Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the minister and all the folks from the various departments for being here.
I am going to turn the conversation a little bit. I come from Saskatchewan; obviously, access to affordable transportation for rural and remote communities and people's ability to travel are concerns for me. I have raised these a number of times—in particular, the safe transportation for indigenous women and the support we provide for public transportation outside of large urban centres. People may not necessarily have heard what I've said, but I see the bus service in western Canada as our subway. I feel it deserves support and leadership from the federal government.
It's been almost two years since the Saskatchewan Transportation Company closed and 253 communities in Saskatchewan lost service. Folks listening today should understand that this means more than just having an inexpensive way to get to the city to do some shopping. We're talking about students' ability to go to post-secondary education, people's ability to be employed, the movement of medical supplies between urban centres and smaller centres, and of course people accessing health care. Then, of course, the other shoe dropped. We lost Greyhound service in northern Ontario and the rest of western Canada.
I have a couple of questions to get an update on what I feel is the federal government's role in this and the parameters around it. I understand jurisdiction, but it's also my feeling that any level of government can lead on an issue to bring people together and help provide a service to communities while co-operating with other levels of government. I just put that out there to encourage you to think about what role the federal government has.
Minister, concerning Greyhound, we have heard that anywhere between 87% and 90% of the routes have been covered. I'm wondering if you could let us know where the routes are that currently are not being covered and what the federal government's plan is to deal with that. In particular, I'd be interested in hearing where those routes are and if one province is really being left out in the cold, so to speak.