No government tolerance for high gas prices, Tories say

THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - The Conservative government says it "won't tolerate high gas prices" - even as prices at the pumps have nearly doubled in the past year.

Colin Carrie, the junior Industry minister, lauded the federal Competition Bureau on Friday in the wake of price-fixing charges laid in four Quebec markets.

Several of the defendants pleaded guilty, marking the first federal price-fixing convictions since 1955.

Carrie says more investigations are taking place across the country.

"The government is taking action because we will not tolerate high gas prices . . . ," he told the Commons. "We will not tolerate high gas prices."

But opposition MPs questioned the government commitment, saying more must be done to ensure there's no collusion among major oil and gas companies.

The Tories are rebuffing opposition demands to beef up the Competition Bureau or create a federal ombudsman on fuel prices.

Thirteen people and 11 companies were charged in smaller Quebec markets this week with gasoline price fixing.

The Bloc Quebecois currently has a private members' bill before the House that would give much broader investigative powers to the Competition Bureau.

The proposed legislation would also dramatically increase penalties, raising the initial fine for convicted individuals to $750,000 from the current $50,000 and the penalty for corporations to $10 million from the current $100,000.

"If there have been (no charges) since 1955, it proves the law isn't effective," said Bloc MP Mario Laframboise.

Laframboise said Prime Minister Stephen Harper must halt his government's opposition to the Bloc bill.

"He must choose his camp: consumers or petroleum cartels."

NDP MP Paul Dewar said the charges laid this week were akin to nabbing the "the lookout guys on the street corner for the bigger dealers."

Dewar wants to give the competition bureau more powers, and also to create a federal ombudsman to monitor gas prices.

"We need to have some strong regulation. We need to have an ombudsperson who actually is going to have more powers and investigate."

Liberal MP Bob Rae dryly observed that gas prices have almost doubled since the Conservatives came to power in 2006.

"So for this government to say they're not going to tolerate high gas prices is a little rich and I think just speaks to how badly out of touch they are with what Canadians have been experiencing over the last while," Rae said.

But Conservatives shot back, citing Liberal comments this spring on the inevitability and even environmental benefit of high fuel prices.

© The Canadian Press, 2008