Transport committee  I would take the question back to what is needed to provide the level of access and mobility needed by Canadians who are living in urban areas that are over 10,000 in population. Our estimate of that is approximately $40 billion over a five-year period. If you annualize that, you are looking at about $8 billion per year in expansion to keep up with growth and to replace the existing assets as they wear out.

Transport committee  You bet.

Transport committee  We used to have a joke in our industry that said if you keep pushing the CTrain north and you keep pushing Edmonton's light rail further south, eventually they'll meet in Red Deer. That's a joke.

Transport committee  You can say the same about the GO train going east from Toronto and the AMT going west from Montreal. But all kidding aside, ultimately Union Station in Toronto and Gare Centrale in Montreal would be clear hubs for high-speed rail, for subways, for commuter rail, for everything linking those two regions.

Transport committee  Well, I think those are the two cities that have the most significant transportation hubs already in place.

Transport committee  My understanding is that the AMT must have the means to establish a truly integrated public transit network that meets the needs of Montrealers and residents of the greater Montreal area. That means that the public transit network on the island of Montreal, whether bus or metro, will become integrated with that of Laval, Longueuil and the north and south shores.

Transport committee  I'm impressed with your understanding of the issues.

Transport committee  I appreciate the government's commitment, absolutely. Your question about a threshold is an interesting one. I think it has less to do with the overall population of a community than it does with the way in which that community is designed. You can have a million people in an area that's spread out uniformly and would never support a subway, but you can have a million people concentrated along one corridor, like Yonge Street in Toronto, that could support two subways.

Transport committee  I think the vision that the province has developed for the Greater Golden Horseshoe--the integration of the various policy levers that are in place, whether it's land use or the Municipal Act, or the places to grow legislation--really does look in a very integrated fashion at coordinating those kinds of growth centres with the transportation links that need to bring them together.

Transport committee  It's a bargain, regardless.

Transport committee  I am, although I don't think the high-speed train comes into that airport. I think it connects from the central station in Amsterdam to Brussels and Paris.

Transport committee  Absolutely. It has a great link with the local regional rail as well as the subway and bus networks around the Netherlands.

Transport committee  Our airports definitely are under-connected to their communities. If you look around the world at the way in which major cities have built rail links to their communities, whether it's to downtown or other parts, even across the U.S., such as Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, we are not at that level of development.

Transport committee  For two dollars, that's right. Certainly airports like Toronto and Montreal don't have the level of connectivity that they should.

Transport committee  I couldn't tell you, because I'm not that familiar with the terms of reference of the study. But I would strongly encourage consideration of the benefits to all Canadians of the investment in question.