Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister.
This discussion today is, in large part, about the balance between investing in highway infrastructure and investing in public transportation. That's how your government has framed it. There are a lot of concerns around public transportation.
I represent a rural riding in northern British Columbia, and people there who don't own cars have fewer transportation options than they have had, I would say, in the last 50 years. We've lost Greyhound entirely from our country, and our passenger train service, in many parts of the country, is on life-support.
Your government has headed down this path of building a new passenger rail system between Toronto and Quebec City and has essentially privatized that corridor. Before you object to the word “privatization”, I think that when a private consortium designs, finances, builds and operates a rail system, that is essentially de facto privatization.
That corridor, as you know very well, is currently contributing 95% of Via Rail's revenue across the country, so when it comes to passenger revenue, the corridor is very important to the long-term success of Via Rail. In the area I represent, those funds are needed to ensure that the train continues to run and that we actually expand that service in the future.
How is Via Rail going to maintain its long-distance routes across the country using only 5% of the revenue?