Transport committee  I am not aware of Statistics Canada. What I do know is that as a provincial agency, we have to have all of our information together in terms of our ridership. We do submit that. I know that the Province of Ontario does ask the other carriers that operate within the province to share that information on ridership and have that data available on where there is bus service and where there is none.

Transport committee  I think it would certainly help. I think that the more we know, the better we can respond. I think one of the big things we're missing that we need to talk about in this conversation as well is that there are a lot of first nation communities that don't have access to bus service.

Transport committee  I absolutely see something like that. A lot of the first nations communities I have spoken with and communicated with wish they could have some type of funding to allow them to provide transportation out to a main highway or to a location where they can connect with our service.

Transport committee  We're working really hard to create the relationships at each end of our service, wherever we connect. Part of the challenge with this is that if you're operating one service a day over the distances that we're travelling, each carrier has their own approach and business model for what they are trying to solve in their region and in their area.

Transport committee  I would like to jump in here and state that we provide connectivity to Pearson Airport. We are trying to connect people throughout rural Ontario. We get them connected to GO Transit so that they can get to Pearson Airport. We are already doing that. In terms of regional airports, we had conversations with different airports in our area.

Transport committee  Based on my experience and what I witnessed through the previous years prior to COVID, up to now, it's not flexible to change it significantly. If we were to do a 10% increase, that's detrimental to passengers who are trying to take the bus service. There is very little appetite to be able to increase the fares to a point that we would cover our cost, because at that point we would lose people who are relying on our service and who have no other option to take any other transportation across the country.

Transport committee  I think the biggest challenge we see in trying to connect parcels is not within our own network, but to other carriers. We don't have appropriate locations to switch off parcels. In Ottawa, for example, we don't physically have a location where we can leave parcels to send them across to Quebec to connect with Maritime Bus.

Transport committee  The high-frequency rail is in a corridor that Ontario Northland does not operate in right now. In terms of how that will impact us, I do not see that coming into play. We are looking at the return of the northeastern passenger rail that will connect the communities from northern Ontario down into Toronto.

Transport committee  As a Crown corporation, we are funded by the province. Every year we have to do a business plan to identify what we expect our ridership to be for the coming year. The ministry will allocate resources to us for that. We have different divisions, as I mentioned in my submission earlier.

Transport committee  Thank you, Chair and committee members. It is my pleasure to represent Ontario Northland today, to share our experiences and perspectives regarding bus transportation between rural and urban cities in Ontario. Ontario Northland is a Crown corporation, reporting to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.