(The National Post posted the following article by Ian Jack on its website on October 24.)
MONTREAL — The federal transport minister will announce a commitment today to spend nearly $700 million on infrastructure improvements for Via Rail Inc., despite widespread cabinet opposition and an absence of concrete funding.
David Collenette will say he has secured $692.5-million to be spent over five years on track, railcar and other improvements to help Via move people faster.
The plan is a scaled-down version of the high-speed rail proposal that Via has long championed.
But Collenette was unable to get any money out of this year’s budget, so the funding is to flow from the 2004-05 budget and succeeding years.
The budget for 2004-05 will be written by the new government of Paul Martin after it takes office, and it would traditionally be up to him and his cabinet to decide how to allocate funds.
It was unclear last night whether Collenette’s announcement would have to be honoured by a new government.
The transport minister is one of the oldest and fiercest allies of outgoing Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and is not considered likely to be a major player in the writing of the next budget.
Martin will face many demands for new funding at a time when the economic picture remains uncertain.
The prime minister-in-waiting has promised new funds for health care and higher education, among other things.
Collenette was shot down at the cabinet this week when he attempted to get approval for the funding, sources said, but Alex Himelfarb, the clerk of the Privy Council, stepped in to find a last-minute way to allow Collenette to make an announcement he has been promising for months.
A senior Liberal was critical of the decision. “I really don’t know how a government that is supposed to be in its dying days could allocate these kinds of funds,” said Joe Comuzzi, chairperson of the House of Commons transportation committee.
The air industry is likely to hit the roof too, because their pleas for federal assistance have mostly fallen on deaf ears.
The plan to be announced today is a scaled-down version of a multibillion-dollar plan to deliver high-speed rail service in the Quebec City-Windsor, Ont. corridor, the most heavily populated area in the country.
The government’s deteriorating finances over the last year made it impossible to justify the full plan, so a fallback proposal for track improvements was devised.
Collenette, a train buff, was aided in his lobbying efforts by Jean Pelletier, chairperson of the money-losing passenger rail service and former chief of staff to Chrétien. Another big backer is Bombardier Inc., the politically well-connected transportation conglomerate based in Montreal. It has developed a jet train it says is capable of running on the existing tracks.
Via receives an annual subsidy of $170 million, and in 2000 received $400 million in capital funds over five years for infrastructure improvements.
The funding Collenette sought would allow Via to move people more quickly but would not provide true high-speed service, which would require dedicated track, an end to level crossings and new passenger cars.
Via’s goal is to be competitive with the airlines that dominate the lucrative business travel market between Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. Via’s fastest trains take about four hours to move between Toronto and Ottawa and about two hours to make the Ottawa-Montreal trip, which is no faster than driving and at least an hour slower than flying.
Critics say Via does not deserve more funding because it already gets the subsidy, and any major passenger gains it makes will come at the expense of the airlines, which have been struggling since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, drove passengers away just as an economic downturn was hitting business travel.