In the 2025 Canadian budget announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney, the federal government emphasized that the engineering, regulatory, and permitting work for Alto, the country’s first high-speed rail project, will be accelerated. However, with the project’s launch, some opposition has recently emerged.
The project is currently facing strong opposition from residents along the route, the Conservative Party, and some local political parties. Most of the criticism comes from the communities whose land will be acquired for development, with rural residents in Ontario and Quebec increasingly opposed to the project. Residents along the route angrily pointed out that the planned high-speed rail route could take away their ancestral businesses, and many rural communities believe that it will destroy the local natural and agricultural environment.
The Quebec Group emphasized that the project lacked sufficient consultation and believed that the government’s approach was hasty and failed to follow reasonable procedures. The Conservative Party criticized the project, questioning its rationale and potential negative impact on rural areas.
In response, Prime Minister Carney stated at a press conference that the project will create more than 50,000 jobs and contribute more than $35 billion to the economy. Carney said, “Overall, high-speed rail is more cost-effective, more sustainable, connects our communities, and is faster.” Carney stated that the project only requires approximately 10 meters of land for road construction, and those who lose their land will receive compensation.
The first phase of the project to connect Montreal and Ottawa is expected to begin in 2029 or 2030, with the entire project estimated to cost between 60 billion and 90 billion dollars. Carney also stated that Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s recusal of the project was in accordance with government ethical standards.
In a letter to Carney last year, Champagne stated that he was proactively conducting a conflict-of-interest review of Alto, the company in charge of the project, “because I have a personal connection with someone in the company with whom I have a close relationship, to prevent any actual or potential conflict of interest.”
Anne-Marie Gaudet, a partner at Champagne, is the Vice President of Environment at Alto, and she will take up the position in August 2025.