Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Cheasley, Mr. Laurendeau, Madam Reid, for coming today.
This issue is one that is giving me a certain level of discomfort, because there's something that is not congruent in the museums' picture in Canada at the moment. We have, as you said, a war museum, a national art gallery, a science and technology museum, an aviation museum, an agricultural museum--national museums located here in Ottawa. And perhaps the greatest part of our heritage and history, the railway, doesn't figure in the picture; it seems to be off on the side.
I think you're right that Canadians somehow don't seem to be focusing on rail as an activity and as a piece of our history and culture, as we have on other things. Do you have any sense as to why that might be? We have an aviation museum, but we don't have a national rail museum. It just doesn't make sense to me. We have a great company--you mentioned CN; we're the best railway in the world. Our country was built on railways, and somehow the government hasn't built a national railway museum in Ottawa.