VIA Rail’s $413,500-a year CEO Martin Landry yesterday avoided all mention of executive bonuses when apologizing for his company's poor service..Landry said he was sorry in a statement issued ahead of House of Commons transport committee hearings, set to begin Thursday..“We should have done better,” said Landry. “We are truly sorry for letting our passengers down.”.The CEO said he hoped travelers would return to the Crown railway “so we can show them what VIA Rail is all about.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, the lengthy statement made no mention of Access To Information disclosures that VIA awarded its executives $6.4 million in COVID-19 bonuses and $3.1 million in raises, even as it cut service and laid off 28% of its workforce..“We didn’t meet your expectations and for that we apologize,” said Landry..Railway operating deficits from the outbreak of the pandemic totaled $396.7 million in 2020, $348.5 million in 2021, another $355.8 million in 2022 and an expected $411 million this year, according to a Summary Of The 2022-2026 Corporate Plan. One lobbyist described VIA as costly..“The total VIA Rail passenger count in 2020 was 1.15 million, a 75% drop over 2019, a percentage loss similar to that of air transport in the same period,” John McKenna, CEO of the Air Transport Association, testified last September 28 at the House of Commons transport committee. “Yet VIA Rail received operational and capital subsidies of $669 million.”.“That is $582 per passenger,” said McKenna. “Need I remind this committee that VIA Rail carries less than five million passengers on a good year as compared to close to 150 million passengers in aviation. One could easily conclude aviation is subsidizing rail in this country.”.The Department of Finance in a pre-pandemic Access To Information memo warned the railway would continue to lose money for years to come even with billions in federal aid..“VIA is at a critical juncture,” said a confidential 2016 memo to then-deputy Finance minister Paul Rochon..“Its deteriorating financial performance and aging rolling stock will require increasingly more government funding to maintain services unless a significant change in VIA’s operations is implemented,” wrote staff..Yves Desjardin-Siciliano, the last CEO of VIA Rail to testify at parliamentary hearings in 2016, said the Crown railway will never show a profit on its national operations..“It will never be profitable just because of the size of this country,” he told the Senate energy committee.
