Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed the discourse the hon. member has brought to this debate.
The question I have is on a more intuitive level. Many Canadians, as they arrive at the pump every day for what has become almost a basic or essential necessity, whether it be in their work lives or just in their day to day lives, are confused. They do not understand how we can call this market competitive based on a couple of notions.
First, the government and previous governments, if we are fair to this issue, have overrelied on the Competition Bureau.
I have watched the Competition Bureau closely. In our region in northwestern British Columbia it has tried to settle forestry disputes between companies that have been purchased. What is apparent to me is it has gone off the rails. Amendments have been made to the act. Changes in the bureaucracy's direction have been made. The Competition Bureau, which is meant to increase the level of competition and competitiveness overall of the Canadian market, has taken basic things like the actual cumulative impact on a community out of its own mandate. Therefore, that can no longer be a considered fact when the Competition Bureau looks at acquisitions and purchases, which is staggering for most Canadians.
On one hand is an overreliance. Could the member comment on the misplaced trust on this topic, and others, in the Competition Bureau? The government says that the Competition Bureau has looked at this and has it well in hand.
My second question is this. The intuitive experience of Canadians, when they go to the pump, is that companies, market analysts and reports have an absolute myriad of options of reasons/excuses that they relate to the increase in the gas price such there is a disruption in Venezuela, or a fire in Nigeria or a storm in the Gulf. Any of these incidents suddenly create a justification and a legitimacy for oil companies to raise prices. To suggest, as the Minister of Natural Resources did, that we need to allow the free hand of the market, the invisible hand, Adam Smith still speaks to us from his grave, to come in and allow this free hand to operate in a market that is run by a cartel, in which prices are set artificially by a small cobble of exceptional producers, is beyond the pale.
Could the member please comment on those two points?