At one of our previous meetings, we had a presentation by Terence Johnson from Transport Action Canada. I'll just read you part of his testimony. He said:
...if the rest of Via Rail continues to operate as a public service, it needs a very much larger subsidy to provide all the core services that are currently shared with the corridor. That, I think, would be something that we feel wouldn't actually happen at all, and you would in fact see trains like the Skeena just disappear....
He's speaking to the fact that if the government privatizes the corridor, it's going to rob Via Rail of the bulk of its revenue. The subsidy to maintain the remainder of our service across Canada is going to have to be much greater as a percentage. The rest of Canada doesn't have very high ridership. The fear is that we're going to lose those rural routes altogether in other parts of Canada, including the place that I'm so proud to represent.
Is this a valid concern?