Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all I would like to welcome our witnesses.
I always find it a bit hard to listen to the comparison between the reality in Hong-Kong and the situation in Canada when it comes to automobiles. Drivers are not the bad guys in all of this. We have to improve quality of life and reorganize things. There is a governance and a management issue. At the municipal level, the infrastructure is indeed becoming obsolete, and without infrastructure it will be difficult to have public transit. And on the topic of public transit, I liked the fact that in his presentation the CAA representative talked about integrated positioning, that is to say what is being done regarding cyclists. There is also the matter of the train. We should be talking more about the high-speed train in the Windsor-Quebec corridor.
All that said, I want us to talk about motivation for a moment. You, of course, are familiar with the situation of workers, of unionized workers. Before we begin to philosophize on the concept of dedicated funding and everything that relates to that topic, could you tell us about how your members see things right now? What do they say about current public transit networks? Do they feel that the system is obsolete? We may well develop a national strategy, but what will we do if our current equipment is failing? Moreover, people have been talking about jurisdictions. Is it the Canadian government's responsibility to invest in this or should we be looking rather for a new funding approach?
I would like to hear you discuss the situation. People talk to you a great deal. What are you hearing right now from unionized workers with regard to public transit as it exists currently, in urban areas in particular?