Madam Speaker, the price of gas is affected not just by the level of taxes. The taxes have not been changing up and down. The commodity prices certainly have. Therefore, I do not accept the member's argument.
However, I can say that we have examples. For instance, when the GST was cut, the savings that should have been passed on to people were not. Therefore we know the Conservatives have not followed through on the GST. An example would be, and most Canadians would understand, the price of a theatre ticket to go to a show, to watch a movie. That price did not go down. They still charge the same price arguing that they had additional costs so that despite whatever reduction there was in the GST, they increased their own costs and therefore the price is the same.
It does take some discipline, but in a competitive economy where the costs cascading at least from the provincial sales tax level are not passed on, if they are not invested in investments in that business or passed on that means the bottom line of the business has gone up. It means that it has decided to pocket those.
That is why we need a competitive economy. That is what the issue is. It is all about competition. Businesses that are not going to be competitively priced will lose business and will no longer be able to participate. Everyone does it at their own peril.
However, the member raises an interesting point about the need for consumers to be vigilant and governments to be vigilant when there are changes and businesses are not treating the consumer in a fair fashion.