Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday in my Member’s statement I talked about the cost of home heating oil, diesel and gasoline at the pumps in the Northwest Territories. I’m going to direct my questions to the Minister of Justice, who I believe is responsible for consumer protection. I’ll just repeat a little bit from yesterday.
The Competition Bureau has commissioned studies of the relationship of crude oil prices to retail and wholesale gasoline prices. These studies have found that gasoline prices generally do track crude prices, but there can be a delay of up to two months before decreases or increases of crude oil prices are passed along to the consumers. At the same time some of these studies found that variations in crude oil prices are only one of the factors in influencing retail prices.
My question first of all is: Does this government have any role in protecting consumers for this unregulated but very essential commodity? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll direct this question to the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs who has responsibility for consumer protection.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department does have a consumer affairs branch. It’s a very small office right now; it’s complaint driven. As far as the Member’s question on the cost of crude, we don’t regulate the cost of fuel. If we were to do something like that, we’d obviously have to go through the legislation. It is a concern obviously amongst folks out there that constantly have to deal with it all the time. One thing we do do as a government through I think it’s Public Works, is if they get a shipment of fuel at a cheaper price, then they adjust the fuel price of the communities that they serve and they would reap the rewards of it. Obviously if the price goes higher, then it has to be adjusted again.
I know that the communities that are serviced by the petroleum products division do have fuel provided and the government does have these safeguards built in. I believe there’s some averaging and things to make it less onerous on the communities when the purchase of fuel has taken place at a higher price. But we regulate the cost of power in the Northwest Territories. I don’t think that home heating oil or gasoline and diesel to drive our vehicles is any less of an essential commodity, yet it seems like right now anybody can charge any price they want.
The Member raises a very good point and I think it’s something we should do as a government, is try and track to see if the prices have been adjusting with the price of crude oil. I can assure the Member that I will have discussions with the department and with my Cabinet colleagues to see how we would go about this. It’s something that I think we should do to try and protect our consumers out there the best we can.
We are concerned about our consumers. We are concerned about the cost of living. Understandably, some things are not within our control. The price of crude oil on the world markets is not within our control. There are many other things that are not within our control. If we could at least satisfy our constituents here in the North that they are not being gouged at the pumps and at the home heating oil trucks, if we could assure them of that because this is something that is raised to me quite regularly and I think that the question could be laid to rest by the kind of research that could fairly easily be undertaken. Even if we can’t go back and find the historical data, if we could begin to track it going forward, I would appreciate that very much.
I agree with the Member that I think there is some research we need to undertake. I assure the Member that I will have discussions with the department and we’ll go about undertaking some of that research and try to track the price of fuel and gas.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
