OTTAWA — Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs will join agricultural producers and citizen groups from Quebec and Ontario on Wednesday to protest Alto's high-speed rail project. The demonstration is expected to draw hundreds of people to Parliament Hill around noon.
Growing Concerns Over Expropriation
A press release from l’Union des producteurs agricoles, a trade union representing agricultural workers in Quebec, stated that the protest aims to raise awareness about the many impacts the project would have on local communities, including forced expropriations. Concerns are particularly strong around Mirabel, north of Montreal, which saw thousands of citizens forced to relocate decades ago for an airport terminal that never fully developed.
Other communities along the proposed route between Toronto and Quebec City are now growing increasingly uncomfortable with the expropriation powers the federal government is granting Alto, the Crown corporation behind the project, to build the rail.
Citizen Groups and Political Opposition
Groups such as North Belleville Against Alto, Save Stone Mills, and Tyendinaga Township Landowners Coalition are expected to participate in the protest. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has previously called on the government to cancel the project, which has been estimated to cost between $60 billion and $90 billion. On Tuesday, Poilievre questioned in the House of Commons why the Liberal government would sacrifice farmlands for what he called “another boondoggle.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney defended the project, calling it “the biggest infrastructure project in Canada’s history” and noting that a 60-metre-wide corridor would be required for the future train track. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet stated that while his party originally supported high-speed rail, it now opposes the Alto project due to a lack of transparency on its real cost and the expropriation process.
Political Implications
The Bloc’s provincial counterpart, the Parti Québécois, has promised to cancel the Quebec portion of the project if it forms government in October. Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon admitted that such a move would effectively kill the project. “Let’s be clear. There is no Alto project without Quebec,” he said on Tuesday.
Read more: Farmers, conservationists and rural communities unite to protest high-speed rail; Champagne says he recused himself due to 'personal connection' to high-speed rail company.
