Yes, Mr. Speaker, I would like to elaborate on what the hon. member just said. Basically, his point was, and I mentioned this earlier, that we should look at all the options or at least keep all our options open in the railway transportation sector as in all other sectors.
The hon. member for Bonaventure-Îles-de-la-Madeleine asked some of my colleagues what position the Government of Quebec would take on this matter and what the position of the municipalities would be on taxation. He was referring to the fuel tax.
I would like to comment briefly in this respect, since during the past year, I was very involved in working with people in my community to raise public awareness of the future of railway transportation. I think that important progress was made during the past few weeks, and I am delighted to see that.
I also had an opportunity to talk to municipal authorities, who told me they had no objection to reviewing their right to raise property taxes and to business people who expressed an interest in investing in short-line railway companies. In fact, the only ingredient still lacking is a clear-cut decision by the government and the Minister of Transport to include the public or its representatives in this debate.
So far, and we see this in the so-called task force set up by the Minister of Transport, there is no room for the opposition, not for the Official Opposition and not for the Reform Party. As far as consultations with the industry are concerned, there are a monumental farce, and that is why we are telling our stakeholders to boycott these consultations, since their only purpose is to let the government hear what it wants to hear. What we need is genuine consultations across Canada, and I am prepared to co-operate with the government and let our intervenors come and say what they think of railway transportation and what they are prepared to do to ensure its future.