AYLMER, QUEBEC | The "p'tit train" to Wakefield -- the steam train running from Gatineau through Chelsea to Wakefield -- appears to be on the road to disappearing. If it is sold, as the owner says he intends to do, and if it is moved, as two potential buyers say they intend to do, its loss will hurt us all.

Besides an attraction itself, it also funnels fifty-five thousand visitors every summer into Wakefield, and thanks in part to the train, tourism is Wakefield's main summer industry. The loss of the train will affect the whole region. It is central to every brochure Tourisme Outaouais sends out.

The owner, as reported a week ago in this newspaper without contradiction, says he is past retirement and tired of the business; the final straw is a threat by the municipal agency that owns the tracks to raise the rent of the rails. The agency needs the extra to pay for inspection and repair of land slippage dangers along the rail line, which follows the Gatineau River. Yes, both Quebec City and Ottawa benefit from the train, and its importance to West Quebec merits their involvement, but we can wonder about the wisdom of mixing government and private business.

There is so much talk about the inefficiencies of government bureaucracies, and, on the other side, stories of businesses which take government money -- our taxes -- fail, and yet walk away without repayment. We are often told the government can't run a business, so why should it be involved in the business world at all? It's always our taxes they are spending; are civil servants our best money managers?

The test for government investment is this: is this a sound business that could be run by the government?

However, if it can be run by the government, ours, why are we giving our money to someone else to do it?

That's the quandary. And it's not made easier having public personages trying to stampede politicians into this file. The former mayor and now the head of the Chamber of Commerce have accused Mayor Bureau of lacking leadership in this matter. The media barked their refrain for two days straight. Why don't they invest?

Mayor Bureau, and mayors Perras of Chelsea and Bussieres of La Peche, are responsible for public funds that are earmarked for government; they would be mistaken in the long term to take our region further into debt to bail out this business.

The dairy shows an alternative example: a publicly held cooperative.

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Copyright © 2008 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/06.08