Mr. Speaker, first, I congratulate the member for raising the issue and asking for an emergency debate on it.
Canadians are outraged. The member has listed some numbers, but the situation is worse than gas hovering somewhere around $1.30 a litre. All of the goods and services we get as citizens have to be provided by companies, which have to transport it, and there is a cost for that. They have to operate the factories. All these incremental costs will also be passed on to us, through the increased costs of goods and services, so we have an amplified effect. I think Canadians understand that what they see at the pumps will come at them in a second wave of hurt for them in terms of their ability to continue on with the responsibilities of day to day life.
I do not believe the member suggests that we should somehow regulate, or control or in fact take charge of the petroleum industry. In fact, in the United States, executives of a number of the large oil companies were called. They basically admitted that the price of gas was much higher than need be.
This seems to be not a matter of regulation, but rather a matter of dealing with the energy industry, whether it be a monitoring agency through either the Competition Bureau or through some sort of prices review board, just as we do with the drug industry. Where there is usurious pricing, we need to have a mechanism to deal with it. Is the member moving in that direction in terms of possible solutions?