Soaring prices | The PQ wants to break the “cartel” of gasoline

(Quebec) The Parti Québécois wants to break the “cartel” of the oil companies which it accuses of “robbery” and “fraudulent gesture”.

The sovereignist opposition is calling for the establishment of a Quebec Competition Bureau, which would investigate and could impose fines of millions of dollars.

The Federal Competition Bureau is not playing its supervisory role and the current surge in the price of a liter of gas at the pump is reaching “indecent proportions”, because there is no competition, according to the PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.

“We know that the Competition Bureau of Canada has been a bad joke for years,” he said in a telephone interview broadcast Sunday.

A Quebec Competition Bureau “would have teeth” and full investigative powers, he argued with criminal sanctions, penalties of up to millions of dollars.

“There must be a price to pay for the oil companies, the punishment must be severe. »

Electric turn

In addition, the Parti Québécois maintains that this is the opportune moment to resolve Quebec’s dependence on oil in the long term: the electrification of the automobile fleet must be accelerated, since Quebec can count on hydroelectricity.

The CAQ government “lacks leadership,” says St-Pierre Plamondon, since Quebec’s current targets for electric car sales are much lower than those of other states.

Last fall, barely 9.5% of vehicles sold in Quebec were electric, while the proportion of electric vehicles sold reached 25% in France, 34% in Germany, 60% in Sweden, mentioned the PQ leader.

Even the new targets projected by the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, who is aiming for 12.5% ​​for 2025, are largely insufficient, judges the Parti Québécois.

“The new target is very, very, very, very, very modest,” he quipped. It’s really just a lack of leadership from the CAQ. »