Thank you.
Good afternoon, everybody. It's such an honour to be invited to speak. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and to the members of this committee for having us this morning.
My name is Sean McCoshen and I am the chair and founder of the Alaska to Alberta Railway, known as A2A Rail. J.P. Gladu, as you've already introduced, is joining me today. We are hear to talk about A2A Rail and to offer our thoughts on the process of developing infrastructure in Canada. Our perspective comes from five and a half years of working to build A2A Rail, a low-carbon, multi-commodity railroad that aspires to be the largest indigenous co-owned project in the world, which will bring immediate and long-term economic opportunity to Canada's north.
From its inception, three objectives have been central to A2A's DNA: one, meaningful indigenous engagement and ownership of the project; two, setting a new gold standard for sustainability and environmental impact; and three, opening a reliable and long-term pathway through the Yukon and Northwest Territories into Alaska.
I founded A2A Rail because I saw the potential and the need for a project of this kind. In fact, when I first learned there was no rail connection into Canada's northwest, I was astounded. Through this work and throughout my career, I have engaged with international investors, many of whom are looking for opportunities in Canada. While many of them tell me that there's a bit of a chill on building large-scale infrastructure in Canada, I believe the one way to prove them wrong is to show the world that we can build large-scale infrastructure in this country.
At A2A Rail we feel strongly that successfully building the kinds of projects this committee is studying means designing a project in the exact way we have designed our railway; placing environmental considerations at the forefront of planning; engaging indigenous communities, not simply in the planning process but as owners and partners in all phases of the project; lowering the cost of living for communities in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories; and, opening Canada's north while deepening Canada-U.S. connectivity. That is the kind of project Canada should be building right now, and we can absolutely do this.
A2A Rail can be a model for how big infrastructure projects in Canada are built going forward. Success through Canada's regulatory process for projects like ours, which is designed with these elements at its core, will go very far to encourage significant new investment.
I'll pass it off to J.P. Gladu at this point.