Industry committee  We can if we have a reason to believe there's been a contravention of the legislation. Another source for us to get surprisingly good information is through the media. We have an investigation going on right now, which I can't talk about in detail. But I can tell you it was med

Industry committee  Absolutely not.

Industry committee  In fact, it is highly unusual for the minister to suggest this. We act on an independent basis. We can begin inquiries in one of three ways. It is possible for the minister to ask for an inquiry, but that occurs in very few circumstances. We can take action ourselves when we have

Industry committee  We see that there are fluctuations in gasoline prices.

Industry committee  It is a cycle, this is what we see on the market—

Industry committee  No, it depends. It involves choice, innovation or quality. It can be different for different markets. There is no such thing as a perfect market in which all companies sell the very same product, a market that involves six, seven or eight competitors as described in economics t

Industry committee  I am not sure whether I understood all your questions. First, you spoke of the price of oil, its fluctuations and how it reflects on current market prices. I think that this is what your first question was about.

Industry committee  Regarding this matter, I will let my colleague explain this to you after my intervention. However, the people from Natural Resources Canada are in a better position than we are to describe how—

Industry committee  This is a question of proof and evidence. We need proof; we need evidence in order to act. We consistently communicate with the public to say, please tell us anything you can and we will be happy to investigate. There's nothing we like more than having the necessary information s

Industry committee  No, we're investigating regional conspiracies right now.

Industry committee  Again, let's just keep in mind that we don't have jurisdiction to respond to price gouging. I would say far and away the most complaints we receive at the bureau relate to price gouging and not to price fixing. With respect to price fixing, we would welcome, as I said, evidence

Industry committee  It's extremely successful. Now, we have not had anyone come forward from the oil and gas industry. We have had many people come forward from many other industries. Last year we had record domestic fines with respect to price fixing in the fine-paper industry. We had Domtar, Casca

Industry committee  Again, businesses often respond to an actual or anticipated shortage. So even though they may have some fuel in the ground, they may be anticipating that they're going to be facing shortages and they may take pricing actions in response to that.

Industry committee  We are looking at the amount of gas available and how it corresponds to price spikes, and that is exactly what attracts our attention when we see price spikes. That's when we wade in to see if we think some anti-competitive acts might have taken place, whether there's agreement a

Industry committee  I think this is a demand issue rather than a supply issue. We're looking at increased demand prior to a weekend.