Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to reply to the comments made by the hon. member for Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup. It is always important to put one's comments in perspective. The Minister of Transport did not hide the fact that the government has no other money to give to VIA Rail.
The future of VIA Rail will depend on the availability of financial resources both from the government and from passenger revenues and will be affected in large part by the outcome of the current labour negotiations that are under consideration now. After these negotiations VIA will present its plans to the government at the appropriate time and we will deal with them then.
The government supports VIA's current efforts to maximize efficiencies of its operations before a decision is taken on the long term future of the corporation. For my friend's information, VIA has made fantastic gains in the past three years in terms of efficiencies in its operations, in terms of manpower, in terms of locomotives, in terms of equipment. They have made great gains but more can be done.
Clearly there can be no immediate service changes. VIA must present a proposal to the government. I repeat there can be no cuts without the government's approval.
It is very important that the Canadian people and goods be moved efficiently throughout the country. Canadians want to see a workable, affordable transportation system. It would be premature to speculate on service changes, aside from the fact that VIA will operate a network which Canadians can afford.
In addition, the member spoke about the Liberal task force. I was one of the co-authors of that task force, as many of my colleagues know. We will take some of those task force recommendations into account as the minister and the government take a look at the options available. We will also look at ways of modernizing the VIA network. We will look at those recommendations, as I said.
More important, the member should understand that. He talked about whether the government should intrude in areas of provincial jurisdiction. This is one place where in fact the federal government would work with the provinces, as it has in Ontario. We would welcome co-operation with the Quebec government, municipalities, the private sector, community groups, all to come and play and be part of the solution so that we can maintain a viable national VIA network across the country.