Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for sharing her time with me. I am pleased to be back in touch with the people.
As early as 2003, the Bloc Québécois reacted to the regular increases in the price of petroleum products, which usually occurred without good reason or on some trivial pretext.
In response to a February 2003 Bloc Québécois motion that received unanimous support, the Standing Committee on Industry, Sciences and Technology, which had examined the issue, reported in November of the same year that there was a need for a petroleum monitoring agency.
The previous government, which enjoyed a huge majority at the time, rejected that recommendation, even though the committee, which included government caucus members, was unanimously in favour of the idea.
As soon as he became leader of the Liberal Party, the former prime minister—and current member for LaSalle—Émard—granted the oil companies an irresponsible 6% cut in taxes on their profits. A few months later, his finance minister, not wanting to be outdone, gave the oil companies an additional $1 billion to reduce their emissions. And as if that was not enough, the oil sector received $900 million more in assistance in the wake of the government's negotiations with the NDP to obtain their support for the budget.
A person does not have to be a wise economist or an accountant to see all the benefits the oil industry received. Clearly, it only made them more profit-hungry, as excessive as those profits were.
Environmental assistance alone amounted to $2 billion. To that must be added $1 billion in additional net revenue just for the first quarter of 2004. If we add profits from increasing the margin at the refining stage, it becomes indecent.
Given the additional astronomical cost passed on to forestry operators, combined with the softwood lumber crisis and the fact that these operators have to go further and further away to find the resource, every region in Quebec and many regions in Canada have endured countless industry closures and consumer price hikes that could have been avoided.
On February 11, 2005, I personally tabled in this House, on behalf of the Bloc Québécois, a motion that read as follows:
That, in the opinion of the House, the government should take action with regard to gasoline prices by: (a) setting up a petroleum monitoring agency responsible for preparing an annual report on all aspects of the industry, including how prices are set and competition issues, whose director would be independent and appointed for a three-year term after consultation with sector representatives and the Standing Committee on Industry, Natural Resources, Science and Technology, and that the Committee be tasked with considering the report; and (b) by bringing forward amendments to strengthen the Competition Act, including measures to ensure that the Competition Commissioner has the power to launch investigations, summon witnesses and ensure confidentiality.
To the great misfortune of Quebec and Canadian taxpayers, this motion was defeated by just a few votes. Accordingly, the prices peaked during the most active time of the year and the tourist industry hung in the balance. Businesses continue to close because they are no longer competitive internationally and the price of transport has been the main cause of inflation for the past two years.
This lack of leadership has put entire populations in very tough situations since incomes are not indexed to the cost of living. Average workers for example and people earning minimum wage have no choice but to quit their jobs, which deprives many companies of the only employees they can afford. Moreover this becomes an extremely heavy burden on the provincial governments, whose social responsibilities are increasing.
Whatever the Minister of the Environment might present, she would be well served to remove her blinders to see that beyond her home turf there are a great deal of communities where public transit simply does not exist and where the distances are great. These costs cannot be predicted by the worker or the company, which puts all economic sectors in serious difficulty.
Most importantly, let us not forget people where oil products can be shipped only during certain times of year—times when the oil companies choose to inflate their profits and their shareholders’ dividends. Those people have lived with these prices since last summer, and they will certainly be living with them again until the ice melts. I did not understand why the member for Nunavut failed to give her support last summer, but I hope that she will support this motion, which affects her community more than many others.
In fact, in this case, with all the profits being raked in by the oil companies, those companies could certainly afford to cover the cost of shipping to those communities. That would be a much appreciated humanitarian gesture, regardless of the price at the pump in accessible locations. Those communities also have contributed to the economic success of the oil companies.
Who has offered aid to Nunavik, who has offered aid to Nunavut or the Northwest Territories? The government closes its eyes to these entirely inappropriate practices, the oil companies are completely irresponsible and ignore their corporate duties—no one is concerned about the price of a litre of gas, which ranges from $1.49 a litre in places that are not accessible by road, like James Bay, to $1.71 a litre in Nunavik and probably also in Nunavut, which uses the same shipping method.
I was in Nunavik again last week, and since there are no restaurants, we bought the food we needed to cook for ourselves. Do you know that in Ivujivik, for a meal of two sirloin steaks, very ordinary side dishes and a head of lettuce that we were able to salvage two leaves from, we had to spend $189? The lettuce was $6.79. What we threw out was not edible. We did not waste anything.
Like any other resource, gas should be available to the public at a price that would allow the industry to make reasonable profits. It is a resource for which the exploration and development costs have been financed, in large part, by the taxes paid by all Quebecers and Canadians on their incomes and the goods and services they buy, for the benefit of the public and of businesses in Quebec and Canada.
We need only look at the prices charged by Hydro-Québec for exports. They are very low compared to oil. And yet Quebecers have paid for the research and development put into that energy by themselves. It is this model of cooperation that probably, with due respect to all parties, could have cemented Canadian confederation.
Oil prices have a huge impact on administrative costs for the public at large, for small and large businesses, for agencies that provide services on a profit-making or non-profit basis, for governments from municipal to federal, for taxi, truck, ship and airline operators. So a responsible government must, therefore, first ensure that competition exists and then ensure it is fair and gives consideration to all intervenors, as it is a natural resource, part of the country's heritage.
Odd as it may seem, all sectors supplied by ship are also supplied with electricity by generators and all the buildings are heated with oil, which is over 70¢ a litre at the moment. This does not include transportation costs. They could drive the cost up to 80¢ a litre at destination.
The Bloc Québécois is of the opinion that part, at least, of the cost of gasoline and other petroleum products can be monitored, by, for example, ensuring that no intermediary takes advantage of its position or circumstances. At such a price, many more families, people living on their own whether young or old, will not be able to heat their homes properly next winter.
For these reasons, in all simplicity, I invite the members of this Parliament to establish a monitoring agency do a fair, impartial and equitable verification with all the powers it needs to fulfill its mandate, as recommended by this motion.