Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I listened carefully to, among other things, what Ms. Hanson and Mr. Alhassan had to say, and they seem to be making a strong case for a Canadian bus system run by a Crown corporation-like company, if I understand their vision correctly.
For my part, I still have some questions. At this time, there are other concerns with regard to transport. Having said that, you should know that I am strongly in favour of public transport. It makes a big difference for students, for example, as well as for retired people or anyone who wants to get from one place to another without using a car.
We should talk about the federal government's jurisdiction. For example, we did studies on the issue of inter-regional air travel and we found that it was very difficult to make it profitable and that very little service was in place. There was a problem there that would need to be addressed.
We should also talk about transport by train. For example, there is the famous Via Rail Canada high frequency train project that would serve several cities. It may not be a Via Rail project anymore; today, we don't know. I think we've been talking about it for more than three elections and it hasn't come to fruition yet.
I would like to hear your views in the context of the federal government already having significant responsibilities for transportation. The government has made announcements of projects for intercity and inter-regional transportation within its jurisdiction, but these have not materialized and are not moving forward very quickly.
Why would we create another project when it is hard to see what it would look like and who would do it? Wouldn't this duplicate services that already exist and create bickering over jurisdiction?
Does the Federation of Canadian Municipalities representative have a comment on this?