Premiers hop on U.S. fast-train bandwagon

QUEBEC – Now that U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has decided that a fast-train network in the northeastern states will be part of its legacy, the provinces of Quebec and Ontario don’t intend to miss out on the benefits, their premiers say.

"This is once in a lifetime (opportunity)," Quebec’s Jean Charest said Wednesday. "It’s a unique opportunity. It is historic and . . . we need to seize that opportunity."

Ontario’s Dalton McGuinty added: "When we build this line (in the Quebec City-Windsor corridor), it’s more than just connecting 16 million Canadians, strengthening our regional economy, better protecting our regional environment. It’s going to plug us in to a North American network of high-speed rail."

Emerging from the annual joint meeting of their cabinets, Charest and McGuinty seized on the politically popular idea of rapid train between Quebec and Windsor, Ont., to show that regional governments matter. And they could not resist taking a poke at the federal government, which has been less taken by high-speed rail.

Charest noted that when the two provinces reopened studies on the $1-billion train idea two years ago, Ottawa piped up after the fact and said it wanted in.

Wednesday, the premiers said they are right to keep the pressure on Ottawa because the Obama administration has earmarked $8.4 billion for 10 high-speed rail projects in the United States, and that can be good for Canada.

The U.S. projects include a New York-Montreal route and a Boston-Montreal corridor, plus an Albany-Buffalo line that would benefit Ontario.

Charest said that when he met with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood in February, it was clear the fast trains would be part of the Obama transportation legacy.

"It would be . . . ironic if we actually did more with the federal government of the United States than we did with the federal government of Canada on developing a fast train," Charest quipped.

"And we (Quebec and Ontario) want to bring our full support behind this project so, absolutely, the federal government needs to speak to this."

In a joint communique, the two provinces committed themselves to proceed as rapidly as possible to the next steps: environmental assessment and choice of technology and alignment, after a report from Ecotrain consultants expected this fall.

Making it clear they consider new infrastructure a key to plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the provinces re-committed themselves to creating a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases. The provinces also discussed health-care funding and intend to make it the theme of this summer’s meeting of all provinces in Winnipeg.