Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to participate in the discussion on the motion by the Bloc Québécois. I find the motion to be strangely ironic for a party that is always very sensitive around provincial and federal jurisdiction. Those members know full well that it is within the jurisdiction of the province to regulate prices at the pumps. In fact there are a couple of provinces that have tried that, not with very much success. If the Parti Québécois in Quebec City wants to deal with gas prices and regulate the price at the pump, it is a matter within provincial jurisdiction.
The part that is in the federal jurisdiction has to do with the competition policy and the Competition Bureau. The bureau monitors the activities within the retail gasoline sector. There have been many investigations. The industry is an oligopoly. There are a small number of participants. Clearly they do not sit around at Tim Hortons and decide what the price of gasoline is going to be every morning. It is fair to say there is some regional pricing that is set through price leading and price following.
Our caucus, under the leadership of my colleague from Pickering--Scarborough East, did a major review of gasoline pricing some years ago. One of the things we had suggested was to change the burden of proof under the Competition Act from a standard of criminal performance test to one of civil, so if there was any collusion or price fixing, then the burden of proof would be somewhat less onerous as a civil test rather than a criminal test. That legislation was tabled by our government. I am hoping that the Conservative Party will follow through on that.
The other thing I find strangely ironic is that the Conservative Party, when it was in opposition, was making this fine distinction between what was in the last platform and the platform before, and what was said four years ago versus what was said three years ago. It is a fine point that does not really resonate with me and I do not think it really resonates with Canadians. The reality is that the Conservative Party said it would cap the GST on prices above 85¢ and it has not done that. I have not seen any legislation to launch that initiative.
The Conservatives have also said in the past that they would eliminate the 1.5¢ a litre that was brought in by our government to deal with the deficit. Of course we know that the deficit has been eliminated because of the good financial management of the Liberal government. There is an argument to eliminate the 1.5¢ a litre that was brought in to eliminate the deficit, but I have not seen any proposals from the Conservative Party to do that, even though in opposition the Conservatives thought this was a very good idea.
We in our party, on the other hand, thought that a 1.5¢ reduction would be gobbled up at the pumps in one afternoon by the oil companies. We were not convinced by any stretch of the imagination that the 1.5¢ would go back to the gasoline buying public. In lieu of that, we brought in an energy rebate that dealt with all energy products. It provided rebates to Canadians, especially low income and middle income Canadians. We know they benefited from that. As I said, we were convinced that a 1.5¢ reduction at the pumps would be gobbled up in one afternoon.
The other thing the Conservative Party has proposed is to eliminate the tax on the tax, the GST on the GST. Unless I have missed something, I have not seen any proposals in the House along those lines either. That is something for which the Conservatives argued very strenuously in opposition.
What I am saying is that the Conservative Party has ways to respond to this motion. The Bloc Québécois is proposing solutions when the solutions actually lie right within the government in Quebec City. The Liberal government right now could do this under pressure from the Parti Québécois; it actually regulates gas prices. Personally I do not think it is a viable alternative but I have not heard in any of the Bloc members' remarks that they have looked at this in any detail.
Certainly the question of a surtax on the oil companies is misguided. We often hear profit numbers from the oil industry, but to be reasonable, we have to equate profits to investment and we know that the oil industry in Canada is highly capital intensive. Huge amounts of capital have been invested. The companies are right to have a return, as are their shareholders. Before implementing any surtax on oil companies, I think we need to do a little more homework on what the profits are in relation to the assets deployed. It takes a huge amount of capital to invest in refineries, to invest in exploration activities and to invest in oil extraction operations.
I think this surtax is somewhat misguided as well, so certainly I will be voting against the motion, but I believe that what we need to be doing is facing reality. While I can empathize with people paying these higher gasoline prices at the pump--and I am one of them--we need to understand that the days of low energy prices are over, regrettably. We have to look at the situation in Canada as well. We have to realize and appreciate that gasoline prices in Canada do not even come close to what one would pay at the pumps in Europe. We are blessed in that sense.
Of course the pricing is highly volatile, and I think that is what makes Canadians angry. They see the volatility and the pricing change over the long weekends. That is a function of supply and demand. Of course we know that over the long weekends there is going to be more demand for gasoline. The supply constraint is there, so prices go up. It is not exactly rocket science. It is economics 101.
We should be looking at alternative energy and alternative fuels. The government announced something with respect to methanol, biodiesel and biofuels, which is a start, but it was announced in the context of reducing greenhouse gases, and we know that the contribution to greenhouse gas reduction from biofuels is very minimal. It is true that the output from a car or a truck that uses ethanol is cleaner, but with all the technology today in cars and trucks it really is a marginal improvement in the noxious emissions. Biofuels are good in terms of agricultural policy, but in terms of greenhouse gases I think the benefit is minimal. In terms of clean air, I think the benefits are minimal as well.
We should be looking at alternative energy like hybrid fuels. I hope the government brings in an incentive to bridge the gap between the price of a hybrid vehicle and the price of a conventional vehicle. We know there is quite a spread in the prices. For many Canadian citizens it is hard to come up with $8,000 or $10,000 more to get a cleaner fuel in their vehicle. That is where I think the federal government could play a role in providing either a bridging grant or a tax credit to help Canadians move to hybrids. There are many other technologies.
I see that my time is up temporarily, until after question period, and I will continue after that.
