Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McKay. I really wanted the committee to hear your testimony, especially because I think northern British Columbia is unique in all of Canada in terms of the evolution of intercommunity transportation. I really appreciate the role the trust has played and you as CEO have played in trying to integrate what has become a bit of a patchwork of services that have evolved over time. Obviously this goes back well over a decade, and a lot of it was driven by the concerns about the tragic history of our highway through the region.
You spoke a bit about where we're at now with 18 different services, many of them publicly funded, the need for integration and the role of technology in that. You also mentioned the $7.5 million you have been provided to achieve this monumental task.
Perhaps you could speak broadly about federal leadership. If the federal government was serious about public ground transportation and wanted to play a substantive role in enhancing the work you're doing, what would that role look like? How could the federal government play a meaningful role in ensuring that northern British Columbia residents had access to affordable, safe and convenient bus transportation?