THUNDER BAY – The leader of the Green Party intends to push to restore VIA Rail service along the north shores of Lake Superior.
During a campaign stop in the city on Friday, Elizabeth May announced enhancing the country’s passenger rail system and bringing back service to Thunder Bay are priorities of the party’s proposed National Transportation Strategy.
“Overall, we’re putting hundreds of millions of new money into Via Rail every year to ensure we can preserve, protect and expand passenger rail service,” May said in an interview with local media.
“We don’t ask our highways to make a profit. We always assume it’s part of our transportation system. I’ve always found it a curious term of phrase you hear politicians say they’re investing in highways but sick of subsidizing rail. Both are investments. Both are for the public good.”
Thunder Bay has been left off the Canadian passenger rail map since 1990, when VIA stopped servicing the city in favour of a more northern route.
During his time as Thunder Bay-Superior North NP, Green candidate Bruce Hyer publicly pushed for both the preservation of rail as well as restoring service to Thunder Bay while also maintaining the northern line.
May said reinstating the service would produce a number of benefits to the region.
“It’s certainly viable. One of the jewels in the crown of Via Rail is bringing passenger rail service along the shores of Lake Superior,” May said.
“The building of the tourism capacity in this region will be aided by having one of the most scenic routes in Canadian rail history restored, and of course it will bring more tourists and business to Thunder Bay.”
The transportation strategy was not the only policy unveiled, as May and Hyer also released the Green Party’s Northern Ontario platform.
A piece of that outlines how to develop the Ring of Fire.
“There is no doubt there has been an absence of federal leadership on the Ring of Fire,” she said. “The Ring of Fire creates opportunities for development that will enrich Northern Ontario and all of Canada. But we want to ensure the process is right. It needs to involve provincial and federal cooperation. It needs to be fully engaging as full partners on a nation to nation basis with First Nations that can be impacted by its development.”
It’s also important to make sure the impacts from the development are enhanced throughout Northern Ontario with opportunities for value-added spinoff.
“We don’t want to turn Northern Ontario to one big multinational. We want to get it right and engage as many Canadian companies as possible in what can be described as an ecosystem of small businesses with value chains throughout the region that create the maximum number of jobs for Northern Ontarians,” May said.
May is the only federal leader to visit Thunder Bay during the first 67 days of the campaign, the longest in Canadian history. NDP Tom Mulcair was in Kenora earlier this week.
