kEiThZ
Superstar
So. Any ideas on possible ways forward if the CPC is elected. Does HFR get canned? Does the scope get reduced?
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VIA Rail
- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
rbt
Senior Member
Harper made some investment in Via infrastructure. CPC won't get a majority so they'll need BQ to support them. Quebec, both left and right, have interest in this project.
Based on those, I think if the business case is reasonable they'll probably go ahead on the route/track portion. Reducing long-term subsidies for VIA is a fiscal win for CPC.
Electrification may be delayed, but that isn't much of a loss. VIA doesn't really benefit from this until passenger demand requires ~20 minute frequencies.
kEiThZ
Superstar
The thing is. Even in a minority government, they could just quietly scrap the project. Nothing says they have to RFP it. And they have a specific commitment to dismantle the CIB, a wish shared by the NDP. Some horseshoe politics on this one. That alone gives them the excuse to delay. No RFP is as good as dead. Nothing says they have to officially cancel it.
If they go ahead, I think two questions are valid:
1) Do they keep the Montreal-Quebec City portion?
2) Do they pursue electrification?
If they go ahead, I think two questions are valid:
1) Do they keep the Montreal-Quebec City portion?
2) Do they pursue electrification?
Allandale25
Senior Member
From the LPC platform released today.
p_xavier
Active Member
Rumours were that this routing was kept because it went to Jean Chrétien's riding.
nfitz
Superstar
Probably depends on what type of government. If CPC/BQ can get to 170 seats, but there is no majority, then I'd think that at least the Ottawa to Quebec City portion would move ahead.
But perhaps a better question, is what's is the CPC platform? I haven't looked at it.
Edit ... ugh, I shouldn't have looked. The only mention I can see of anything is stripping First Nations of blockading tracks, including in places where the government has recognized that the First Nations have legal right to the land, but the government has refused to come up with a solution! And I expect this has more to do with protecting big business, than in any interest in VIA Rail passengers. Meanwhile they name-check roads, airports, and nuclear reactors (and local transit).
And ... WTF ... the front page of their platform is their election logo (?) "Secure the Future"? I can't believe they've actually made their logo so similar to the white nationalist "14 words"?
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p_xavier
Active Member
A Conservative government will make historic investments in nationally significant projects across the country, such as the SkyTrain extension to Langley (British Columbia), Ontario’s GTA transit plan, Quebec City’s Third Link (Quebec), the Calgary Green Line (Alberta) and VIA Rail’s high-frequency rail project.
www.conservative.ca
Getting Infrastructure Built - Conservative Party of Canada
The State of Canadian Infrastructure The centrepiece of Justin Trudeau’s 2015 campaign was his promise to invest $180 billion over 12 years in infrastructure. However, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) found there was no additional infrastructure built in Canada over and above what would...
www.conservative.ca
crs1026
Senior Member
^ I would look to the quote in the CPC platform page 27 that speaks to cancelling the CIB and deploying the unspent money to valid infrastructure projects, and “continue already committed projects”. (It would be naive to expect them to refer to HFR by name, as it’s a Liberal branded project…. but just as GO RER became GO Expansion, a rose by any other….).
The parts of VIA’s BCS that have favourable ROI would be the best to hope for. The London-Windsor portion might actually play to a Ford-O’Toole “kiss and make up“ once the election is over.…. a CPC federal-provincial united team thing just in time for Ford’s next election.
- Paul
The parts of VIA’s BCS that have favourable ROI would be the best to hope for. The London-Windsor portion might actually play to a Ford-O’Toole “kiss and make up“ once the election is over.…. a CPC federal-provincial united team thing just in time for Ford’s next election.
- Paul
kamira51
Active Member
p_xavier
Active Member
Québec City is conservative stronghold, so I doubt they would cancel that too. Anyways, the CIB was a great idea but poorly executed, like most Federal Government initiatives.
p_xavier
Active Member
There was actually an editorial in the Globe and Mail about extreme left-wingers that see dog whistles everywhere when there is none and they are about crazy as extreme right wingers conspiracy theories. Reminds me of the Jeopardy white supremacist fiasco.
jeopardy-hand-gesture-maga-conspiracy.html
crs1026
Senior Member
The illegality of the blockades was never in dispute. The Crown and the railways had no difficulty obtaining injunctions, even under existing law. The more difficult matter was when and how to forcibly apply them, given the potential of violence and of triggering new blockades.. A new law won’t change that dynamic. The CPC position is just virtue signalling, and it’s inflammatory. If the CPC wins the election and tables that legislation….. be careful what you ask for.
There’s a legal doctrine that says if you have to pass a new provision to establish something, then the something didn’t exist before. The CPC is actually taking the position that the blockades must have been legal……. otherwise why pass a new law?
The smarter position is to recognize what led to the blockades, and try to fix some of that.
- Paul
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Northern Light
Superstar
And to build enhanced redundancy into the network such that effective blockades are harder to pull off.
nfitz
Superstar
That's good to see. I wonder though, why they didn't at least name-check VIA Rail in their platform document - even in a way that avoid terms like "HFR".A Conservative government will make historic investments in nationally significant projects across the country, such as the SkyTrain extension to Langley (British Columbia), Ontario’s GTA transit plan, Quebec City’s Third Link (Quebec), the Calgary Green Line (Alberta) and VIA Rail’s high-frequency rail project.
Getting Infrastructure Built - Conservative Party of Canada
The State of Canadian Infrastructure The centrepiece of Justin Trudeau’s 2015 campaign was his promise to invest $180 billion over 12 years in infrastructure. However, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) found there was no additional infrastructure built in Canada over and above what would...
Do you understand that the Mohawks of Tyendinaga have legal title to land the tracks are on, and have never received any compensation, despite 30 years of negotiations (or mostly lack of them), and court rulings in their favour?
It's their land, and their right to do with it what they want. I'm surprised they didn't blockade the 401 as well. I'm surprised at how reluctant they are to take real and quite justifiable action over the decades. Also, all action ended when Covid-19 started - and yet they still didn't have drinkable water, despite not being a remote, difficult to service, area.
Whether there is conspiracy or not is not the point. They need to avoid even the appearance of possible links. It perhaps speaks more to the incompetence and bubble of the decision makers in the party than anything else. While I don't think the party is inherently white nationalist - I am concerned that not every member of the party isn't. Though many of those are defecting to the PPC - whose platform also doesn't seem to mention VIA.
I don't think that's the correct link. That's not to the Globe and Mail, and the article doesn't even mention the left, let alone the extreme left - though what the Communist Party of Canada has to do with it I don't know. Incidentally, on a local level, their candidate sounds a lot more genuine and rational than many of the main-stream candidates! Oddly their platform though doesn't mention VIA Rail either, as far as I can see.
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lenaitch
Senior Member
Apparently both now resolved:
Cabinet approves $240M Mohawk settlement for 132-year-old land claim
The federal cabinet has approved an agreement that will see Canada pay nearly $240 million in compensation to the Mohawks of Akwesasne to settle a land claim.
www.ctvnews.ca
Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte
Extended water distribution system under construction
That still doesn't address 'in sympathy' blockades, which the 2020 CN blockade was about. Having redundant ROWs might help, but they wouldn't solve the problem, any more than for a major derailment or washout. Rail corridors are inherently limited in number.
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