Industry committee  That's an interesting idea.

Industry committee  I think organized missions would be the best, along with some financial assistance to participate in those organized missions. From a cultural and linguistic point of view, it's not an easy thing to jump into, but having done it myself, I can say that neither the language nor the

Industry committee  I think that is a good question. You're asking the right person. VIA sued me for speaking up about that, and I finally won $17,500 in legal fees from VIA as a result of it. Yes, it hurt our image a lot. It should not have happened.

Industry committee  We don't build submarines either.

Industry committee  You would have to say that a submarine that won't stand salt water is not much of a submarine. The same is true of that VIA equipment. VIA could have bought Bombardier-made Canadian equipment for fewer dollars per seat than the original price, not counting the $1 million per car

Industry committee  I wouldn't know. You would have to ask the principals. But there has to have been some misunderstanding that this equipment was somehow more valuable than it really was. I think that would be the fair way of explaining it. Whether there were other things involved, I don't know.

Industry committee  With the road not being part of the truck's direct cost except through licensing fees and gasoline--

Industry committee  Comparison with Europe and North America is very difficult. Our freight rates are one-quarter of what they are in Europe, but our passenger service is nowhere near as good as European passenger service. That doesn't mean that the passenger fares are necessarily cheap in Europe. T

Industry committee  It would be hard to spell it out that quickly. One of the things that is surprising to most Canadians is that Chinese railways are North American railways. It was designed by an American engineer in 1907. You could take a Canadian freight car off the tracks here and put it on th

Industry committee  Did you want me to add some comments to that?

Industry committee  I think we would like some help in trade missions, whereby the cost of the trade mission would be covered to a greater extent by government. It used to be that some of those costs were either entirely or largely covered. This would help a lot, because it costs a lot of money--a l

Industry committee  It's a little off to the side of our direct interest, but I am quite interested in it because it affects the market for our services and products very strongly. I would rather see some way of reducing fares for everybody rather than a tax credit, because a tax credit doesn't help

Industry committee  No, it's only 20% of the amount of fuel; it's 500% less fuel.

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  It's amortizing the track, the road, the tunnels, the bridges, the rolling stock--everything.