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High-Speed Rail System and New Expropriation Act

 
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 ShirleyDolan
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This is an FYI, especially for those of you who own property in eastern Ontario along the proposed High-Speed Rail (HSR) corridor.

Are you aware that the liberal government has approved a High-Speed Rail project to travel from Toronto to Quebec? 

A new Crown Corporation, Alto, has been established to oversee the project.  Public consultations are underway and will end at the end of March 2026. See https://www.altotrain.ca/en for information about the project and the public consultations. The Ottawa in-public meetings took place in January.

Why is this project important to property owners? 

Federal Bill C-15 proposes substantial amendments to the Expropriation Act to facilitate the development of a high-speed rail network connecting Ontario and Quebec.  Please see what Toronto expropriation lawyers Davies Howe have to say about Bill C-15 at https://davieshowe.com/bill-c-15-key-changes-to-the-federal-expropriation-act-for-high-speed-rail-projects/   The rights of property owners during expropriation for this project are being limited or removed.

Here is a link to Bill C-15: https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/45-1/bill/C-15/first-reading . Imbedded in the Act is the High-Speed Rail Network Act. This Act states: 

Declaration
General advantage of Canada
4 The railways constructed to be part of the high-speed rail network are declared to be works for the general advantage of Canada.

This probably can be interpreted as "In the national interest".

Please note that this Bill has passed in the House of Commons (on division). It has now gone to the Senate.

A group in South Frontenac has already mobilized to oppose the project. They have a Facebook page "Save South Frontenac: No High Speed Rail..." They are actively trying to raise awareness of the project and reach out to elected officials to get more information.

The first leg of the project is from Ottawa to Montreal. The Mayor of Ottawa supports the project and wants the Ottawa HSR station to be at Union Station. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/sutcliffe-backs-downtown-station-for-high-speed-rail-9.7065062#:~:text=Mayor%20Mark%20Sutcliffe%20wants%20Alto%27s,during%20a%20city%20council%20meeting. There was no notification from the City of Ottawa, that I am aware of, about the in-person public consultations in Ottawa, at the end of January.

I am still trying to get my head around this. I trust you will find this as worrisome as I do!

Please consider signing MP Scott Reid's petition opposing the High-Speed Rail project:

https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Search?View=D&type=&keyword=38333&sponsor=&text=Scott%20reid&RPP=20&order=Recent&Page=1&category=Open

This topic was modified 2 weeks ago by ShirleyDolan
 
Posted : 01/02/2026 12:55 pm
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High Speed Rail Expropriation Act
 ShirleyDolan
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Posts: 41
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Here is a link to the interactive map from the Alto website showing the possible route for the proposed high-speed rail https://en.consultation.altotrain.ca/shaping-the-canada-of-tomorrow-with-high-speed-rail/places/interact-map

Its not that easy to find. There are two paths being considered between Peterborough and Carleton Place/Smiths Falls. One through the Cambrian Shield and one through farmland and environmentally sensitive areas. There is no planned stop in Kingston. There are three stations in Ontario and 4 in Quebec in the final project.

 
Posted : 01/02/2026 4:01 pm
 ShirleyDolan
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On the 24 April, 2018 under the heading Newsroom, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture issued a statement about the federal government's proposed High-Speed Rail. The statement was issued a second time on March 5, 2025 under the heading Issues.

OFA Position

The OFA is highly skeptical that the proposed High-Speed Rail concept will provide sustainable, effective, and efficient transportation with any net benefit for Ontarians. For rural and small towns, it downloads all the associated problems, with none of the ascribed benefits. OFA is calling for a comprehensive analysis of costs and benefits of High-Speed Rail proposal including all costs and benefits applicable to rural residents, communities, and farm businesses. 

OFA is concerned about the impact these special rails would have on farm operations, including potential severances and farm access for large equipment. While the Canada Transportation Act (1996) guarantees the right to a crossing through newly built railways, this requirement is difficult to fulfill safely when trains travel at 300km/h. Additionally, the dimensions of a rail crossing may limit its farm’s future growth and ability to pivot business operations. Farm equipment is increasing in size and complexity, and there is no indication this trend will reverse. Farmers must be guaranteed in perpetuity safe access to their lands and the ability to convey people, equipment, and crops across the rail line.

