Poilievre promises to derail Liberals' Alto high-speed rail project if elected prime minister
OTTAWA — “Monstrosity,” “ridiculous” and a “boondoggle.” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had harsh words for the Liberal government’s proposed high-speed rail project between Toronto and Quebec City which he promised to derail if elected prime minister.
Speaking from a farm in Peterborough, Ont., where city council just passed a resolution strongly supporting the rail project , Poilievre lambasted the proposed 1,000-kilometre infrastructure project from Crown corporation Alto as costly, disruptive and unnecessary.
He took particular offence at initial estimates for the megaproject, which is expected to cost between $60 billion and $90 billion when completed.
“The $90 billion Alto project is another example of a ridiculous pie-in-the-sky Liberal spending initiative that has that only gotten worse under Prime Minister Carney,” Poilievre said.
“I am confirming that a future Conservative government will cancel this $90 billion boondoggle altogether. We will save Canadians $90 billion, or $8,000 per family. We will use the savings to lower debt, taxes and inflation,” he added.
Alto is a high-speed rail proposal that aims to build an over 1,000-kilometer-long fully electric railroad between Toronto and Quebec City.
Alto claims the trains will hit speeds of up to 300 km/h and will cut travel between certain cities by half compared to existing Via Rail service. For instance, commuting from Ottawa to Montreal could take only an hour compared to the current two hours on the Via route.
As of now, the railway is expected to have five stops between Quebec City and Toronto: Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval and Trois-Rivières.
But the project is stirring the ire of rural Quebecers and Ontarians — including many farmers — because of potential expropriations required by the project to build the dedicated tracks.
Residents in Mirabel, a city roughly 30 minutes north of Montreal who bore the brunt of ultimately unnecessary expropriations decades ago for the failed Mirabal airport, have pushed back against the new wave of potential ejections.
Last week, the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus passed a motion opposing the project in its current form.
“This opposition is based on concerns related to insufficient municipal consultation, unclear rural and small-urban impacts, potential environmental effects, and alignments with existing eastern Ontario planning and infrastructure priorities,” reads the motion.
Earlier this year, the Liberals passed their budget bill which contained measures granting Alto sweeping new powers to accelerate the acquisition or expropriation of land for the project.
On Tuesday, Poilievre concurred with a question asking if the project if a “Liberal land grab” and argued that no farmers should lose their land
“The Carney Liberals will confiscate farmland and private property, disrupting communities and harming the quality of life of local residents, who will not even get to use the train because it won’t have any stops near their homes,” he argued.
Poilievre also took the Liberals to task for the project’s over decade-long planning and building schedule. Alto has not released a detailed timeline, but reports suggest the first segment between Ottawa and Montreal would only open around 2037.
“We built the Canadian Pacific Railway over a century ago in less than half the time that Liberals promise it will take to build this $90 billion monstrosity,” said the Conservative leader.
Over the summer, the Carney government also designated the high-speed railway as a “transformative project” under its new Major Projects Office and promised to cut the time before construction from eight to five years.
In December, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said he was hoping for the project to start in four years instead — in 2029. And even less time would be better, he said.
“Believe me, if we could get shovels in the ground in 2028, we’ll do it.”
National Post, with files from Catherine Lévesque.
cnardi@postmedia.com
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.