Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Dartmouth—Cole Harbour for his presentation and specifically for raising the subject of VIA Rail.
I have also gone through the budget, and the weirdest thing about the budget, which is pretty singular for any budget in Canadian history, is that it does not include numbers. It does not give us the bottom line, department by department.
In the case of VIA Rail, for example, the main estimates cut by 60% VIA Rail's budget. Whereas it had been $475 million, for this year it would be $187 million. That is a $288 million cut.
The budget talks about money for VIA Rail, $54 million this year and $57 million over the next five years, but gives no indication of whether there will be supplemental estimate money that would keep VIA Rail viable, or whether this is really the death knell for VIA Rail with a couple of announcements thrown in to be band-aids on a gaping wound.
I wonder if my friend has any thoughts on what is really happening to VIA Rail in this budget.