Should the High-Speed Rail project proceed, OFA wants to see a commitment from the railways to be responsible for the construction and maintenance of essential safety infrastructure, including fencing.

https://ofa.on.ca/issues/high-speed-rail/

This post was modified 1 month ago by ShirleyDolan
 
Posted : 01/02/2026 5:25 pm
 ShirleyDolan
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Here is an image from the Save South Frontenac Facebook page showing the difference between regular rail lines with level crossings and high-speed rail systems that turn rural roads into dead ends. Don't be fooled by the bridge across the HSR in the background. How many of these will actually get built?

May be an image of railroad and text that says 'Traditional Rail High-Speed Speed Rail High- Open OpenAccess Access Fenced & Secure Traditional Rail = = A fenced line of track that runs through a landscape with open access points and frequent at-grade crossings for roads, trails, people, and wildlife. High-Speed Rail= A fully grade-separated, continuously fenced or walled corridor engineered for high-speed operation. It eliminates at-grade crossings entirely and creates a physically enclosed right-of-way that restricts movement across the landscape for humans and wildlife. Crossings can happen only at specially built bridges or tunnels.'

 
Posted : 04/02/2026 10:14 pm
 ShirleyDolan
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More from the Save South Frontenac Facebook page -  MP Scott Reid replies to a constituent pointing out some of the issues with high-speed rail:

As currently proposed, this high-speed rail network would run between Ontario and Quebec, with seven proposed stops: Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec City.
 
The Liberal government has announced that the first segment of this project would operate between Ottawa and Montreal, with the intention of beginning construction as early as 2029.
 
I have serious concerns regarding this project, which I would like to outline below.
 
Divided communities and loss of local road connections:
High-speed rail requires a fully dedicated corridor with no level crossings. At this stage, it remains unclear where the rail line would pass through local communities. A very rough predictive map is available, but there is no guarantee that it would be followed (indeed, two separate options are proposed, for the part of the map running through Frontenac and Lanark Counties). 
 
This is deeply concerning, because high-speed rail is incompatible with level crossings. There are therefore two ways of constructing a high-speed rail line:
Create a bridge or underpass at where the rail line encounters an existing road; or
Turn the road into two unconnected dead ends, so that people on either side must now drive to the nearest overpass in order to travel past where the rail line has been placed.
As a practical matter, installing literally hundreds of bridges or underpasses at all of the places, between Quebec City and Toronto, where the new rail line crosses local roads would cost billions of dollars. To give an idea just how expensive this would be, I did an online search for the cost of recent overpasses, installed in different parts of Canada, over rail lines. In urban areas, where the roads can be four lanes wide and there may be a need for other expensive features, recent costs have been as much as $190 million [Pitt Meadows, BC], $180 million [Edmonton] and $200 million [Holdem Ave. in Burnaby, BC]. In rural areas, the costs are lower, but still significant, and would likely be above $20 million per road.
Therefore, it is far more likely that most such intersections will be dealt with by creating dead ends, and that only major roads will receive an overpass or underpass.
In towns that are bisected by the rail line, entire neighbourhoods could be geographically divided, significantly disrupting daily life. A short drive across a local road to visit neighbours or commute to work could instead require lengthy detours of an hour or more, simply due to severed secondary road access. The situation would likely be worse in rural and agricultural areas, as the drive between overpasses would likely be significantly greater.
Among the considerations worth taking into account are lost access to lake and recreational properties when only a single existing road crosses the rail line, and the fact that emergency services such as fire, police and paramedics would become significantly worse for numerous residential locations.
 
