Mr. Speaker, my question for my colleague in the Conservative Party will first refer to the plan proposed by her party, which is, obviously, to lower the gas tax. I am open to this situation and to this solution. The numbers which have been bandied about, among others by her colleague from Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, mention $14.5 per capita. This corresponds to the monies the government would be collecting this year compared with what it collected last year from the GST, that is to say somewhere between $400 and $450 million in extra revenues. One cent brings in $400 million. Thus, it can be argued that we can hope for a one-cent reduction in the gasoline tax. I can concur with that.
However, my other problem has to do with the fact that the government is collecting an extra $450 million, whereas the oil industry will be collecting $2 billion dollars. That does constitute a concern for me, as it is hard to make out the position of Conservative members.
Here is my question for the member: does she acknowledge that it is possible to tackle the problem of the mind-boggling profits raked in by the oil companies, which use crude oil prices in such a way as to be in a position to grab extra profits at the refining level?
During the past 30 days, the average in refining profits was 26.1¢ a litre, while from 1999 to 2003, the average was 7.5¢ a litre. During the past 30 days, oil companies pocketed $800 million in net profits. Will my colleague agree with me that it is time to put an end to this, to discipline the industry, to give powers to the Competition Act, and to create the monitoring agency so that the industry will no longer use the increase in crude oil, for all kinds of international reasons, to try to make additional profits that must go to shareholders every three months?
I hope that my colleague understands the position in which we find ourselves. We are willing to support the Conservative Party for a reduction of the tax. However, we must also deal with these huge profits, because, during the past 30 days, oil companies took between 20¢ and 35¢ a litre every day in refining profits. Apart from the one cent that we will be able to give back as a reduction, we could have allowed our citizens to save between 20¢ and 35¢ during the past 30 days. WIll my colleague agree with me that we must discipline the industry?