Thank you, Madam Minister, for being here.
VIA Rail estimates are very difficult to fathom because most of them, last year at least, were in the supplementary estimates as opposed to the main estimates, so we have a main estimate that's $4 million less than last year's main estimate.
I want to approach it from the notion of the spending on capital that the federal government did in 2007 to 2009 that has extended into this year and is continuing to be spent a little bit. There was $501 million of capital expenditures over the past six years, all of which was in Ontario.
Madam Minister, when the communities between Miramichi and Bathurst are threatened with the removal of their passenger train service as a result of CN abandoning a line and the federal government apparently doesn't have $10 million to help out New Brunswick, why is the federal government willing to help Ontario but not New Brunswick?