Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I heard this, and no one is malicious when they are saying this.... We heard it in the first meetings we had prior to another study we have undertaken, talking about this benefiting all Canadians and being a nation-building project and things like that. I think we do have to keep in mind that if 25 million or 20 million people can access it, there are 20 million who can't. The people in my riding would have to take a four-day train trip to be able to access the front end of this project in order to benefit from it.
It is an important regional project. It connects two provinces and several major urban centres, but I think we do have to be a little aware that this isn't the Canadian Pacific Railway connecting the country and bringing us together at Confederation. This is a very regional project that will benefit a significant portion of the population, but not the entire country.
In that vein, I want to talk a bit about the Toronto-Quebec City corridor, which is perhaps the most well-served corridor in terms of transportation options in the country. I think Mr. D'Angelo mentioned increased commuter air traffic: Porter, Air Canada, WestJet, and the list goes on of air opportunities. People drive all the time. There's the current Via Rail line.
The question I have for the Via folks specifically is whether this is the best use of funding, to spend billions of dollars to give yet another option to the same region. Could that funding be better spent improving service on your main line, improving your stock, improving your ability to provide service to already existing rail lines?
I would like your comments on that.