The Parti Quebecois (PQ) wants to break up the oil companies' "cartel" which it accuses of "robbery and "fraudulent acts."

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

"The federal Competition Bureau is not playing its monitoring role and the current spike in gasoline prices at the pump is reaching indecent proportions because there is no competition," according to 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. "The oil companies' scheme has been known for a long time, it's grand theft. It's a fraudulent act to inflate prices by fixing margins with other oil companies... It is a substantial impoverishment of Quebec families."

A potential Quebec Competition Bureau "would have teeth," according to St-Pierre Plamondon, and full investigative powers with criminal sanctions and penalties of up to millions of dollars.

"There must be a price to pay for the oil companies, the punishment must be severe," he said.

ELECTRIC SHIFT

In addition, the PQ feels that this is the right time to resolve Quebec's long-term dependence on oil, and the electrification of the automobile fleet must be accelerated since Quebec can count on hydroelectricity.

St-Pierre Plamondon said the CAQ government "lacks leadership," since Quebec's current targets for electric car sales are well below those of other provinces or states.

Last fall, only 9.5 per cent of vehicles sold in Quebec were electric, while the proportion of electric vehicles sold in France is around 25 per cent, 34 per cent in Germany and 60 per cent in Sweden, said the PQ leader.

Even Minister of the Environment Benoit Charette's targets, which are shooting for at 12.5 per cent by 2025, is largely insufficient, the PQ feels.

"The new target is very, very, very, very, very modest," he said. "It's really just a lack of leadership from the CAQ."

-- This report by the Canadian Press was first published in French on March 13, 2022.