Horgan was named to the NDP front bench as its Education critic. He criticized the government's 2005 "Teachers' Collective Agreement Act" which legislated teachers into a new contract, after several months of unsuccessful collective bargaining, as " an already volatile situation". In June 2006, Horgan was named Energy and Mines critic. Horgan called for the Oil and Gas Commission to provide more transparent reporting after it was claimed its annual 97% compliance rating was near-perfect, despite 2,500 known infractions, the majority of which were rated major or serious. Following a sudden sharp increase in gasoline prices in early 2007, Horgan introduced the "Retail Petroleum Consumer Protection Act" as a private member bill which, if passed, would have put gasoline prices under the jurisdiction of the BC Utilities Commission, the same as electricity and natural gas. The bill was supported by an 18,000-signature petition and elicited editorial responses from Minister Neufeld and Christy Clark.