QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Transport
Rail Service in Alberta
October 27, 2022
I know that my colleagues who live in the Montreal-Toronto corridor are very keen to have a high-frequency train, and I know how they feel. I have a dream of a train that connects Edmonton and Calgary. I don’t need it to be high speed, I don’t even need it to be high frequency, I just need it to be there. I’m wondering, as your department is looking at other rail priorities, what you have to say that might fill me with hope and joy about the prospect of a study into an Edmonton-Calgary rail link or, indeed, a Calgary-Banff rail link.
Senator, let me start by saying I share that dream, and I hope we see that service become a reality.
Intercity public transit is a provincial jurisdiction. For example, in Ontario, we have the GO service that provides train services that connects cities. If the Province of Alberta intends to build such a project, rest assured that our federal government will be at the table working collaboratively with the Province of Alberta at figuring out how we can, together, make that dream a reality.