Benoît Bouchard PC CM (French pronunciation: [bənwa buʃaʁ]; born April 16, 1940) is a Canadian public official and former politician.
In 1989, the federal budget mandated fiscal cuts to a broad range of departments and agencies, one of which was Bouchard's ministry at Transport Canada.
As part of his department's efforts to cut its budget, Bouchard authorized Transport Canada to slash the subsidy to the national intercity passenger railway, Via Rail by 55%.
[1] He retired from politics in June 1993 to accept an appointment as Canada's Ambassador to France.
He oversaw the Canadian portion of the investigation of the Swissair Flight 111 air crash.