Opposition to the proposed Alto high-speed passenger rail line continues to coalesce locally, under the umbrella of Alt-NO. The first, Ottawa to Montréal line of the federal government’s planned Toronto to Quebec City high-speed rail network is to pass across Prescott and Russell and Argenteuil.
According to Andrea Glenn and Russell Gibbs of Vankleek Hill, both of whom are part of Alt-NO, the organization now has a website altno.ca, where people can get more information, read articles and focus their actions. Those involve signing a petition, joining the committee, and links to Alto’s own public consultation process.
Currently, Alt-NO is trying to prevent a part of the federal government’s budget implementation legislation from being adopted. Bill C-15 which would expedite the ability for the federal government to expropriate or claim eminent domain over private properties for major national public works projects, such as Alto.
Glenn and Gibbs said Alt-NO prefers the federal government improve existing passenger rail service and focus on high-frequency travel instead of a separate high-speed system which would only connect cities.
Alt-NO is establishing an organizational structure to coordinate its efforts.
“We have a small committee formed and we’ve met, but we are on the look out for more volunteers. We need help spreading the word as this issue will affect our community and it requires more than our small group can achieve on our own,” Glenn and Gibbs told The Review.
AltNO has also met with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), National Farmer’s Union (NFU), and a group in South Frontenac near Kingston which is attempting to stop the planned Toronto to Ottawa Alto line through that area. Glenn and Gibbs also said they have spoken with Champlain Township Mayor Normand Riopel and East Hawkesbury Mayor Robert Kirby and shared their concerns with each mayor.
Glenn and Gibbs said the Alto proposal has several deficiencies.
“We don’t think this project has a strong business case.”
They believe there are many environmental and social costs not being considered are being grossly underestimated.
“For these and many other reasons we believe the project as it stands should not move forward. That said, we believe in rail transportation that serves all communities, connects Canadians and using and improving upon existing infrastructure.
An Alt-NO display was set up at the Vankleek Hill Seed Swap on Saturday, February 21. Signatures were being collected for a petition to stop the Alto project. The petition to the House of Commons is being sponsored by Lanark-Frontenac Member of Parliament (MP) Scott Reid. Lanark-Frontenac is within the two areas under consideration for part of the Alto line between Ottawa and Peterborough.
St-Eugène resident Kathleen O’Connell-Renaud of Alt-NO was at the Seed Swap display. She said having Reid, a Conservative MP, sponsor the petition, is not intended to make efforts to stop Alto a partisan issue against the governing Liberals.
“It’s really just to get visibility of this issue and he’s the one who’s taken it,” O’Connell-Renaud said.
She described the effort to stop Alto as a community issue and not a political one.
O’Connell-Renaud, Glenn, and Gibbs said Alt-NO wants further engagement with MP’s representing ridings within proposed Alto lines, including Prescott-Russell-Cumberland MP Giovanna Mingarelli.
Meanwhile, signs opposing Alto have begun appearing in the countryside around Chute-à-Blondeau and Sainte-Anne-de-Prescott. Alt-NO members are planning to have more signs made.
