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.