Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre and I have had a few discussions about this and I thank him for his very kind remarks about my very cursory knowledge of the industry.
I say to the hon. member that I believe all options in terms of the free market should be available to the industry, as others, before we look at the issue of government intervention. I think that intervention by government should be of necessity.
My argument, in very plain words, is that there is a deficiency in the free market as it relates to oil and gas. For anybody to tack on 18 cents a litre as a margin at the refinery when competitors to the south are operating at substantially less, demonstrates to me that if I thought, given that 35 billion litres of gasoline is being sold every year, the opportunity of potentially making $300 million, to $500 million would invite new entrants in the marketplace, that would be the first indication that the free market is non-existent here.
I also believe that our Competition Act needs teeth. This may come as a surprise to some hon. members, but the Competition Act was written in 1985 by groups represented very heavily by big oil. It was one of the reasons I brought in my bill which would remove the efficiencies defence or excuse in which, if one can believe it, a company, if it could demonstrate that it was acting in a merger which could have competitive, harmful effects, could proceed with the merger as long as it could demonstrate efficiency. We have two players in the case of propane. This was evident in terms of what happened in August. Superior bought out ICG.
Superior went to the competition tribunal because of course the bureaucrats said that Superior would have 100% control of the energy market. They said that it would be competitively harmful and that it would have a negative impact on consumers.
The tribunal, in a two to one decision, said that notwithstanding the fact that it would hurt consumers, the competitive process and ultimately the free market, the fact that one company can buy out the other and shut it down is a form of economic efficiency. That defence was put in specifically in 1985 so that we would wind up in a situation where there was a Competition Act that looked a lot more like a concentration or monopolization of the Canada Act. I think we need to look at the economic instruments, such as the Competition Act, to ensure that there is fair play.
I could talk to the hon. member about independents that have lost their shirts because they were too good for the obvious reasons that I mentioned. Cross-subsidization does occur but it should be illegal. It is illegal in the United States.
If shareholders knew that oil companies were engaging in the practice of losing money at the retail level while saving a lot of money at the wholesale level to discipline their competitors who rely on them for supply, they would walk away in droves saying that those companies were not making proper economic decisions and that the government was not paying attention to the fact that this was obviously anti-competitive and obviously wrong.