on gasoline is 15.2%, the second highest of all provinces, and on diesel it is four times the federal excise tax. Additionally, there is a 7.5% sales tax in Quebec even on fuel oil.
The hon. member is demanding that the federal government reduce its excise tax but I did not hear any commitment that he would lobby his provincial government to do the same and reduce its much higher taxes and, as I pointed out, four times higher on diesel fuel.