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 of upgrading. If you add that into it, it would have cost about 50ยข per seat to buy top-quality Canadian equipment. So that was a big mistake.