Mr. Speaker, I cannot tell you how much I thank the fact that I am the member for Pickering—Scarborough East and I beat out the member for Scarborough—Guildwood.
I have the honour to present a petition in the House that is written and signed by well over 140 residents of the Toronto-Mississauga-Markham regions of Toronto, of our region in the GTA.
As residents they want to underscore the serious lack of competition and transparency in the energy industry, which has hampered the free market to the detriment of all Canadians. They believe that high fuel prices inflate the price of everything that is purchased, and during a period of economic uncertainty, the devastating impact this is having on the bottom line in our economy as a whole.
They wish to draw to the attention of the government and the House of Commons that many countries around the world have an energy market monitoring agency, and that an energy superpower like Canada needs such an agency.
They, therefore, call upon Parliament to finally acknowledge the high price of fuel and its impact on the economy, reinstate the office of petroleum price information, which was abolished by the government in 2006, as an energy market information service which, like the U.S. energy information agency would produce weekly reports, including all Canadian energy supply-demand inventory and storage information.
They would also finally ask that we begin hearings in the House into the energy sector to determine how the government can foster better competition and provide transparency to the energy market and to eliminate the monopolistic efficiency as a defence clause of the Competition Act, supported by my good colleague from Scarborough—Guildwood.