Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, all, for attending today.
First, I would just acknowledge that it's always a struggle to not bring one's personal feelings when we've been delayed on the train or using these services, so I'll do my best to set that aside.
I found myself in a rather unusual position when reading through this report, having been here now a dozen years. I usually get more riled up the more I read a report. Not that it wasn't there to some degree, but I need the Auditor General to help me out. The last thing I want to do is let somebody off the hook when they need to be held to account—the last thing, because that's what we're all about.
Every time I got into the serious concerns raised by the AG's office, in my interpretation of reading the report, I found a third party to be at fault, i.e., the governance issue had the strongest language, and the strongest criticism comes in failing to achieve strategic objectives, and therefore, in governance and overseeing those strategic goals. Yet the report indicated every time that it was the timing of the government in the funding they received; the timing and the amount was consistently a problem.
In terms of the efficiency of the organization, there's this business of how you don't control the tracks you run on. Then there's the whole idea that by national policy, freight comes before people.
Given those kinds of pressures that are outside the control of VIA, what key issues are left once we pull those things away? What are the things we should be focusing on with VIA? I have a whole lot to say about wanting the behaviour of the government to change, to get their act together, but I'm going to come to that a little later.
I'm asking the AG's office, if we take out the parts of this that are the fault of the previous government in funding, timing, and amounts, and if, in the operation of VIA, we take away the fact that they don't control the tracks and it's a major impediment to their achieving their efficiencies, what are the core criticisms that remain in this report as a priority, in your view?