NDP platform includes $6M to end gas pump gouging

Part of the NDP's policy platform released Friday includes measures to combat price gouging at the pumps.

“Over the last few years, oil prices have reached record lows, yet gas prices remain high,” the New Democrats said in a release. “Today’s national platform announcement by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair commits to fighting back at the pumps by promising a national gas ombudsman and strengthening the power of the Competition Bureau.”

"For years, the NDP has been fighting for the rights of consumers, while the Conservatives were asleep at the wheel," Paul Loewenberg, NDP Candidate in Sudbury, is quoted as saying in the release. “Today’s announcement is a clear commitment to crack down gas price-fixing.”

Under Stephen Harper, oil and gas companies have not been held accountable, the release said.

“Conservatives' introduced their own law in 2011 meant to curtail price gouging, yet the government has yet to hand out a single penalty under this new legislation.”

The NDP platform commits to appointing a gasoline ombudsperson to “investigate complaints about practices in the gasoline market, while strengthening the power of the Competition Bureau to proactively investigate allegations of anti-competitive activity in the gasoline market.”

“Conservatives have provided oil and gas companies with generous subsidies and tax breaks while consumers continued to get gouged," Claude Gravelle, NDP Candidate in Nickel Belt, said in the release.

"Canadians deserve better than a government that stands idly by while they get hosed at the gas pump.”