Quebec high-speed rail project faces PQ withdrawal pledge
Quebec high-speed rail project involvement would be blocked if the Parti Québécois wins the next provincial election, party leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said Tuesday.
St-Pierre Plamondon said the proposal does not reflect the transportation priorities of people in Quebec. In a French-language post on X, he argued that the central issue is local mobility, not travel to Ontario.
“The real problem with transit is not that Quebecers can’t efficiently commute to Toronto, but that they’re unable to effectively commute within their own city,”
Quebec high-speed rail project and Alto’s planned route
The project’s first construction phase, linking Montreal to Ottawa, is scheduled to begin in 2029.
Alto, the Crown corporation responsible for the project, plans to build a 1,000-kilometre electric rail corridor running from Toronto to Quebec City. The estimated cost is between $60 billion and $90 billion.
The planned network would cut the Montreal–Toronto trip to three hours, roughly half the driving time and twice as fast as Via Rail’s current service. Stops are also expected in Peterborough, Ottawa, Laval and Trois-Rivières.
In a Tuesday news release, St-Pierre Plamondon questioned whether the cost could rise well beyond current estimates. He referred to a Bloc Québécois estimate that put the possible cost at $200 billion.
The Parti Québécois said that, if such an estimate proved correct, Quebec’s share could reach $40 billion, a figure the party linked to the province’s contribution to federal revenues.
CBC News asked the Bloc Québécois how it calculated that figure. A Bloc spokesperson referred only to a May article in the Journal de Montréal, in which a Bloc MP estimated the cost at $200 billion and said megaprojects worldwide often exceed their budgets.
Federal and municipal leaders defend the rail plan
Speaking in Ottawa on Tuesday morning, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Quebec is not contributing financially to the project.
“It’s the federal government that’s doing it,”
Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon defended the rail plan, saying it would link Quebec’s four largest cities and form the “backbone of mobility in Quebec.”
Several municipal leaders in Quebec criticized St-Pierre Plamondon’s position. Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said the project “should not be a partisan issue,” while Laval Mayor Stéphane Boyer said high-speed rail “will have a positive impact on the economy, the environment and mobility.”
Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand said the connection would bring the city “closer to the continent’s major economic and political centres,” adding that Canada was “already behind enough as it is.”
Parti Québécois calls for different infrastructure priorities
In its release, the Parti Québécois said roads and local public transit should take priority. St-Pierre Plamondon argued that the proposed rail line would have little impact on road traffic and carried a high risk of becoming a “massive financial fiasco.”
The party said that, if elected, its government would “demand that these funds be transferred to the province unconditionally so that they can be invested in priority infrastructure for Quebecers: roads, hospitals, schools and urban public transit.”
The statement also criticized the federal government’s handling of the planned route, saying consultations had been “opaque” and that residents and farmers were concerned about possible expropriation.
Farmers from the Outaouais and Laurentides regions are planning to protest the project outside Parliament on Wednesday.
Alto says on its website that it intends to prioritize negotiated agreements rather than expropriation. The corporation also says it would provide fair, long-term compensation based on the market value of the land and preserve road access for farms affected by the project.
The Parti Québécois is currently ahead in polling before Quebec’s next provincial election, which is scheduled for Oct. 5.
