Mr. Speaker, as part of its corporate social responsibility policy, VIA Rail Canada Inc. partners with various non-governmental and non-profit organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Canada 2020, and the Public Policy Forum, as these organizations address emerging and complex public policy issues that could have an impact on passenger rail transportation. For these partnerships, VIA Rail does not provide monetary contributions to organizations, but rather an exchange of services through the provision of rail travel in exchange for access to conferences and seminars. These partnerships also include the opportunity to increase the visibility of VIA Rail’s brand on partners’ platforms, including the web, conferences, and seminars, in order to encourage more Canadians to use our passenger train service.
In some instances, VIA Rail pays the required fees to attend conferences or seminars, as it has for recent events organized by the C.D. Howe Institute, the Manning Centre, Canada 2020, the Broadbent Institute, chambers of commerce, and the Conference Board of Canada.
With regard to (a), VIA Rail’s expenditures, disbursed in the form of an exchange of services with Canada 2020 and conference fees, are $17,354.04.
With regard to (b), these expenditures include $17,000 in rail travel since January 1, 2016, and $354.04 in conference attendance fees since January 1, 2016.
With regard to (c), the purpose of the two expenditures includes the exchange of services through the provision of rail travel, conference attendance fees, and increasing the visibility of VIA Rail’s brand.
With regard to (d), Jacques Fauteux, VIA Rail’s director of government and community relations, approved the expenditures.