Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Windsor West for sharing his time with me.
The rising price of gasoline is causing great concern to hard-working Canadians. New Democrats believe ordinary Canadians are being cheated at the gas pump every time they fill up their cars. It is unfair for working and middle-class families to be gouged at the pump while big oil companies continue to reap record profits. Many people have no choice but to drive to work. The record prices we are seeing today have become a significant pay cut to their families.
An independent watchdog needs to be set up to monitor prices and help protect against future gouging.
Today, Canadians find themselves trying to cope with uncontrolled rising gas prices because the Liberals and Conservatives consistently refused to act when gas prices spiked in the past.
For instance, a motion tabled in the House April 2005 would have created a petroleum monitoring agency. This motion was defeated when Conservatives and Liberals voted against the NDP and Bloc's efforts to implement the agency.
Federal legislation was also put forth by my colleague, the member for Windsor West, to create a petroleum monitoring agency. A similar bill was brought forward by NDP MLA John Horgan to regulate prices on a provincial level in B.C.
The Conservatives and Liberals have consistently supported the big corporations, whether they are banks, polluters or, in this case, oil companies. It is time to put fairness back into the way we behave so that there is money in the pocketbooks of consumers.
While consumers are paying sky-high prices, oil companies are making sky-high profits. As my colleague mentioned, the first quarter profits include the following: Imperial Oil/Esso, $774 million; Petro-Canada, $580 million; Encana, $497 million. All the while, gas prices continue to rise all across the country. They spiked earlier this week, with a high of $1.23 per litre in British Columbia.
Just like the phone and cable companies, oil companies and energy producers should have to justify and defend cost increases.
The Competition Bureau has already held hearings and nothing happened. In total, the Competition Bureau has held six major investigations into gas prices since 1990 and found that nothing that violated the Competition Act was present in any of those investigations.
This motion today calls for an inquiry which actually would help consumers and would limit what is happening.
The Competition Bureau has limited powers to investigate and compel evidence to be brought forward and in fact the bureau, by its own mandate, must keep major portions of the findings secret. We want Canadians to hear from the people who sell us gas and working families want to know why gas prices spike and what the industry thinks we can do about it.
On average, a public inquiry runs on a budget of about $10 million. But after six investigations by the Competition Bureau, we still have no solid answers to the very real problem of rising gasoline prices. Ordinary Canadians expect more. Every month or two prices spike, sometimes to totally unreasonable levels. Consumers are seeing patterns, and we need to get to the bottom of this.
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology has already held hearings and recommended, in November 2003, that a petroleum gas price monitoring agency be established.
That is just what New Democrats are calling for today. We need a gas price monitoring agency. That is the reason the NDP proposed to amend the Bloc motion to include the creation of a petroleum monitoring agency.
The oil and gas sector in Canada is dominated by big business. Due to rising oil and gas prices, the industry has become one of the most profitable sectors in the economy, with record profits for each of the last four years. With those record profits, we see an increase in power and influence. Even with these record profits, the industry has one of the worst records with regard to investment in research and development, with among the lowest as a percentage of revenue or as a percentage of profits of any industry.
Still, the industry receives special tax breaks for capital cost allowances that the Conservatives would phase out over the next eight years. That would be eight years of more tax breaks at the expense of Canadians. The industry receives close to $2 billion a year in subsidies from the federal government.
The $2 billion could be used to fund an affordable housing program in this country. It could relieve poverty among Inuit communities across the north. The $2 billion could be used to create a department for Status of Women Canada. The $2 billion could create enough affordable child care spaces in Ontario. The $2 billion dollars could be used to create a better stand of living for our seniors by initiating a national home care plan which would allow seniors to stay in their homes and communities and out of long term care facilities.
I am sorry I have digressed, but the scope of this misspending is just breathtaking.
As many in the House know, the oil and gas industry grew as part of government policy. At a time of low oil prices, extremely low royalty rates were established for the highest cost production in the oil sands, the much higher oil prices that led to enormous investment and development in production on a scale unseen in this sector. It has also led to an enormous environmental degradation and the generation of pollution.
The oil sands sector is the largest greenhouse gas emission source in the country and it also consumes vast amounts of clean water.
The time has come to eliminate the absurd royalty regime and establish what is fair. It is time to eliminate subsidies for this profitable industry. It is time to create the incentives for the industry to reduce its emissions and invest in greener technology and fuels of the future.
Rising gas prices hurt hard-working Canadians and their pocketbooks. It is unfair for big oil companies to continue to make record profits while they squeeze consumers at the pumps.
Some people may ask: are not high gas prices an incentive to use public transit? Why would environmentalists want to make gas cheaper and increase consumption?
Transit is the key to reducing gas consumption. We are in favour of increased funding and infrastructure for public transit, but we will not take the approach that increased profits for big oil and gas companies are acceptable. It punishes working and rural families who sometimes do not have any other option but to use a car. These companies should be focusing on providing efficient fuels instead of gouging consumers.
The Conservatives and the Liberals are not protecting consumers. Rather they are letting the big oil companies reap a profit off the backs of hard-working Canadians. Big oil and gas get a billion dollar subsidy from government and all the time they are making record profits. It is simply not acceptable.
I would like to point out that when in opposition the Conservatives called on the federal government to cut taxes on gasoline. Yet, now they are in government and they flip-flop and refuse to implement their own suggestion.
It is very clear that what is necessary is an independent watchdog on gas prices to help protect against future gouging by the big gas and oil companies.
As I mentioned, the NDP proposed such legislation in 2004 and reintroduced it last spring. We could have had an independent watchdog already. This can work. Gas prices in P.E.I. are regulated by the provincial government and are generally lower than in the rest of Canada. Prices change only once a month.
In addition to introducing positive choices for Canadian consumers, the NDP wants to provide incentives for auto manufacturers to produce fuel efficient vehicles and for consumers to buy environmentally friendly cars.
Tax incentives should also be given to researchers to fund new fuel technologies and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels like gasoline. We need to do this as well as provide incentives for manufacturers to produce, and consumers to buy, more fuel efficient cars.
This is the approach that we should and can take. Someone should be on the side of the environment and someone should be on the side of hard-working Canadians.
