High-speed rail connecting Toronto and Quebec City would be a boon the economy and job creation, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday, defending his government’s project as opposition to it continues to grow.
Much of the criticism comes from communities where land will be expropriated for the construction, but Carney said the project will require about 10 metres of land for the route, and people who lose land to it will be compensated.
Carney said at a news conference in Bramption, Ont., the project will create more than 50,000 jobs and contribute more than $35 billion to the economy.
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“When you look at the overall, what the high-speed rail does, is it’s more cost-effective, it’s more sustainable, it’s connecting our communities, it’s going to be faster,” Carney said.
Last week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the government should cancel the proposed rail line, and there has been a growing backlash to the project among rural residents in Ontario and Quebec.
Construction of the first phase linking Montreal and Ottawa is set to kick off in 2029 or 2030, and the full project is estimated to cost between $60 billion and $90 billion.
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Carney also said Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is following government ethics rules in recusing himself from the project.
“This is a good situation because we have a partner who can pursue her career, the minister of finance who can do his responsibilities, we have lots of other ministers who can take on their responsibilities,” Carney said Tuesday.
In a letter to Carney last year, Champagne said he was proactively implementing a conflict-of-interest screen regarding Alto, the Crown corporation overseeing the project, “due to a personal connection to someone close to me in the organization, to safeguard against any real or perceived conflict of interest.”
Champagne’s partner, Anne-Marie Gaudet, is Alto’s vice-president of environment, a position she took up in August 2025.
I don’t agree with this project. I do not feel that high-speed rail is needed along the proposed corridor.
All you have to do is look to England to understand why high speed is a bad idea. – spiralling costs, destruction everywhere and the business case falling apart. Its an albatross around the govts neck.
Why not build pipe lines for energy for all of us?
The final leg to Quebec City is the problem here. There is no need for it, no one is needing to travel to Quebec City except Quebec politicians. I guess it’ll keep the whining down, but that’s an expensive way to do it.
Wake up. Canada is not Europe
Brookfield must be Involved if you want to Bankrupt Canada to pay for a Rail system for Quebec, let them pay who benefit from it!!!’
Via rail can’t make money, what makes you think this will.
Ridiculous investment. Ontario and Quebec can pay for it. Raise their taxes. Rest of canada wants no part in it and gets nothing from it.
Maybe before we get another rail line in the east, we should look at getting a dedicated passenger line across Canada. Our signature train, crossing Canada, promoting tourism runs on falling apart, antique coaches on rented line. It runs only every other day. How about modern antique looking tourism trains, more than 1 a day…
Ottawa to Montreal takes 2 hours by train, same as a car. $90 billion? We could have a couple of ‘Canadian’ trains for a lot less.
Let them pay fir it not the rest of Canada
If the project costs 90 Billion and we have a population of 40 million, that is approximately 2250$ that every Canadian man, woman and child will be paying out of pocket for a vanity project to benefit Quebec and a part of Ontario. That is also assuming the project comes in under cost (looking at other HSR projects around the globe I’m certain it won’t).
How many people from Ontario travel to Quebec (or vice versa) on a regular basis to justify the cost of this nonsense? How do you justify this to voters in other provinces who will be paying for it but getting zero in return? What will the pruice of tickets have to be to have a return on investment? 200$ one way, 300$? Might as well take a plane or drive.
What an absolute joke of a government and country.
NO!!