The federal government is moving forward with plans for a high-speed rail line between Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. The federal budget promises the Liberal government will introduce legislation to “support accelerating the construction” of Alto. “Legislation will streamline expropriation activities and enable early pre-construction work,” the budget said. Alto is studying the construction of a high-speed rail line with stops in Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval, Trois Rivières and Quebec City. Alto is also looking at building a station in Kingston. The Crown corporation has been conducting drone surveys in Ottawa and in communities across eastern Ontario and western Quebec as it studies the first leg of the line between Ottawa and Montreal. In September, Alto purchased its first property but did not say where it was located. “It was already on the market and was of strategic interest to the project,” Alto spokesperson Caroline Des Rosiers told CTV News Ottawa in an email. Alto has said there “will be circumstances where expropriation is required” for land along the Alto high-speed route, with the process carried out under the federal Expropriation Act. In October, the Parliamentary Budget Officer said the Alto project would cost an estimated $75 billion to $113 billion, up from the government’s estimate of $60 billion to $90 billion. The PBO identified construction challenges with a proposed 15-kilometre tunnel into Montreal and construction through the Canadian Shield. There has been opposition to the high-speed rail plan from residents, farmers and politicians in Ontario and Quebec. Two people will start walking across Prescott-Russell to Ottawa on Sunday to protest the plans for Alto. Kathleen and Kristin from the “Altno/United Against Alto” group will participate in the five-day walk, calling it the “Long walk to be heard.” In July, 11 eastern Ontario Progressive Conservative MPPs raised concerns that “too many questions remain unanswered” about the project and called on the government to ensure the line “minimizes impacts on farmland and is supported by the people affected.” The United Counties of Prescott-Russell council passed a resolution in June to refuse to grant Alto access to county land for the studies and decline to sign a non-disclosure agreement with Alto. Alto said it expects to provide a more detailed business case for the high-speed rail line to the federal government in 2027. The Ottawa-Montreal section is expected to take about eight years to build if construction begins in 2029. With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Tyler Fleming
