Industry committee  Thank you very much for coming today. I was just making a little analogy here, listening to my colleague from Oshawa, with his concern about blended fuels, that actually, under the Ontario mandate, should the Ontario premier go out, it would likely be good for his constituents.

Industry committee  No, no. You talk about profit here. I'm looking at the part above this chart in your presentation where you say, “Nevertheless, the fact remains, that over the last ten years, after tax profits have averaged about 1.5¢ per litre.” You also talk about going from zero in December up to 10.7¢ as of late.

Industry committee  One thing we heard the other day is that part of the problem at the refineries is around the pipelines to get it to them. There's limited capacity. I mean, there is all kinds of product, I think, but it's at the refining end where it's been limited. You say that a number have closed down, but I'm wondering, have they just decided to close because of the profit margin or because the plants were inefficient?

Industry committee  If anyone else has another opinion, that would be great. I'm just trying to get some questions in, because I've only got one go here.

Industry committee  Okay. I'm interested, because in business we talk about the high investment in terms of having more refining capacity, yet when I look at Mr. Quintal's figures, Esso's profits in this particular one--the refining margins--are records. They are over 100% in six years. So I'm wondering what the barrier is.

Industry committee  You talked a little bit, Ms. Savage, in your comments about an early warning system, and I said it was an interesting talk that you had about it. Why have we not done that?

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome, and thank you for coming out to this interesting discussion on gas prices. In 2003 the Competition Bureau and the chair at that time, the competition commissioner, said: “But we have never found any evidence of any kind of collusion except at a very local level, usually a bunch of stations getting together and trying to maintain the price at a certain level.”

Industry committee  Do you believe the Competition Bureau should be investigating this again, that government should be moving ahead and having another investigation into the price of gas?

Industry committee  Do you think some of the changes over the last few years should have some change in our philosophy?

Industry committee  Do you have a comment, Sonia?

Industry committee  You talked about having no accountability of inventory. I think those were the words. What is the best way to get started on that? I know you touched on it earlier, but if we're going to do it, what's the best direction that you would have for us?

Industry committee  —and what you're saying is that is not the case. It can be open to the public.

Industry committee  Can you initiate an investigation?

Industry committee  I've heard it takes the Minister of Industry to initiate an investigation—

Industry committee  How does a public get evidence? It's good to say, well, the public needs to bring evidence, so you have the local constituents—I get the letters and the e-mails—and you say, well, they need to bring the evidence. If I tell them to bring the evidence, all they can think about is that we can maybe deal with the local gas station.