Mr. Speaker, regarding the hon. member's comments about the merger being discussed by officials of CN and CP, we said that we will certainly consider the proposal that might be made to the Government of Canada as CN's shareholder.
Of course we are willing to look at all these possibilities. Those who know Canada's railways even a little already know that Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island do not have any rail service. CP will abandon its lines in eastern Canada, east of Sherbrooke, next January.
My hon. colleague was there when all these things were decided by the previous government. For our part, we will certainly listen to what the two railways have to suggest to us. We are very aware of the need to find an efficient system that can be maintained in Canada, but we insist that all elements of the transportation sector must be combined in a system that is efficient and that we can afford.
Line abandonments will certainly continue. The Canadian taxpayer is certainly unable at the end of the 20th century to support a system that was undoubtedly efficient 30 or 40 years ago, but we are trying to phase it out as fairly and equitably as possible, taking account of other alternatives.
As for the high-speed train, my hon. colleague no doubt knows that the governments of Quebec, Ontario and Canada are now conducting a multi-million-dollar study. This study is to be completed in the spring and I hope that a report will be available to us this summer. I believe that it would be very wrong of me to say whether or not we should have a high-speed train system before listening to our colleagues from Quebec and Ontario, because we think that they have worked hard and deserve a hearing when they come to us with a report.