GORMICK: Feds on the wrong track with railway funding

Toronto Sun 
August 30, 2021 (Canada)

Correction: A earlier version of this column stated Export Development Canada was involved in the deal. It was the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC).

Canada’s freight railways and its publicly owned passenger carrier, VIA Rail, have never been in worse shape, despite the frantic efforts of their flacks to tell us the opposite.  But have no fear. The Trudeau government has come up with a brilliant plan to fix this mess:  Loan $4.5 billion to Senegal to build a new double-track railway.

The economic, social and environmental ramifications of this bizarre decision by Ottawa’s  Canadian Commercial Corporation (CDC) will be staggering. Canada can rarely get a freight or passenger train across the country on time, but we’re going to ship railway investment dollars to Africa. Senegal will now enjoy the fruits of a free-spending, taxpayer-funded policy first unfurled by Pierre Trudeau’s government in the 1970s. Back then, a steady flow of foreign railway loans and gifts made Canada look like a Sugar Plum Fairy on the international stage – and propped up begging Canadian firms with Liberal ties, especially Bombardier.

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