The Alto project will result in the loss of existing rail service:
The proposed high-speed rail would not stop in rural or small-town areas. There would be no stops in either Lanark or Frontenac County. Residents in the southern portion of the riding would need to travel a minimum of two and a half hours just to access a station stop in Ottawa or Peterborough, and no part of the riding would be less than an hour from the nearest high-speed rail station.
It is highly likely that the high-speed rail service would result in the end of the existing Via Rail service that passes through Kingston, Smiths Falls, and other centres along the existing Via rail line. The promoters of the Alto project may suggest otherwise, but as a practical matter, all commuters who are seeking to go from Montreal or Ottawa to Toronto will choose the faster Alto train, and will thereby strip away at least three quarters of Via’s passenger traffic.
This will render Via Rail financially untenable (in 2023—the most recent year for which I was able to find financial figures) Via Rail had revenues of $430.7 million and expenditures of $812.5 million. The loss of the greater share of the company’s revenues would inevitably lead to the cessation of service.
 
In-person consultations (no registration required):
Alto is currently conducting public consultations on the proposed high-speed rail project. I strongly encourage you to participate by attending an in-person or virtual session, or by submitting your comments through their online consultation form. Don’t be shy about expressing your concerns!

 

 
Posted : 04/02/2026 10:19 pm
 ShirleyDolan
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The Ontario Federation lists concerns about existing railways and the planned high-speed rail system - Updated February 3, 2026. Worth a read! https://ofa.on.ca/resources/issue-spotlight-railways/     Thank you OFA.

Both the OFA and the Beef Farmers of Ontario oppose the High-Speed Rail System.

This post was modified 2 weeks ago by ShirleyDolan
 
Posted : 05/02/2026 5:14 pm
 ShirleyDolan
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From the Alto train southern route “discussion forum” Facebook page - a very good summary of the perils of Bill C15:

We stand at a crossroads where the very foundation of our democracy is being quietly dismantled. Bill C-15, a 600-page omnibus budget implementation act, is not just a fiscal document—it is a calculated power grab that elevates corporate interests above the rule of law while systematically eroding the private property rights of everyday citizens.
A Blank Cheque for Corporate Immunity
Buried deep within this bill is a provision that should alarm every Canadian: it grants federal ministers the extraordinary power to exempt any individual or corporation from almost any federal law for up to six years.
Arbitrary Power: A single minister, acting on vague concepts like "economic growth," can effectively hit "delete" on environmental regulations or safety safeguards for their hand-picked corporate allies.
Ending Equality: This creates a two-tiered legal system. While ordinary Canadians must follow every letter of the law, large corporations with political access can now lobby for a "get out of jail free" card.
The Assault on Property Rights
While the government hands out immunity to the powerful, it is simultaneously stripping away the rights of the people through radical changes to the Expropriation Act.
No Negotiation, No Hearing: For projects like the Alto High-Speed Rail (HSR), the government is eliminating the requirement to even attempt a purchase before seizing land. They have stripped away the right to a public hearing, removing the essential procedural safeguards that once protected families and farmers.
The "HFN" Concern: By burying these changes alongside complex Indigenous rights frameworks, the government is using reconciliation as a shield to distract from a bill that centralizes executive power and diminishes the legal standing of all Canadians.
The Alto HSR: A Project for the Few, Not the Many
The government labels the Alto HSR a "nation-building" project, but let us be clear: this is not a project of national interest.
Regional Elite vs. National Need: This multi-billion dollar network serves only a small section of Ontario and Quebec, catering to wealthy business travelers and government officials in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor.
Ignoring the Real Crises: While the government fast-tracks land seizures for luxury trains, millions of Canadians are drowning in a housing crisis. Families are struggling with affordability, and our communities are being torn apart by mental health and addiction issues. These are the true issues of national interest, yet they are ignored in favor of lining the bank accounts of corporate "buddies" in the Cadence consortium.
A "Budget Bomb" for Taxpayers: Experts warn that the Alto HSR is a budget bomb, with costs potentially reaching $60 to $90 billion. Taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill for a project that offers "modest" benefits compared to its staggering capital investment.
Conclusion
Bill C-15 as written is an affront to the separation of powers. It turns Parliament into a "focus group" while ministers act like dictators, deciding which laws apply and which do not. We cannot allow a future where our rights are optional, but corporate power is absolute.
It is time to stand up for the rule of law and the rights of every Canadian. Bill C-15 must not pass.
 
