Mr. Speaker, I am sorry I have a bit of a smile on my face, but, yes, I do not rely on the bureau, as some do. We hear some pounding their chests and saying that the Bureau has investigated this. We heard the Minister of Natural Resources say that everything was just fine.
The bureau recognizes itself that it is in need and that it has an act that is no longer applicable to the needs and expectations of an enterprising marketplace of the 21st century. That act was written over 20 years ago now, based on the Macdonald Royal Commission. As members may recall, the idea was to bulk up against and compete internationally. I do not put a lot of faith in the Competition Act as currently written. The Competition Bureau itself recognizes that.
As for the second point, I suppose the aligning of the various planets in one perfect straight line could also be another excuse . We heard Jeff Ruben of the CIBC speculate that gas would reach $1.30 this summer. Any excuse can now be trotted out, not only because of the strategic nature of crude. We cannot lose sight of the fact that, while there are international circumstances at play with crude, and listening to any radio station we know what the cost of crude is every 15 seconds, we do not put enough emphasis on what has happened on the refinery side of things.
We have our own little cartel here. It is a dangerous one. It is making us unproductive and hurting small business. As long as the Competition Act is not amended, will continue to have these problems without giving people the answers they need, particularly because we have no price monitoring information.
It should not be left to me. It should be left to the government to do due diligence, to provide transparency and honesty when it comes to gasoline prices, and it is not doing that right now.