Madam Speaker, I appreciate the chance to speak on this debate for the transportation modernization bill. I recognize that it deals with many aspects of transportation, reflecting in some cases recommendations from the expert panel on transportation created under the previous government and chaired by David Emerson.
We see approaches to improving passenger experience, quality of experience, and passenger rights on air transit, but all the references to rail are for grain and freight. My question to the minister, before diving into the details of this bill as it relates to movement of goods by rail and movement of people by air, is on whether we have abandoned the movement of people by rail. When will we see a modernization bill to bring VIA Rail into the same status that Amtrak has, with a legislated framework, so that we can have passenger rail for the 21st century?