Posted : 08/02/2026 2:08 pm
 ShirleyDolan
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Randy Hillier, former Ontario MPP and Ontario Landowners Association president, speaks out about the proposed high-speed rail:

"High Speed Rail
: Bulldozing Farms for Elite Joyrides? Wake Up, Canada!"
$120B Train Wreck: HSR or Highway Robbery?
Some people think healthcare is central to the Canadian Identity and culture, but in my humble opinion nothing is more Canadian than our incestuous relationship with trains ever since British Columbia demanded to have a train before they would join confederation. Which started off our unending history of political corruption, the last spike still hasn’t been driven when it comes to political scandal.
High speed rail is once again on the agenda and becoming a controversial subject in central Canada as it will pit rural landowners and farmers against wealthy urban elites and politicians.
Although there have been countless high speed rail proposals since the 1960’s, so many I can’t recall them all; in 2016 while in elected office I was assured by Via rail executives High speed Rail (HSR) was DEAD. Via was now committed to what they proposed as High Frequency Rail (HFR)
The new HFR proposal would use existing rail corridors exclusively for passenger service and reduce travel time from Ottawa to Toronto from 4 ½ hour to 3 hours and 15 minutes. Astonishing this would restore passenger times to the same duration as we had in 1967. Yes, you heard that right, after 50- years of monopoly passenger service, we would get the faster 1967 times.
The new HFR proposal would cost the Canadian taxpayer 4-6 $ Billion and include many new stops throughout rural Ontario including stations in Smiths Falls Sharbot lake and Kaladar as well as Peterborough and potentially other under serviced communities. The trains would increase speed to 200 Kmph and shave 1 hour 15 minutes off travel time.
The via executives explained that HSR would never ever be feasible nor practical due to many factors and was unnecessary because their main competition was cars and buses not airplane travel.
Unlike HFR, High Speed rail demands all new tracks requiring significant expropriations and not just for the right of way, of up to 60 meters, but also the additional service roads, overpasses, embankments, drainage and other needed upgrades. With HSR travelling at 300 kmph or greater there can be no level crossing like we have now and must limit the route to rural areas rather than urban areas where the passengers are largely travelling to and from.
The entire train corridor must have non scalable security fences the entire length (except elevated or tunnel locations) to prevent humans and wildlife from encroaching. Collisions between people or large animals such as bear or deer with Trains travelling this speed can be catastrophic. If the train corridor bisects your farm or rural business property you will no longer have physical access to portions of your farm or business. This will likely ensure many farms will not be economically viable and will cease operations along with other rural businesses such as quarries, logging/forestry and tourism resorts to name a few.
From 2016 to 2022 the federal government allocated $980 million to Via for the HFR development, most of that money is now likely down the drain. In 2024 the Justin Trudeau government shelved the HFR proposal and announced the new HSR project and provided $4Billion to VIA for just the design phase alone. The total estimated cost for the high-speed proposal is estimated $80-120 billion
For 150 years trains, corruption and politics are woven into the Canadian fabric will the new HSR project mirror the Pacific scandal of 1872? That year it was revealed that Sir John A took $360,000 bribe from wealthy Montreal families and granted them exclusive rights to the transcontinental railway.
There are six major partners with Via in this new train project such as Air Canada, SNC Lavalin and the Quebec governments Caisse depot. We also know that Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street are involved with some of these entities. Are we seeing a repeat of the Pacific scandal where wealthy Montreal financiers have bought their way into a gold mine that railroads the public once again?
 
Posted : 08/02/2026 2:17 pm
 ShirleyDolan
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There are Facebook pages popping up everywhere along the propose High-Speed Rail Network. This post is from STOP ALTO Highspeed Train - Quinte Hills, Trent Hills and surrounding areas.

Things to really consider:
 
We need to stop this project entirely.
 
Beyond the loss of rural land and property impacts, the proposed high-speed rail corridor would fundamentally disrupt local road networks. It would create numerous dead-end roads, sever existing connections, and restrict traffic flow to limited designated crossings. These changes would have serious consequences for emergency response times, directly affecting access for ambulances, fire services, and the OPP.
 
