Cancel Alto high-speed rail
Petitioners ask the Government of Canada to cancel the Alto high-speed rail Toronto–Quebec City; if Ottawa–Montreal proceeds, bar ALTO from expropriation or property restrictions until first leg is complete and restore property rights. The government responds Alto has begun engagement, will favour existing corridors and partial acquisitions to limit impacts, and the law modernized expropriation.
Why we would sign this petition
- It would halt a project petitioners say would cost $60–90 billion, freeing funds to upgrade existing rail, highways, and EV charging.
- It would prevent ALTO from initiating expropriations and commit to restoring full property rights for affected owners.
- It would stop construction petitioners say would bisect communities, cut trails and ecosystems, and reduce nearby property values.
Why we wouldn’t sign this petition
- High‑speed rail can reduce emissions and congestion; cancelling may forgo long‑term climate and mobility benefits.
- The government says Alto is consulting communities and the new law modernizes expropriation rules to enable delivery and limit impacts; blocking may hinder coordinated planning.
- A full cancellation may discard potential intercity travel benefits; targeted route changes, mitigation, or compensation might better address local harms.
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 We strongly support sustainable and accessible transportation that reduces emissions, and eases congestion; 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; These funds could instead be invested in upgrading existing national rail systems, highways, and EV charging infrastructure; 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 should not be interpreted as a representation of all the properties that will be required for the 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 acquire parts of parcels, as opposed to an entire property, and therefore avoid changing the current land use, when possible. The High-Speed Rail Network Act, which received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026, featured targeted legislative measures to enable the timely and effective delivery of Canada’s High-Speed Rail project. The High-Speed Rail Network Act modernized the framework of the current Expropriation Act to ensure procedural efficiency and legal certainty in a project of this magnitude.