Duceppe Calls on Ottawa to Draft Plan to Deal With Soaring Oil Prices

MONTREAL (CP) – Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe has joined the NDP’s Jack Layton in calling on the federal government to do more to regulate skyrocketing oil prices.

Ottawa should convene the Standing Committee on Industry as early as this week in order to devise a plan to deal with high oil prices, Duceppe said Saturday.

A spokesperson for the party confirmed that Bloc members of the committee are trying to persuade representatives from the other parties to agree to meet earlier.

If a majority of the members agree, the committee can meet even though Parliament is not sitting.

Duceppe made his comments at a news conference at his riding office in Montreal while listing several measures the federal government should take to help those hardest hit by higher fuel costs.

Duceppe wants Ottawa to make a $250 tax credit available to low-income households to offset the rising prices of oil products. He said a similar tax credit should be made available to those whose jobs require the use of a vehicle, such as taxi drivers.

He proposed financing the plan by increasing the taxes levied on large oil companies, a move Duceppe said could put as much as $500 million in federal coffers.

Fuel prices have been rising steadily recently, with even more severe increases coming in the wake of hurricane Katrina’s impact on oil production and refining in the Gulf of Mexico.

On Friday, the price of regular gas in St. John’s, N.L., hit $1.48 per litre.

The Bloc leader also rejected the idea of nationalizing Canada’s oil industry, saying it would be too costly and would infringe on provincial jurisdiction.

“Natural resources belong to the provinces, and to (nationalize oil) you would have to go over Alberta’s head and if we go over Alberta’s head it opens the door to bypassing Quebec on hydroelectricity, which as clean energy is an energy of the future,” Duceppe said.

Duceppe added that Ottawa should create an office with the explicit purpose of monitoring the oil industry and ensuring that real competition is taking place.

Last month, Layton demanded the government launch an inquiry to look into whether multinational oil companies are colluding with each other.

“We effectively have a monopoly in the sector, a very small number of very large companies that are setting the prices,” Layton said at the time.

During the last session of parliament, the NDP sponsored a bill aimed at creating a permanent commission to deal with energy prices.