As the government makes plans to move forward with the Alto high-speed rail project, opponents say there are still too many questions about its impacts to eastern Ontario communities. A group of concerned citizens from the group AltNo is now walking along the proposed line between St-Eugène, Ont. on the Quebec border to Ottawa in the hope of raising awareness of their concerns and to present petitions. Kristen Muller, a director with AltNo, says they are travelling on the stretch of more than 100 kilometres because they’ve spent months trying to draw attention to their concerns and feel their voices haven’t been heard as the project rolls on. “We don’t feel that our concerns have been adequately addressed,” she said. “So, it was time to try something else.” Kathleen O’Connell Renaud, a councillor for East Hawkesbury, which sits along the proposed Ottawa to Montreal route, is also a director at AltNo. “I’m fully against the project as it’s proposed,” she told CTV News Ottawa while on the walk. She says the petitions include calls for a parliamentary review of the high-speed rail project. O’Connell Renaud says they are walking through municipalities in eastern Ontario that could be affected. “We’ve had no information,” said O’Connell Renaud. “We don’t know anything about what the economic impacts may be. We know nothing about the environmental impacts. We know nothing about what the agricultural consequences might be of this train.” She says the petition also calls for more “protections” within the plan. “Protections for agriculture, protections for municipalities. We don’t want to see any offloading of cost to municipalities, which is a really high risk in this project because none of it’s been accounted for,” she said. The federal government wants to accelerate construction with the goal of eventually running high-speed trains between Toronto and Quebec City. But the project has sparked backlash, fears of expropriation and concerns about a lack of transparency. “Around here, people don’t want it,” said Muller. “There’s no benefit to the community out here. In fact, it’s going to make our lives more difficult and I think that’s what people are having a hard time stomaching.” “It’s not a matter of people being anti-progress. It’s not a matter of people being anti-rail. It’s just there are no benefits to this project.” In a statement to CTV News Ottawa, Alto says it began consultations early, writing: “This dialogue is ongoing, and communities will continue to have opportunities to provide input as the project progresses.” The walk is gaining support along the way. Sabine Haefele lives on the proposed route and says she’s concerned about the growing cost, which could be up to $113 billion, and how the project could impact farming communities like hers. “So many people will lose their livelihoods,” she said. “They will lose their businesses. They will lose their everything.”
