Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to my hon. colleague from Kootenay West-Revelstoke express his views on the official opposition. He believes it would be much more interesting if the Reform Party formed the official opposition in this debate about railways. I can assure that I, for one, will stick to the matter under consideration.
The matter at issue is that the National Transport Agency has authorized CP and CN to abandon a number of sections on some important rail lines, in particular the Lachute, Chapais and central Quebec lines.
These abandonments will certainly have a major, serious impact on regional development. For example, I will only talk about the Lachute line because my colleague from Argenteuil and myself tabled a brief asking that this line not be abandoned. The matter at issue is the abandonment of part of this line-that is, the central part and not the start or the end. Talk about a rational decision: they leave the start and end of the line but remove the middle.
To show you just how lightly the agency gave this authorization, I will mention the fact that, in concluding that the line was not profitable, the commissioners simply relied on the argument that the railway had not made enough money over the past three years, when everyone knows that we were in a recession and that these three years therefore did not reflect the railway's real earning potential.
During these hearings, it was conclusively proven that CP had made no effort to develop or even keep its clients. On the contrary, it seemed to try to drive them away.
It got to the point that the Quebec Ministry of Transportation, using its urbanization powers, had to issue an order to at least prevent the dismantling of the Lachute line. The ministry cannot oppose the end of operations, but it can prevent the line from being dismantled.
This brings me to the topic of Bill C-101, on which we will vote very soon and to which my colleague from Beauport-Montmorency-Orléans and myself will propose amendments.
True, Bill C-101 will require CP and CN to sell the branch lines they abandon. However, it is clear that the government has a new rail policy in that, first, there will no longer be any public hearings and, second, the National Transportation Agency, whose name and role will change, will no longer have any authorization to give.
In other words, the government has just about set aside the notion of public service in favour of a strictly for-profit mentality. I think that this is another example of the government's general tendency to disregard the public interest and think like an accountant rather than an entrepreneur. One would have expected a responsible government to encourage railway companies to contribute to regional development, thus spurring their own development and bringing in tax revenues for the government, instead of helping them sell off the branch lines they are not interested in.
In conclusion, as my colleague pointed out, I think that only Quebec sovereignty will result in making the public interest a priority in government decisions.