Source Link: By Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service canada.com
OTTAWA - The Harper government’s new point man for Montreal has got a high-speed train in his sights.
In a wide-ranging interview, newly appointed Senator Leo Housakos said he would be pushing the high-speed rail option between Quebec City and Windsor onto the government’s agenda.
Housakos, 41, who served for a year on the board of VIA Rail until 2008, said he recognized that Canada was built on its railway system and should use a new train infrastructure project as part of an economic stimulus plan.
“I think this is an opportunity with high-speed rail to take Canada into the 21st century with an infrastructure program that’s environmentally green, that can create tons of jobs, and can really connect this country quickly, especially starting off with the Quebec City-Windsor corridor,” said Housakos, 41, who was among 18 Conservative senators appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in December.
In its latest budget, the Harper government announced it would increase funding to VIA Rail Canada by $407 million to improve service, particularly between Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. But most infrastructure experts have said that the proposal for a full-blown high-speed link would require construction of a new track solely for passenger trains and would likely carry a multibillion-dollar price tag.
“The 21st century is about speed, and I think that (a high-speed rail link) is a project that’s dear to my heart. It’s something that I want to put on the forefront of the agenda.”
The Tory Senator’s comments come nearly a year after the premiers of Quebec and Ontario announced a joint feasibility study for a new high-speed rail project that would cover a territory that is home to about half of the Canadian population. In the House of Commons, an all-party committee led by Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro, from Peterborough, Ont., has also been advocating a new high-speed link for Central Canada.
But Housakos admitted that he still had a lot of work to do in order to convince his government to buy into the plan.
“Unfortunately, in government, you have to appreciate that things move in millimetres and the yardsticks have to go forward,” he said. “So I think the first step is to sensitize all the key players and to just keep at it until it gets done. I don’t think I have a particular target in terms of (whether it would be approved) next year or the year after, but I will definitely do the best that I can to keep it on the floor.”
Housakos said this is just one aspect of his mandate as the Conservative government’s lone representative in Parliament from Montreal where the party has virtually been shut out in elections for the past 20 years.
“Obviously we have a lot of work to do in the greater Montreal area,” said Housakos, who was a Canadian Alliance candidate in the region during the 2000 federal election. “There’s no secret it’s one of the toughest parts of the country for us.”
He said Harper has asked him to engage with Montrealers, cultural groups and communities throughout the city to listen to their concerns and be their voice in the Conservative caucus. He said he hopes that federalists in Montreal will recognize that they have an alternative to the Liberal party and begin to play a “vibrant” role in the Conservative party.
“I think they should never forget that the Liberal party was ready to form a coalition government with a leader who was not worthy to remain leader of the Liberal party,” he said. “But they were willing to make him prime minister of Canada with a knife at the throat from Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois supporting that government. I think that’s unacceptable.”
Housakos, a longtime fundraiser for the Conservatives and provincial Action democratique du Quebec parties, said he has always supported an elected and effective Senate and will gladly support legislation to reform Parliament’s upper chamber when it’s introduced by the government, possibly in the coming weeks.
mdesouza@canwest.com
