Jack Layton promises to stop the gas price rip-off:
At a campaign stop in Toronto on Saturday afternoon, he repeated his plan to appoint an oversight commissioner who would review gas prices.
"If oil companies collude, under our plan they'll be investigated. If we catch them at it they'll be prosecuted. And the rip-offs will be stopped," Layton said.
Wait a minute? Don't we already have such an agency?
The Competition Bureau is responsible for the administration of the Competition Act, which includes provisions against price fixing, price maintenance and abusive behaviour by a dominant firm, among others. All of its provisions apply to gasoline and other petroleum products markets.
The Act does not provide the Bureau with the power to regulate prices. In fact, the federal government does not have the constitutional power to enact legislation to regulate the retail price of gasoline except in a national emergency. The constitutional power to regulate retail gasoline prices rests with the provincial governments.
The Bureau does not possess up-to-the-minute information on all developments in the world-wide petroleum industry. It is not the Bureau's mandate to conduct ongoing economic research and analysis of developments in the petroleum sector of the economy. The Bureau commences an investigation when it becomes aware of suspicious activities which may be in conflict with the provisions of the Act.
So Jack, what exactly will be the difference between this new commissioner and the existing bureau? Or is this just another new duplicate government job that will deliver no real value other then make us feel better?
You don't know jack Jack.
We're better off with Harper.
5 comments:
The difference between the new commissioner and the existing bureau is that it will create another level of goverment bureaucracy which is something near and dear to the hearts of all Dippers. You can never have too much government is their motto.
Trudeau set up PetroCanada to be the government's eyes and ears inside the oil industry, and what did it produce...zip, nada, zilch, zero...
The commissioner will be a crony of Layton, Layton wants to appoint his cronies too. He feels left out from all those years of crony Liberal appointments
Harper nailed this one in his brief answer... "try not to make snap decisions in the daily goings on" Part of a free and open society and one of the beautiful things about freedom when mixed with capitalism is that we have open markets. If you created a better mouse trap you should be able to profit from it... Personally I spend about 450 a month on gas for my car... I don't relish paying 1.52 a litre in BC but if that's the price I have to pay then that's what I pay today...and I thank God I don't live in England where it's over double that. How much did you pay to maintain your personal refinary or invest in drilling and exploration? What, you don't have the Billions of dollars it costs to run an oil and gas company???
Reality is we will pay what the market will bare...end of story. If it gets priced too high people will stop buying it or find alternative means of transportation... regulating it or imposing a gov't fixed price means we'll be paying tax dollars before long to keep the prices down and I already pay 11% in the lower mainland in BC to cover 45% of the translink costs so like hell am I going to pay personal taxes because I own a home to supliment some jackass in Ontario who commutes in daily from Gravenhurst or Bomanville to live in there $100k home and burn 0.99 a liter gas
Yesterday I heard a clip from Layton and it made no sense at all.
Jack went on one of his "Svend Robinson" style hissy fits for the proverty crisis in canada ( but don't mention how he and Olivia are racking in mega-bucks as MP with no kids and they have private health plans) and he cited a Stat that 56% of the single-parents are females .
Now maybe I'm not too bright but 52% of our population is recorded as females , and Jack is asserting that 44% of Single-Parents are males .
But it gets worse folks , the NDP loves to harp about visible-minority immigrants being victims of oppressive morals from the Christian right that impose their values on non-christians.
So riddle me this... Stats-Can list the population as about 86% Christian , they also claim that only 10% of Afro-canadians were here befor 1970 , and they claim we have a record high employment number for the last 30 years .......so where are all those non-religious/non-white/non-canadians living in Government housing and hold down 3 jobs while having 4 kids from different fathers?
I have yet to meet one of those Taxi drivers from the middle east that is a Scientist/engineer/Brain surgeon/Nuclear Physisist , let along know how to read a Toronto map or know the shortest route to where I'm heading .
If 44% of the single parents are men , then how can NAC and the other men-hater mobs assert that males are more prone to sexually abuse kids and the female should get custody in most seperation cases by the Courts.
Any response Jack????
Well the issue of foreign accreditation is a serious issue. I am sure there are lots of recent immigrants being under employed. Surely we can do better at this.
The real reason their is so little movement on accreditation for doctors is that there is a pressing need to ration health care to prevent the costs from bankrupting the nation.
Why else would people be against private diagnostic clinics where you pay via your provincial health plan?
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