Mr. Speaker, in 1989 the government of the day ordered VIA Rail to sell its new tourism service known as the Rocky Mountaineer. VIA was already heavily subsidized and the government believed that the private sector rather than the taxpayers of Canada should take the risk of developing tourism business.
Now that the private sector purchaser, the Great Canadian Railtour Company, has invested millions of dollars of risk capital and successfully built the service into an internationally known B.C. success story, VIA wants back in and has plans to expand its Vancouver to Jasper service to cream off the business developed through private sector investment.
There is no honest business plan to justify this action by VIA. Its train make-up allows for up to 50 cars on its run but it averages less than half that. If there really were a passenger need, why would it not run more cars at a marginal cost increase instead of doubling their frequency and consequently doubling their cost?
VIA is a government operation and it is up to the government to order the heavily subsidized VIA to cease any consideration of expansion and competition with the unsubsidized B.C. company that invested the money and built the business.