Mr. Mackay, Mr. Langan, thank you for joining us and sharing with us your views.
Let me begin by saying that you'll find many receptive ears around the table, but you'll also find some rather skeptical and cynical ears. The committee is in the process of trying to determine whether we can move from skepticism to planning and realization.
Mr. Mackay, one of the things that would help us has to do with financing. One of the statements in your brief referred specifically to the amount of money that would have to be expended over a ten-year period for rail itself. Some people think that's a cost; others might think it's an investment. I think you were a part of the initial study, in the 1990s, that Mr. Langan referred to, so you have an intimate view of the financing associated with this. People are talking about $20 billion to $30 billion for high-speed, including Calgary-Edmonton, so we're not talking about just one corridor. In that study, which looked at the financing, what was the cost per year in round terms, for the federal government in a partnership situation, up to and including the first year of operation?