Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to all the witnesses. I'm pleased that they are joining us today for this important study.
Mr. Blackburn from the Quebec Employers' Council, I assume you must know Quebec quite well, given your position and what you did before that.
Let's start with connections to other modes of transportation. We talk a lot about the commute time from city to city and we wonder if we want high-frequency rail, or HFR, or high-speed rail, or HSR. However, be it HFR or HSR, some people are wondering if having no connection to downtown areas might pose a problem.
Take downtown Montreal, for example. If we look only at the time from station to station to determine the shortest possible route between Montreal and Quebec City or Montreal and Toronto, but the Montreal station is actually located in the north end of the city rather than downtown, the data on the speed of the route could ultimately be skewed, because the actual travel time could be much longer for most users who want to arrive downtown.
In your opinion, how important are connections to other modes of transportation, and are they an issue for you?