Madam Speaker, I am one of those people who was referred to by the member for Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, the chair of the industry, natural resources, science and technology committee. We all sat through a long meeting on Thursday, with 25 witnesses, I think he said.
What is clear from this debate, the debate last Thursday and the posturing of the various political parties is, first and foremost, that the government is addicted to the tax revenues it receives, and on all fronts, but specifically when we talk about fuel, the government is addicted to those revenues.
Second, the Conservative Party of Canada is the only party in this place that is in favour of reducing the cost of fuel to the consumer or end user. If we take that as the pretext or context of all of the other positions that people have taken, they are either putting up a smokescreen or creating diversions or red herrings in order to avoid addressing that issue head on. This is really the issue that the consumer or end user is concerned about. The more diversions or obfuscations they can create, the more likely that their argument will be somehow saleable wherever they are trying to peddle it.
Those hearings last Thursday, if we put everything into the context of what I have just said, were very instructive indeed. With hurricane Rita bearing down on the gulf coast of the southern U.S., the government members on that committee contributed to the perception that we had a major price spike coming and helped create a panic at the gas pumps. All we have to do—