Mr. Speaker, on January 28, CN announced it will terminate passenger services on the Algoma Central Railway because the government changed the subsidy that offset the losses incurred by providing the service. The last run is set for the end of April. The timing of the announcement was especially bad for tourist businesses such as lodges and outfitters, many of whom were attending trade shows and drumming up clients for the summer.
Shortly after that, I asked the Minister of Transport why the government would abandon the businesses, property owners, and communities along the line and was told the government is not in the business of giving money to profitable companies like CN.
While that statement could be challenged vigorously, time constraints will spare the government an itemized list that would surely begin with $1.3 billion in subsidies for the profitable oil and gas sector.
What is missing from the hard line being taken is any recognition of the economic cascade this will create. This is not a clear-cut case of saving $2.2 million. Every dollar invested in passenger rail creates economic activity along the line and supports a variety of business ventures.
Although there is no formal impact assessment, some of that work has been undertaken by the stakeholder group of communities, businesses, first nations, fur managers, property owners, outdoor enthusiasts, and passenger rail supporters who are working to save passenger services. They prepared a basic level of assessment that estimates the current regional economic impact of ACR passenger service at $20 million a year. Put another way, every dollar invested by the government creates $9 of economic activity.
These findings are consistent with an independent study undertaken by Tourism Ontario in 2013 on the economic impact of sport fishing in Algoma.
The subsidy was lost when the government removed the rural component from the former rural and remote passenger rail subsidy. The rationale for classifying the ACR as rural rests in the government's opinion that the communities and businesses along the line can be accessed by road. This is flawed thinking.
The government is assuming the industrial roads are safe and reliable for public use, but most of these are secondary roads and many are not even open during the winter. Also, people using them at their own risk may fall into an insurance vacuum should something happen while travelling on them.
The community of Oba is a good example. People there will be effectively isolated without passenger service. Oba has no access by public road. The only option is an industrial road that people can be denied access to at any time, and there is no guarantee that the road will be maintained either.
For those reasons alone, the ACR should receive the remote line subsidy, and if the government had done a proper assessment, we would not be having this discussion.
One thing this experience has done is to further shatter the myth of a seat at the table ensuring a constituency's good fortune under any government. This has a huge effect on the community of Sault Ste. Marie, which is represented by a member of the governing party. Many people in that community are having a difficult time believing the member has been working diligently behind the scenes on their behalf when he appeared to have been caught off guard by CN's announcement. He followed up by claiming “We didn't know how CN was going to respond” and indicated it would be his preference that CN continue the service at its own expense.
That amounts to wilful ignorance and wishful thinking. CN has no obligation to subsidize passenger services. It is far more appropriate for the government to maintain the subsidy, which is in keeping with other public transportation investments it is making.
It is also wishful thinking to believe that industrial road access is a guaranteed option as well. Those roads are maintained for the benefit of companies and can be abandoned at any time.
With that in mind, and with so many businesses, jobs, communities, and property owners left twisting in the wind, would the government do the right thing and find the money to support passenger services on the Algoma Central Railway?