Mr. Speaker, I have two short questions for the minister.
No matter how much money we pour into roads, because of our weather and all kinds of other things, they constantly have to be fixed; also truck traffic is so heavy, it ruins the roads. Why not focus more on rail transportation and shipping?
In Quebec, we have the St. Lawrence River, which is hardly used. We have train going by all the time, but hardly used. It is fine to invest in roads, but why not consider a different approach to transportation, one that would be a lot less expensive and much more adequate?
I have one more question. The minister is familiar with the riding of Matapédia—Matane. He knows that the Matane airport was turned over to the municipality. Business people say about the airport “It does not make sense. It is closed. It is hopeless”.
Since the municipality cannot bear all the airport maintenance and repair costs on its own, could the government provide some assistance to regional airports?