Peterborough mayor Jeff Leal has issued a statement criticizing Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre after he announced his party’s opposition to the Alto high-speed rail project during a media conference on Tuesday (March 31) at a farm at Elmhirst’s Resort in Keene in Peterborough County.
With former Conservative Peterborough MP Michelle Ferreri and current Conservative Northumberland-Clarke MP Philip Lawrence by his side, the federal opposition leader said the project is a “boondoggle” and called on the Liberal government to cancel it, adding that a future Conservative government would cancel the $90-billion project.
Alto, the Crown corporation overseeing the project, estimates the 1,000-kilometre high-speed rail network between Quebec City and Toronto, with seven stops including one in Peterborough, would cost between $60 billion and $90 billion to complete.
“My colleagues and I on Peterborough city council and the broader Peterborough community are very disappointed in Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada for opposing the Alto high speed rail project,” Mayor Leal said in his statement. “The City of Peterborough has been clear that we are in full support of this transformative nation-building project, which has chosen Peterborough as one of seven station stops along the Toronto to Quebec City corridor.”
“It is especially disappointing to see former MP Michelle Ferreri stand beside Mr. Poilievre as he fights to take away this generational opportunity for our region,” the mayor added.
During his 30-minute media conference in Keene, Poilievre began by criticizing both the Trudeau and Carney Liberal governments for inflation, the lack of affordability for housing and food, increases in the federal deficit, unemployment, and the overall state of the economy, before turning to Alto.
Calling it a “ridiculous pie-in-the-sky Liberal spending initiative” and a “$90-billion monstrosity,” Poilievre said the project would cost each Canadian family of four $8,000 in taxes to build, will not pay for itself and will be subsidized by the federal government, won’t be used by most Canadians, and won’t be completed for more than a decade.
Poilievre then turned to the issue of land expropriation, a concern of many rural communities in eastern Ontario, saying that the proposed route would require the expropriation of thousands of acres across Ontario and Quebec, and referring to the federal expropriation of 97,000 acres of land in 1969 to build the Montréal–Mirabel International Airport, which is currently operating as a cargo airport after passenger service ended in 2004.
“Your property is not safe under this Liberal government,” he said.
Alto is currently conducting an initial public consultation on a 10-kilometre wide corridor between Ottawa and Toronto, with a northern and southern option, prior to determining where the 60-metre wide route would actually run.
Poilievre also claimed that no-one would benefit from the high-speed rail project.
“Other than a tiny group of Liberal lobbyists, consultants, lawyers, bureaucrats, and other insiders, everyone’s going to be worse off,” he said.
In his statement, Leal said the Alto project “will significantly strengthen economic development, business investment, tourism, and employment opportunities in Peterborough, and the construction will create jobs and opportunities for local businesses.”
“The last time the Conservatives destroyed a national building project was the Avro Arrow in 1959,” Leal said. “That shortsighted decision devastated Canada’s aerospace industry, with many of the country’s top engineers leaving the country. The talent that left Canada from that Conservative decision helped put the Americans on the moon in 1969.”
Leal concluded his statement by saying “the City of Peterborough will continue to work closely with Alto and the Government of Canada to take advantage of the economic and social benefits of this important project.”
kawarthaNOW reached out to Liberal Peterborough MP Emma Harrison for a comment on Poilievre’s announcement. Her office provided a statement in which Harrison qualified her support for the project.
“I am supportive of the Alto high-speed rail project and the tremendous economic benefits that it will bring to the riding of Peterborough,” Harrison said in a statement. “The benefits of Alto will be felt before the project is complete, as during the construction phase, priority will be given to local businesses and skilled workers in the riding to help build this project.”
However, she added that she has “heard the concerns from community members and other elected officials, and frankly I do share the same concerns when it comes to protecting farmland, environmentally sensitive areas, and people’s homes.”
“(Alto) will be continuing to the next consultation stage later this year, which will address many of the concerns that are being voiced, especially as Alto begins field studies along the proposed route and also begins to contact property owners directly.”
She said she has met with the federal transportation minister and officials from Alto to voice those concerns and suggested “the possibility of an additional consultation in Norwood so the voices of more residents could be heard in this first consultation phase.”
Harrison encouraged members of the public to provide their feedback to Alto by using the online consultation platform, which is available until April 24.
“My office and I remain available to help connect community members with the most up to date information that’s currently available from Alto,” Harrison stated.
