Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are still playing the fearmongering game. They say, “If we do that, prices will go up and, again, it will be the consumers who will have to pay”. This is just fearmongering to protect oil companies. The member says that the Competition Bureau has all the powers. That is strange. I will remind him of what the then competition commissioner, Konrad von Finckenstein, said when he appeared before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on May 5, 2003. Here is what he said about the flaws he saw in the Competition Act. I am not inventing this. It did not come out of nowhere. He appeared before the committee and said:
—while the bureau's mandate includes the very important role of being investigator and advocate for competition, the current legislation does not provide the bureau with the authority to conduct an industry study.
Is this clear enough? I am not inventing this. That is what the competition commissioner said when he appeared before the committee. He further said:
It seems to me that it would be preferable to have a study on the overall situation carried out by an independent body that would have authority, that would be able to summon witnesses and gather information. It should also have the power to protect confidential information that someone is not necessarily going to want to share, but which would be vital in order to reach a conclusion based on the real facts.
It seems pretty clear to me. I think the witness who told us that is very credible. He knows what he is talking about. And yet the member just told us that the Competition Bureau has all the powers. I do not believe this is the case. It is lacking certain powers. The motion is aimed at correcting that so it has more powers to shed some light on what is going on with the price of gas.