Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre is asking on the federal authorities to cancel a proposed high-speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec Metropolis.
Chatting with reporters in Peterborough, Ont., on Tuesday, Poilievre referred to as the undertaking a “boondoggle” that will waste taxpayer {dollars}.
“Carney Liberals will confiscate farmland and personal property, disrupting communities and harming the standard of lifetime of native residents who won’t even get to make use of the practice as a result of it will not have any stops close to their houses,” stated Poilievre, who was joined by MP Philip Lawrence and former MP Michelle Ferreri.
Alto, the Crown company overseeing the undertaking, estimates the complete undertaking will price between $60 billion and $90 billion.
Building of the primary section of the 1,000-kilometre rail line, linking Montreal and Ottawa, is ready to kick off in 2029 or 2030.
That will likely be a check case for what can be an enormous infrastructure undertaking supposed to rework rail journey in Canada’s most densely populated area.
The seven stops mandated by the federal authorities are: Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Laval, Montreal, Trois-Rivières and Quebec Metropolis.
The proposed community would host 72 trains a day working on devoted electrical tracks at speeds of as much as 300 km/h, slashing journey instances. It might make for a three-hour journey between Toronto and Montreal and fewer than one hour between Montreal and Ottawa.
A grassroots coalition of farmers, small city residents and municipal councillors says the rail hall would cleave their communities, immediate tons of of land expropriations and provide locals few advantages whereas costing taxpayers billions of {dollars}.
In jap Ontario, not less than 5 townships and municipalities have handed resolutions opposing a proposed southern route for the road. No less than one has come out in opposition to the opposite, extra northerly possibility.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture and Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles have referred to as for the suspension of the undertaking. A number of Fb teams opposing it or giving voice to residents’ considerations have cropped up, with three of them garnering greater than 14,000 members in whole.
Alto is weighing two potential corridors for jap Ontario. One traces a direct line between Ottawa and Peterborough and the opposite arcs alongside a extra southerly path.
Not all communities outdoors the key cities are opposed. Kingston metropolis council final month voted overwhelmingly to assist the undertaking’s southern route — on two circumstances: it should embrace Kingston as a cease and run alongside Freeway 401 to avoid environmentally delicate areas. Neither are a part of the plan in the intervening time.
At his press convention, Poilievre highlighted current points with VIA Rail delays and stated the funds might as an alternative be used to decrease debt, taxes and inflation.
“This $90 billion Liberal boondoggle doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t make {dollars},” Poilievre stated.
Poilievre additionally stated nobody would set foot on this practice till 2037 and argued that it solely took 4 years to construct the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Discussions to construct a rail line connecting Canada’s provinces started forward of Confederation in 1867. The plans expanded when British Columbia was enticed to affix Canada in 1871 partially with a promise {that a} railway line linking it to the east can be constructed inside a decade.
Precise development started in 1881 and lasted till 1885.
The Parks Canada web site says within the early Eighties hundreds of labourers from China had been delivered to Canada to assist construct the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Historic Websites and Monuments Board of Canada says they acquired solely a greenback a day, half the pay of a white employee, and that tons of of Chinese language employees died from accidents or sickness, because the work was harmful and dwelling circumstances had been poor.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed March 31, 2026.
This text’s cowl picture was used for illustrative functions solely.