Mr. Speaker, on November 2, I asked the Prime Minister to ensure that Saint John, New Brunswick, was given a dayliner after VIA's final run through Saint John which takes place on December 15.
The Minister of Transport responded to my question by saying what he needs to hear are proposals that make sense and not what was being done by the former PC government, the party that I now represent.
I find irony in what the minister has said because what the minister has done to Saint John does not make any sense. A new train station was built just last year by the former government. The Liberal government closed it, took away the VIA service and offered a bus to take passengers to Moncton.
The former government built a new air traffic control tower in Saint John. The Liberal government has now closed it and has taken the air traffic controllers away. The decisions are a waste of taxpayers' dollars.
I understand the present fiscal constraints the government is facing. The government has decided to cut non-profitable operations. One of these operations was the VIA Atlantic train
from Sherbrooke to Saint John, the first mainline ever to be abandoned.
In the Gaspé area the NTA recommended that the Gaspé rail line be abandoned, but the government of the day, the previous government, decided that the abandonment decision should be overturned because the loss of the rail service would negatively affect the quality of life in that region.
The same thing is happening in New Brunswick and in Saint John with this decision. The quality of life in my area is severely negatively affected with the removal of VIA passenger service.
Why did the hon. member's government not do the same for the eastern line as the PC government did with the Gaspé abandonment? Where is the rat pack that was there in the opposition? The minister of fisheries, the Deputy Prime Minister and others formed what was known as the rat pack. They fought hard with myself as mayor of the city of Saint John to make sure the people of Saint John had a rail service.
I cannot accept that the government has cut off the total passenger service to my riding and replaced it with a bus. In light of the savings to the federal treasury that the cut of the Atlantic service will provide, I do not feel that a dayliner would be cost excessive. Since we have a brand new railway station I feel we should get some use out of it and not waste the taxpayers' money that was spent on it. The government looks very irresponsible as does the commission for VIA when they close down a railway station that has just been built.
A dayliner service to Moncton would be more appropriate, given the state of highways in New Brunswick. As well it seems to me that a dayliner link if scheduled and priced properly could make money, given that the highest population density in the province resides in the area of Saint John. The decision by the minister to offer a bus instead of a dayliner is really an insult to the people of Saint John.
We were told by the previous government: "You use it or you lose it". The citizens have used it. It is a way of life for our people. There are many people who have no other way to travel except by that train.
The closure of the VIA Rail Atlantic will not save taxpayers much money and comes at a time when the Amtrak network is expanding in Maine. All these cuts and closures come at a time when in Europe and the U.S. they are building high speed and very efficient trains.
I am asking the government to ensure VIA service to Saint John by providing a dayliner to Moncton instead of a bus. In this time of giving I ask the government to give a little back to the citizens of Saint John that it has taken away.