Madam Speaker, it is my honour today to rise in adjournment proceedings to pursue a question I asked in question period on March 9. It pertained to a new report. It was commissioned under the previous government, chaired by former cabinet minister David Emerson, and it focused on Canada's transportation system.
There is much that is good in this report, and there is much that is food for thought. However, in the absence of any national transportation policy or strategy, I found much of what was in this report quite alarming, particularly as it related to VIA Rail. What I asked the hon. Minister of Transport was whether the minister could confirm that the government would protect VIA Rail and restore and invest in our trans-Canada rail service. The response of the Minister of Transport was that other levels of government and stakeholders would have an opportunity to review this report and share their perspectives before the government addressed specific recommendations.
Let me just turn to the specific recommendations relating to VIA Rail, which are on page 182 of “Pathways: Connecting Canada’s Transportation System to the World”, a report, as I mentioned, by a commission on transportation established under the previous government and chaired by the Hon. David Emerson.
The report's recommendations are not entirely bad in relation to VIA Rail. Very significantly, the commission recommended that there be a legislative framework for our passenger rail service. That is in contrast to Amtrak in the United States, where there is a statute, a legislative framework, that says the purpose of Amtrak is to move people around and to provide efficient passenger rail service.
VIA Rail has been given a very disadvantageous position, created when CN and CP were rolled out and parts were privatized. VIA Rail was left without a legislative framework and without access to dedicated rail. A lot of Canadians will not know this, but passenger rail service depends on freight giving passengers the right of way because freight owns the rail lines, therefore it owns the traffic lights. That is why those members who have ever gone on VIA Rail might ask why they spent half an hour on the siding for a train that was coming so much later. Freight in Canada and the number of freight rail cars in a single train have become so long that the trains do not fit on any siding. However, passenger rail fits on sidings. Therefore, passenger rail gets shoved to the side so freight can go by.
I like the fact that this report says that there will be “...a legislative framework that articulates government policy on passenger rail,...”. What worries me, deeply, is this recommendation that the government should “[consider] the elimination of subsidies for the Toronto–Vancouver service...”. Note that word subsidies. We never hear any level of government talking about subsidies to our highways. We subsidize our highways for sure. Large trucking companies get a great subsidy because the people of Canada keep repairing the roads that their heavy vehicles wreck. They are subsidized. However, when we talk about highways, politicians always say that we invest.
We need to invest in VIA Rail. I am a frequent user. Believe it or not, at least once a year I go from Toronto to Vancouver. I would like to do it more often if it were faster. However, it is not just tourists on that run. There are families, and it is their main way of getting from Edmonton to Saskatoon, for example. That is a route where they can travel with their children for free. If they are reliant on air traffic, the whole family has to pay per ticket. VIA Rail offers something that flights do not and that privatized rail never will. We must protect it.