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VIA Rail Canada will broadcast its Annual Public Meeting for 2025 on August 21st, presenting the Crown corporation’s achievements, future plans, and annual financial results. Recordings of all public meetings held since 2011 and details of questions asked and answered at them can also be found on the web page.
Until 2019, the annual public meetings were open for passengers and members of the public to attend, and the corporation provided answers to all the questions posed. Even though some of the questions asked were about matters outside of VIA Rail’s control, the responses typically offered a high degree of transparency, befitting such an important public-funded service, and even responses that clarified the need to raise the question with Transport Canada or other parties were useful, highlighting and explaining the constraints under which the Crown corporation operates.
During the pandemic, annual meetings open to the public were not possible, so they were replaced by a pre-recorded address by the CEO and Chief Financial Officer, broadcast on VIA Rail’s YouTube Channel, with questions submitted online answered in writing, but only the top questions and themes were addressed. With restrictions on holding meetings long since lifted, Transport Action Canada has submitted a question for the 2025 Annual Public Meeting asking for a return to open meetings and answering all questions:
“Before Annual Public Meetings had to go online-only during the pandemic, it was possible to attend in person and all questions asked by members of the public were answered either at the meeting or with detailed answers in writing. Can this level of engagement and responsiveness be restored please?”
In 2025, the Canada’s national passenger railway faces significant challenges in its relationship with host railways, the impact this has on on-time performance, and on its ability to deliver the frequencies and routes that Canada needs. We believe it is important to continue to be open about these challenges, what the corporation can do to work through them, what constraints its management and staff find themselves under, and what we need the government to do to ensure that a strong passenger railway service contributes to ensuring mobility and opportunity for all Canadians.
Photo: VIA Rail Canada’s 2019 Annual Public Meeting (video) – VIA Rail Canada