Human Resources committee  In situations of an elevator not being available to board a wheelchair on a train, VIA provides ground transportation from the train station nearest the traveller to the train station equipped to lift the chair onto the train, at no cost to that person. That's the way it is handled today.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I was referring to the fact that at VIA we try to consult with clients before we make major changes to our business practices. Therefore, this client group was consulted in the design of the refit that we're doing on the old equipment to make it more accessible, as well as the design points for the new equipment that we're procuring for the corridor.

Human Resources committee  The changes that have been made include a level boarding platform—so they're eliminating steps or elevators to get into the train itself—and the construction of elevators to allow movement between the floors of the train station.

Human Resources committee  No, they don't exist in the Ottawa station. My point is that the combination of all of these—plus the element that I mentioned in terms of people with sight impairments—is new and does not exist anywhere in the world today.

Human Resources committee  Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting VIA Rail—my colleague John-Nicolas Morello and me—to present our position on this ambitious bill and, if necessary, on accessibility. VIA Rail did not wait for this bill to be introduced to serve more than 4.4 million passengers, many of whom have some kind of disability affecting their mobility, vision, hearing, and so forth.

Public Accounts committee  That would be good for both of us.

Public Accounts committee  What we are proposing to do, which is somewhat cheap and quite fast to deploy, is acquire existing freight railway beds and repurpose them for passenger rail. They are currently abandoned or of very little use, so we would operate them. For the freight traffic that runs on those tracks, which is usually a train a day or two trains a week, we would control when they run.

Public Accounts committee  Exactly. That's why this can be done so quickly. On the issue of the enabling legislation, if I could just complete my response, Mr. Chair, in the past there have been ideas of enabling legislation, but they were getting into the weeds of running the railway. That's not the approach we would propose.

Public Accounts committee  If you're the CEO of Amtrak or VIA Rail you're going to meet it too fast, too often. That's the reality. Giving priority to trains that are on a network is a bit of a red herring. It's not a solution.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely. Safety inspections are usually conducted together with Transport Canada employees. If we conduct the inspections ourselves and find defects, we always involve Transport Canada. The assessment is always done with Transport Canada.

Public Accounts committee  Transport Canada takes care of CN without us. We don't have any inspection rights.

Public Accounts committee  Transport Canada will allow CN to operate, but we're not involved in the discussions.

Public Accounts committee  There are no planes. Between the 42 stops between Winnipeg and Churchill, there are no planes. That is why the Government of Canada provides a service. It is the same thing on the Canadian from Toronto to Vancouver. On the over 200 stops on that line, there are no planes. At some of those stops, there are no roads.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you.

Public Accounts committee  Is there a “but” coming?