Mr. Mackay, you say that the government must send a clear message. But industry must send a clear message too.
In your presentation, you mentioned the $4 billion needed to modernize or update the railways over ten years. You also mentioned the $407 million provided to VIA Rail. But we are still operating on a network that is partially used by passenger traffic, but mostly by freight trains.
Have we not just come to a junction? Do we not really need a passenger rail network that is completely separated from the freight trains? That is the clear message that the industry has to send to us. Are we there yet? This is important for the future. We are in an economic recession at the moment, but, before the recession, there was phenomenal growth in rail freight. That is good, but we cannot develop passenger transportation and freight transportation on the same network.