Cancel Alto high‑speed rail
Petitioners ask the Government to cancel Alto high‑speed rail Toronto–Quebec City; if Ottawa–Montreal proceeds, forbid ALTO expropriation or property restrictions until the first leg is complete and restore owners' rights. The government responds that Alto is consulting, will try to limit property and community impacts, treat expropriation as a last resort, and modernize expropriation rules.
Why we would sign this petition
- It would stop ALTO from using expropriation or other measures that petitioners say could reduce property values and threaten homeowners’ primary assets.
- It would prevent the permanent bisecting of communities, local trails and ecosystems that petitioners warn could occur along the corridor.
- It would avoid what petitioners describe as a massive taxpayer cost and misallocation of public resources, cited between $60–90 billion.
Why we wouldn’t sign this petition
- The government says high‑speed rail would generate economic benefits, jobs, emissions reductions and industrial demand; cancelling could forgo these broader gains.
- Alto's public consultations and plans to use existing corridors, acquire parts of parcels and add crossings aim to reduce community and property impacts without full cancellation.
- Modernizing expropriation procedures and treating expropriation as a last resort aim to provide procedural efficiency for a large national project; critics might prefer targeted safeguards rather than total project cancellation.
The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.
Official petition
Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament assembled, the Government of Canada, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Transport WHEREAS • The Alto High-Speed Rail (Alto HSR) project connecting Toronto to Quebec City fails to meet these goals and instead represents a massive misallocation of public resources; • The project is projected to cost between $60 and $90 billion, which represents an unacceptable cost to taxpayers; • The dedicated high-speed line will connect only four urban centres (Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, and select stops like Peterborough and Trois-Rivières), while bypassing all other communities along the corridor; • Construction will involve the extensive use of Expropriation, Orders to Prohibit Work on private property, and other measures that will destroy or reduce the value of property that in many cases represents most of the wealth of residents of land near where the rail line will pass; • The high-speed rail will create an impenetrable barrier between areas lying on either side, permanently bisecting communities with relatively few overpasses connecting these communities, and bisecting local trails and ecosystems; • Communities in regions like eastern Ontario, the Quinte area, Frontenac County, Lanark County, and others already facing proposed route variants have voiced strong opposition due to these harms. We, the undersigned residents, taxpayers, and concerned citizens of communities along the proposed Alto corridor, call on the House of Commons in Parliament assembled, the Government of Canada, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Transport to: • immediately cancel the proposed Alto High-Speed Rail project connecting Toronto to Quebec City; and • in the event that the Ottawa-Montreal part of the project goes forward, to restrict the ability of ALTO to begin the process of expropriation or any other restriction on the use of private property, until such time as the first leg of the ALTO route has been completed; and • in the event that such restrictions on property rights do begin, to restore to property owners along the route the full rights that they would have had, if parts of the Expropriation Act had not been suspended for the purposes of the construction of this project.
Government response
Response by the Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons Signed by Mike Kelloway Alto has initiated a multi-phase, public engagement process aimed at refining the project and ensuring it reflects the priorities of the communities along the corridor. The study corridor is of an approximate width of 10 kilometers, while the width of the required right of way for the high-speed rail network will be approximately 60 meters. The corridor that is currently under study must not be interpreted as a representation of all the properties that will be required for the 60m wide project. Whenever feasible, Alto will try to take advantage of the corridor of existing linear infrastructures, such as railways, highways and public utility corridors, to reduce the needs for new properties and limit the impact on communities and agricultural lands. In many cases, Alto will seek to acquire only parts of parcels, as opposed to an entire property, and therefore avoid changing the current land use, when possible. Alto will aim to have as limited impact as possible on landowners along the route where feasible and will incorporate accommodation such as crossings or other measures to limit impacts where feasible. The planning to inform the project’s route is being informed by the ongoing consultations. The High-Speed Rail Network Act, introduced via Bill C-15, features targeted legislative measures to enable the timely and effective delivery of Canada’s High-Speed Rail project. The High-Speed Rail Network Act modernizes the framework of the current Expropriation Act to ensure procedural efficiency and legal certainty in a project of this magnitude. These legislative measures are modelled after, and aligned with, well-established existing provincial legislation in both Ontario and Quebec. Expropriation is intended as a tool of last resort. High-Speed Rail will add tens of billions of dollars to the GDP, create over 50,000 jobs, reduce emissions equivalent to 100,000 vehicles, and will use hundreds of tonnes of Canadian steel, lumber, and concrete. This project is expected to create an industrial demand on a magnitude not seen in a generation, at a time when Canada’s economy is threatened by American tariffs. The Government of Canada acknowledges concerns and questions related to the High Speed Rail project and encourages Canadians to participate in Alto’s ongoing public consultations.