Given stuff like this, a fortuitious bit of policy wonkery:
We also know Canadians are frustrated with spiralling energy costs and the lack of information and justification that often accompanies these increases. Canadians deserve clear and complete information and the provision of such information will make the market place fairer and more transparent. To accomplish this, we will restore the federal Office of Petroleum Price Information to monitor energy price fluctuations and provide clear, current information to Canadians. Work on the creation of this office was started under the previous Liberal government but was shut down by the Conservative government. The Minister of Natural Resources will be accountable to Parliament for the Office.
Hmm..energy prices are monitored to varying degrees by at least three federal agencies: Competition Bureau, Natural Resources, National Energy Board, and countless provincial bodies. But Dion can add another if he likes, since he will never be PM it wont cost anything.
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ReplyDelete"Hmm..energy prices
are monitored to varying degrees by at least three federal agencies: Competition Bureau, Natural Resources, National Energy Board, and countless provincial bodies. But Dion can add another if he likes, since he will never be PM it wont cost anything."
Didn't Mr.Dion say earlier this summer that he was not going
to increase the bureaucracy? Well now he says that he wants to crack down on collusion.
How will Mr.Dion do this without increasing the government bureaucracy?
Unless of course he decides to eliminate one of these departments and replace it with another one: Competition Bureau, Natural Resources, National Energy Board,and don't forget the provincial bodies too. Does Mr.Dion think that the Canadian people are so easily fooled by his announcement? But I digress.
This sounds like populism. Dion knows that gas prices are a serious irritant to "the average Canadian", and that there are always rumours of price collusion. So he makes a big show about doing something about it, even when he knows it's mostly a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteCourse the big worry is that he really does do something about the price of gas. There isn't a problem so serious that government can't make it worse.
And let's face it. The real complaint is that oil companies are making huge profits off of petroleum at the expense of the consumer, when that's supposed to be government's job.
Did Dion live in Russia in a previous life? Why is this guy such a statist/communist? This guy believes in bureaucracy, government intervention, and control over every aspect of your life
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't he realize how gasoline taxes raise the price of gasoline?
Kudos for deleting jonathon.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think this is purely populism. Dion will have no power to curtail the massive and endemic collusion that exists in gasoline price fixing.
Rule #1: Never again elect sociology professors when reality is the issue.
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