Thanks to Sharon Kellar for the heads up on the planned high-speed train and the potential for expropriation of private property. I don’t believe this very large project is on very many people’s radar but it could have a large impact on your property. According to an iPolitics article published November 21st, 2025, “The Liberal government’s sweeping budget implementation bill would give Ottawa new powers to acquire land for the proposed Toronto to Quebec City high-speed rail line.
The High-Speed Rail Network Act, which is included in the sprawling omnibus bill, allows the Crown corporation tasked with managing the project to expropriate land for the new rail line.
It also gives Alto the authority to provide notice that it has the right of first refusal for land it may need for the project, as well as prohibiting building on property it may want to acquire.”
Alto is the federal Crown corporation that is responsible for the development, implementation, and oversight of the Toronto-Quebec City high-speed rail network project on behalf of the Government of Canada.
The CBC published a good article about the project https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/5-key-questions-on-high-speed-rail-as-public-consultations-launch-9.7052807. According to the article, the first leg is from Ottawa to Montreal with construction to begin around 2029-30. The rail corridor crosses two provinces and appears to occupy a “fairly large” swath of land — up to 10 kilometres wide in some places, states the CBC.
This is where landowners may get a bit nervous given the proposed new powers to acquire (expropriate) land.
Public consultations for the High-Speed Rail Network have already begun. A list of the consultations (both In Person, Virtual, and Online) are available at https://www.altotrain.ca/en/public-consultation. I attended one of them in Ottawa on January 22. It was very well attended and there was plenty of Alto staff there to answer questions. Most people were interested in the map of the rail corridor. I was told that the map is available on Alto’s website. It may be worth checking out.