A candidate for mayor in East Hawkesbury has written to Prime Minister Mark Carney with several questions about the Alto high-speed rail project.
The subject of the letter, dated October 5, is “get the evidence before the expropriations.”
“Our community wants better passenger rail. We also want public money spent on evidence. The
Parliamentary Budget Officer’s (PBO) October 1 report shows that evidence is not yet in place,” Journeaux wrote.
He highlights how the PBO report identified that construction alone may cost $75–113 billion, an increase of up to $23 billion than originally estimated.
Journeaux questioned Alto’s business case, which estimates 24 million riders a year by 2055.
“Independent estimates are closer to 10 million, below the level needed to cover operating costs. Alto has not published its ridership model, and the PBO’s own ridership report is still to come,” wrote Journeaux.
He continued by explaining faster, more affordable alternatives are available.
“Sidings and signal improvements on existing corridors have already added daily departures between Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal for a few hundred million dollars, without taking new farmland. VIA’s punctuality fell to 30 per cent early in 2025; that problem can be fixed in a few years, not fifteen,” asserted Journeaux.
He asked the Prime Minister and the Government of Canada to: Make no binding expropriation or construction commitmentsuntil the PBO publishes its ridership and operating-viability assessment, publish Alto’s ridership model and its full life-cycle cost including financing and operations, independently cost a staged “fix VIA first” program, and establish a Municipal Advisory Table, as the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus has requested, so host communities are heard before routes are determined.
“None of this stops the project. It ensures that if Canada builds a line of this scale, it builds the right one, at a price Canadians have seen, with the communities that will host it,” Journeaux concluded in his letter to Carney.