The safety risks cannot be ignored. With only a small number of overpasses and underpasses, traffic would be funnelled into bottlenecks—especially during long weekends and peak cottage travel periods. This would significantly increase congestion, collisions, and the risk of serious injury or death. Rural roads are not designed to absorb this level of forced traffic redirection.
 
This project does not reflect the needs or realities of our community. It threatens public safety, strains emergency services, and imposes long-term costs on residents who will bear the consequences without seeing meaningful benefit.
 
We do not need this project, and our communities cannot afford it—financially, socially, or in terms of human safety.
 
Posted : 10/02/2026 9:39 am
 ShirleyDolan
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Here is a link to an article by CBC about the consequences of the Liberal plan for High Speed Rail and new expropriation laws. 

"In an effort to halve the approval time for Canada’s new high-speed rail network, the Liberal government is streamlining how it expropriates land in a way that some say could compromise property rights and lead to costly mistakes."

Read the full article here https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/high-speed-rail-property-expropriations-9.6993241 . 

 
Posted : 12/02/2026 11:19 am
 ShirleyDolan
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Here is MP Scott Reid, Lanark-Frontenac, speaking out against the HSR. He raising some interesting facts about how the new expropriation laws and right of first refusal process will work. Your property could be tied up for as long as eight years with no compensation and restrictions on what you can do with your property.

Reid says he will be putting a petition forth to stop this project.  Stay tuned.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/962135422915487

Here is a link to MP Scott Reid's parliamentary petition opposing the High-Speed Rail project:

https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Search?View=D&type=&keyword=38333&sponsor=&text=Scott%20reid&RPP=20&order=Recent&Page=1&category=Open

This post was modified 4 weeks ago by ShirleyDolan
This post was modified 2 weeks ago by ShirleyDolan
 
Posted : 15/02/2026 11:27 am
 ShirleyDolan
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Cost of putting high-speed rail though Eastern Ontario's farmland is illustrated in this image:

  • Impassable Barriers - 3-metre security fencing along the entire corridor
  • Farm Severance - a severed farm may lose viability entirely
  • Drainage Destruction - 200 km of excavation intercepts tile drainage
  • Road Destruction - thousands of truck trips on roads
  • Vanishing Farmland - acceleration of loss of farmland
  • and more.

 

This post was modified 4 weeks ago by ShirleyDolan
 
Posted : 17/02/2026 12:19 pm
 ShirleyDolan
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Here is an article on the potential cost of the high-speed rail by Chris Selly of the National Post.

Mr Selly figures the ticket prices for HSR will most riders to use other methods of transportation. He also comments on the likely cost of the project, if it gets built.

"But the exorbitant price — up front for the infrastructure, and then the fares — is going to kill this thing if nothing else gets to it first. Toronto recently opened a light-rail line that cost $684 million per kilometre. At that rate, Toronto to Quebec City would cost roughly $600 billion — an obvious, unequivocal non-starter. And HSR is wildly more expensive to build than light rail."

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-more-alarming-numbers-for-canadas-high-speed-rail-fantasy

 
Posted : 19/02/2026 9:15 am
 ShirleyDolan
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Minister MacKinnon's positions on landowner rights, compensation, and property freezes for Canada's high-speed rail network — as stated before the Standing Committee on Finance where Bill C-15 is being discussed.

https://altohsrcitizenresearch.ca/expropriation?fbclid=IwY2xjawQIC2NleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETJYVHMweVZNS3hlcElRV0lyc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHtobtjw66zfv904omuAJDMGBTw_supGdC3vlYdEthDQ6zgCEINuF52lUkdVL_aem_KNOc0mUQTx9HFt8A1SeUFg

 
Posted : 22/02/2026 12:21 pm
 ShirleyDolan
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From Alto train southern route "discussion route" Facebook page - Gord Bouton discusses what may happen to water courses along the proposed route: diversion of rivers, creeks. streams. Boulton says that geologist Andrew Hyett is doing a report on the topic. 

If you are on a well, this is important information.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/912656174685585

 
Posted : 22/02/2026 12:46 pm
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