OTTAWA — Paul Martin's team has warned Via Rail against making plans to spend a new $700-million passenger rail subsidy unveiled yesterday by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's government, saying they must scrutinize it when they take power to see if Ottawa can afford it.
“We're going to have to review this decision in the context of very tight fiscal circumstances and competing important priorities,” spokesman Scott Reid said, speaking for the unofficial prime minister designate.
“Mr. Martin's view is that Via Rail would be well advised to not plan on spending a dollar of this money until such time as he's had a chance to review the decision.”
Yesterday's response by Martin officials to the Via package is one of the strongest signs yet that the next prime minister's team is no longer willing merely to acquiesce to major decisions Mr. Chrétien makes in the dying weeks of his government.
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It's the first time the Martin officials have publicly raised a caution flag about a spending decision since the former finance minister became the unofficial prime minister designate last month. During the so-called “super weekend” in September, Mr. Martin secured the majority of delegates to the mid-November Liberal Party leadership convention.
Mr. Reid described the message to Via as “an amber light” against moving forward yet on the five-year, $692.5-million injection pledged by Transport Minister David Collenette yesterday.
The new cash, to be doled out over five years starting next April, is on top of the $170-million a year in subsidies that Via already gets from Ottawa.
Mr. Martin will replace Mr. Chrétien as federal Liberal leader Nov. 14 at the convention but doesn't succeed him as prime minister until February, leaving a difficult transition period of 21/2 months.
Mr. Reid said that the Martin team is not challenging Mr. Chrétien's right to make decisions.
“However, the new government has an equal responsibility, an obligation, to review decisions of this kind to ensure that we continue to live within our means and we are funding the priorities that matter most to Canadians,” Mr. Reid said.
Mr. Collenette said it's Mr. Martin's prerogative to review spending. “I wouldn't have expected them to do anything else . . . He's got to have complete flexibility on every decision he's about to take.”
Asked why he didn't wait until Mr. Martin took over before proposing the new Via cash, Mr. Collenette said he wasn't about to shelve a drive for extra funding he's been working on for some time.
Separately, Canada's air carriers and bus lines pilloried Mr. Collenette's new Via commitment, saying it will help the taxpayer-subsidized Crown corporation steal away their passengers in the Quebec City to Windsor corridor.
“This government is turning into a weapon of mass destruction for the airline sector,” Air Transport Association of Canada president Cliff Mackay said.
The cash will help Via shorten its trip times and upgrade equipment and will put in place infrastructure improvements that pave the way for a move to genuine high-speed rail service down the road. Via will still need about $3-billion to $4-billion more in capital to usher in true high-speed rail service.
Mr. Collenette defended the extra funding for Via, saying Ottawa is trying to help airlines too by overhauling the onerous rent policy at airports. The Transport Minister said Mr. Chrétien has every right to support Via while in office.
The Via cash is a slap in the face for private-sector bus lines that help pay the billions of dollars in fuel-tax revenue Ottawa collects each year but see few of the benefits flow back in highway funding, said Motor Coach Canada, which represents bus lines and tour operators across the country. “We are not opposed to rail services but they should not and need not be subsidized,” said Brian Crow, Motor Coach's president.