Thank you very much, Chair and committee members, for the opportunity to talk to you.

We have an extensive program of improvement for our Go network, which will be a multi-billion-dollar project with lots of construction. That will increase the capacity of our network by a factor of around three in terms of ridership, so that's a significant improvement in capacity.

For years now—since 2020—we have worked closely with Via HFR to make sure that the infrastructure we're building and the services we're planning will be capable of accommodating Via. To give you a broad number so you have a mental picture, at Union Station in the busiest hour of the peak, we can currently take 36 trains per hour, and our capacity increases will take that to 80 trains per hour. All of our planning incorporates keeping the capacity and footprint for Via in that design and operation.

For the topical item of this conversation, the thought I'd like to leave you with is that whatever you decide on and whatever the strategies are for implementing Via HFR, they have to be driven by an obsession with what the customer base is you're trying to serve, rather than starting with what the infrastructure solution is. Compare your needs to service customers and secure revenue as a driving force for the infrastructure choices that will have to follow afterwards.

I want to give a sense that the class I freight operators, CN and CP, are integral partners for Metrolinx. We work with these two organizations continuously. They are hugely committed to moving both freight and passengers, and no matter what the operational commercial issue is, we always find a way forward with them.

I can give you another sense in terms of punctuality and services. We have consistently improved our punctuality across our network over the last couple of years. Our trains run over CN track as well as CPKC track, but we own 85% of our network, and our punctuality is in the order of 96% or 97% for our services. Obviously, we already run the high-frequency regular services on Lakeshore East and Lakeshore West.

I just want to leave a last thought with the committee and say the type of product that HFR can be—if it's driven by an understanding of what the real customer markets are that we are serving—can contribute significantly to the economy of Canada.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to share a few thoughts with you.