Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm disappointed that we have to be here today, but I think it is very important that we are. Of course, the subject of our emergency sitting of the transport committee under Standing Order 106(4) is with respect to the unfortunate incidents that happened over the Labour Day weekend.
For those who aren't aware and didn't see media reports—of course, there were many—a train was stopped in Quebec for over 10 hours. Individuals were in extremely difficult situations. This 10-hour delay came at a time when people were expecting to arrive, to see their parents, to see their children, to get to work, to get to their medical appointments. They couldn't do this. During that 10-hour period, unfortunately, they were without power for over 90 minutes, including being without toilets or any washroom facilities for over an hour and a half. There was very limited food, limited water and some limited communication.
There were actually two mechanical breakdowns on the Via Rail train. One was relatively minor; the second was a full engine breakdown. I think this certainly merits questions, and it merits investigation. If it were in a vacuum, perhaps I would not have as much frustration as I do with this Liberal government. However, we have to look through the recent years.
In fact, you only have to look back to my riding, actually, the beautiful town of Cobourg, where a train was stuck for over 18 hours during the holiday season of 2022. That story in itself was, to me, a significant ordeal, particularly for those involved. It was overshadowed by the chaos that occurred at Canadian airports. Many media reports covered what happened at Pearson Airport in 2022. I suspect that many of the people watching there, if they weren't involved, know someone who was. These were people who were counting on getting home to see grandchildren, to see children, and instead were stuck in the airport for hours at a time.
That's why we called this Standing Order 106(4) emergency meeting of the transport committee to schedule a series of meetings to get to the bottom of this and to make sure that if incidents happen again, they don't result in such tremendous ordeals of people being stuck for hours on end without any way of getting to their loved ones or making their business meetings and, perhaps most disturbingly of all, going hours with limited food, sometimes without electricity, and even with limited washroom facilities.
Mr. Chair, if it's okay with you, at this point I'd like to move my motion, which is to schedule a series of meetings. Mr. Chair, is that acceptable to you?