It was a packed house at the Perth Lions Club Wednesday afternoon as hundreds of residents and farmers shuffled through to learn more about a high-speed rail megaproject. Alto is in the early stages of bringing a seven stop, 1,000-kilometre high-speed rail line to life, connecting Toronto and Quebec City with stops in Ottawa, Laval, Peterborough, Trois- Rivières and Montreal. It is expected to carry a price tag of $60 to $90 billion. The Crown corporation hosted an open house in Perth Wednesday to hear concerns from community members and field questions. Alto says the project would create 50,000 jobs during construction and add roughly $24.5 billion annually to Canada’s GDP. However, those with property in the proposed path of the new rail line are worried they could see their way of life change forever. “If you slice farms in half, you ruin the livelihoods of farmers. You change the nature of the entire industry. You potentially end the viability of communities,” said Glenn McKenzie who owns a farm near Balderson, Ont. “You need to pay attention to not just the urban dwellers who are going to benefit from this, but also the people who are directly affected who are the people living in this region.” McKenzie Farm raises pasture-raised poultry, grass-fed beef and free-range eggs. It sits in the path of Alto’s proposed line for the ambitious high-speed rail project. McKenzie says the family-run farm has a grazing corridor that is approximately one mile long, but if the rail line were to cut through his property, it would change his operation forever. “If it were to come through our farm, it would end our ability to use whatever part of the land is on the other side of that line. So, it would probably end our farming career,” he said. “It is worrisome. We have to be worried, but even if it doesn’t go through our land, it will change our communities. It will go through somebody else’s land and if they’re not actively looking to avoid farms, it’s going to affect people.” A spokesperson for Alto says where necessary, it will provide fair compensation for expropriated land after face-to-face discussions with landowners. “We will sit down, we will see how we can mitigate, if we can’t, we will negotiate in good faith and try to reach an agreement,” said Benoit Bourdeau, manager of media relations for Alto. “Our goal is always to have negotiated agreements. I don’t want to talk about money, because there is a human aspect to it, but the compensation will be very fair and equitable.” Still, with no stops planned in or around the small eastern Ontario community, McKenzie says there doesn’t appear to be any positives for rural farming communities. “Our concern is that rural communities will be bearing the brunt of the risk with a project like this, and we’ll be reaping very few of the rewards,” he said. “If you have a line that goes through a farm, it will change that farm forever.” Others in attendance at Wednesday’s open house are more optimistic for the massive project. “I’m not looking for jobs, but my kids and my grandchildren are going to be looking for jobs. If we want a prosperous economy, we need a transportation system for the 21st century and this is going to be it,” said South Frontenac Township resident David Hahn. “What I would really like to see is a stop in Kingston. I don’t think Kingston will have the same growth potential without an Alto stop there.” Alto’s Bourdeau argues the project is crucial to allow people in Ontario and Quebec to have alternative, fast and reliable transit options. “We’re expecting that there is going to be an influx of six million people in the Quebec City to Toronto corridor within the next 20 years. So, these people will need to move,” he said. “Right now, you have congested highways, you have congested airports… this is just going to get worse.” Two Conservative area MPs, Michael Barrett and Scott Reid, also attended Wednesday’s open house gathering signatures for a petition aimed at stopping the project in its tracks. “Our national federal deficit right now is just under $80 billion. It’s considered unsustainably large. Adding $90 billion onto that is just something we cannot financially sustain as a country,” Reid said. “People across the country, wherever they live, have reason to worry. This is going to be a really significant tax burden to their personal family finances.” The next open house in Ontario is set for Thursday in Madoc. There will also be an open house in Gatineau on March 11, before Alto wraps up their first round of open houses on March 25 in Stirling, Ont. The high-speed rail project is not expected to be complete until at least 2040.
