Thank you for that.
Hello, everyone.
We are based in Thunder Bay, Ontario. We operate scheduled routes from Winnipeg to the west, Sioux Lookout and Longlac to the north, and as far east as White River. We operate 16 buses on four daily routes, delivering parcels, providing critical essential charters and, most importantly, scheduled services. To give a perspective of the area we serve, we travel 4,000 to 5,000 kilometres per day.
I will make a strong opening statement. Today's intercity bus network is a national embarrassment. The biggest problem with intercity busing in our country is that we have a handful of operators that service limited regions of the country in an inconsistent, localized approach. Half of the provinces have proven over and over again that they have little interest in this file. There's no leadership, and furthermore, Ontario has a major conflict of interest, with potential concerns for violations of the federal Competition Act.
Today, operators are acting of their own accord, doing what is best for their companies. That is the result of eliminating provincial highway transportation boards, and it stands as proof of provincial priorities. Without a vision, a plan and guidance, we will never see a coherent trans-Canada bus route. We cannot ever allow again one company to hold our country hostage by monopolizing Canada, as a few entrants are working towards doing. It needs to be a coalition of like-minded operators working to achieve a federal vision. Far too often intercity busing is used by our provinces as a political bargaining chip. Besides the maritime provinces, there is little to no private-provincial co-operation in achieving a form of sustainable busing.
Today, many of us plan or compete for market share in busy corridors like Toronto to Ottawa. Open markets focus financial resources on the big busy centres where there is volume and more money to be made. That approach does not work in the intercity bus sector.
I ask the committee members to review the Coast to Coast Bus Coalition proposal. We signed a pledge to interline together nationally and work together with the federal government in creating a sustainable national bus network. We outline an industry-driven private-public solution.
I believe we need a national highway intercity transportation board and a national essential bus transportation act to lead us into the future. I believe that the federal government is responsible for connecting Canada by bus, and in my view, that should be one of the key mandates of Infrastructure Canada. The federal government can and should include private coach operators in transit and rural transit funding. There's no reason that private operators like us should be excluded from the fund while municipalities can apply. The rural transit stream is not meant to solve the intercity rural transportation issues in its current form. This is because in area like northern Ontario, small townships and municipalities either don't have the capacity or don't make it a priority to improve transportation between them, and if the province doesn't take leadership, the entire region is left with inadequate services and disconnected from the rest of Canada.
The federal government can introduce subsidies for private motorcoach operators to help support the cross-provincial development of routes. For example, the U.S. government's essential air service program gave $350 million largely to the smallest airlines in 2021 in the lower 48 states serving remote cities. Why not have a similar essential bus service program working on a similar concept, but geared towards intercity busing? The federal government can use direct funding to fund private motorcoach operators like tax incentives, tax rebates on fuel or more direct project grants to correct various connectivity shortcomings.
We are the most basic backbone of our intercity infrastructure. Where there is political will, solutions will be implemented. Intercity busing crosses provincial boundaries, and that should make it a federal matter, just like trains, airplanes and ships.
Only federal oversight and a federal plan will reconnect Canada. I ask our government to take responsibility for the transportation file and make it a federal mandate again.
Thank you.