Transport committee  The environmental and social impacts constitute one of the savings to be gained by doing a thorough social and environmental cost-benefit analysis.

Transport committee  It was done, but that was 15 years ago. Things that are preoccupations today were different then. We want to do a more in-depth analysis. Our own department, Transport Canada, did a study over the past couple of years, together with the provincial governments and the modes, the different private companies.

Transport committee  I think the assessment of the technologies is going to get to that. There are so many systems today that weren't available 10 or 15 years ago. High-speed rail isn't that old, actually. It's about 40 years old, and when we started, there was probably only one kind of system. Now in Europe every country uses a different kind of high-speed system.

Transport committee  We're looking at it in terms of the impact on the environment of using high-speed versus.... For example, as we all know, the automobile has become very efficient. The emissions it now emits, compared with those from automobiles 15 years ago, are very different. This has been a challenge every time we look at passenger rail.

Transport committee  That was for the previous study. We're going to be redoing all of it. At this point we haven't discussed yet with consultants what discount rates to use. It's usually an average of what the provinces use and what the federal government uses. Treasury Board has a discount rate that it uses, but each of the provinces tends to use something different.

Transport committee  I wouldn't want to speculate at this point. We'll wait to see.

Transport committee  We have already included that in section 8, which refers to a review of transportation policies in other countries with HSR. The Americans are the closest example for us. We want to look at that, and I think that the study will be completed by January or perhaps February. As for the American program, according to the schedule, the invitation to the first round of proposals is not extended to later this year.

Transport committee  Ridership has increased in the past year for VIA. I forget the exact amount, but it's by close to 1%. As you may recall, VIA's network was significantly reduced back in 1990, and since then, every year VIA has recorded small but definite improvements. We have seen important growth in some of the commuter rail systems across the country, whether on West Coast Express in British Columbia, GO in Toronto, or AMT in Montreal.

Transport committee  They will, definitely. We've asked them, in fact, to look at that. We think this is an opportunity in two ways: one, to attract other investment in a service like this, but also as a model whereby we could share some of the risk with the private sector, and some of the opportunity too.

Transport committee  I can't answer the last part of your question, but I think it's important for us, as officials who have to make recommendations and are making them.... There are three governments—the two provinces are working hand in hand with us on this—and we have stakeholders. As you are aware, Mr.

Transport committee  There has not been at this point, because we don't in fact have a corridor yet. Again, it's part of what we're asking the consultants to look at for us. In the study, they're going to look at possible corridor alignments. Until we get to that point, it's difficult to consult, because we don't know what we're consulting on exactly.

Transport committee  As I mentioned before, your issues are our issues. We're looking at those. I mentioned that in section 8 we're looking at the policies that exist in other countries and here, and trying to determine if there are comparable rationales for this. We understand, given the population density we have, that we will never have as strong a business case as they do in the European scenario or, for that matter, in Japan, which probably has an even higher density.

Transport committee  In looking at the technology options we've asked the consultants to consider, that is a real concern for us. We want to make sure that what they're going to come forward with as realistic options are tested technologies. There are countries that maybe don't live in as big a white north as ours, but that are operating in winter conditions in which they have snow and ice.

Transport committee  We haven't gotten to that point yet. That's part of the advice on the financial business case that the consultants will be doing for us.

Transport committee  It will take three to five years.