Evidence of meeting #44 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dan Muys Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON
Switching to the high-frequency rail, I have a question.
Just help me understand the thinking behind a subsidiary of VIA Rail rather than....
Did we not have the expertise within VIA Rail to do this? Why was that structure put forward? Is that efficient and does it give the high-frequency rail the opportunity to succeed?
5:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Transport
First and foremost, Via is a first-class operator of a rail system. It has expertise that is essential to the success of the project, but there is a lot of expertise, skill and capacity that we need to build and develop in order to properly manage this complex project. It's not currently in Via and it's not currently in the Government of Canada, so we're building a dedicated corporation as a project office to assemble that skill and have that entity focused on one thing, which is the development and delivery of that project.
The project will be done in partnership with Via, but we think we need a very purposeful development of that project capacity.
Part of what drives us is that we have been looking systemically at the hard lessons of other projects. You can see them now in Ottawa's LRT and the report that has come out. We're studying that with great interest and ensuring that we're establishing a pathway that avoids the pretty terrible potholes that some others have found themselves in.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Muys.
Thank you, Mr. Keenan.
On behalf of all committee members, I want to thank our witnesses from the department for joining us today.
With that, this meeting is adjourned.