Alto and Party Politics

It has been one month since Alto put out its map, establishing two potential corridors through Eastern Ontario for what is still a theoretical high speed rail project.

In that time, not only have South Frontenac residents been galvanized to tell Alto they do not want the corridor going through their municipality, but Kingston politicians have also jumped in to say they would welcome it, but only if it included a stop.

A new group has sprung up, advocating an entirely different route, potentially bypassing Peterborough and maybe even Ottawa, by running parallel to the 401. We are all experts on high speed rail by now.

The issue has made its way into the larger conversation through the national press, but that is a crowded marketplace for information, and so it is hard to say if there is any traction there.

For Alto, this is not great. Their mandate, as they will undoubtedly make clear this week at the hastily convened public meeting at the Storrington Hall, is to decide between the southern and northern corridor. The Kingston option, and the 401 option, are not on the table as far as they are concerned. They are outside of the Alto mandate.

Nonetheless they exist, and if they have any political impact outside of the local region that would stop the entire Alto process in its tracks, you might say it would de-rail the project.

That is why, after waiting a month, likely to see which way things are going and perhaps to check with the national party, MP Scott Reid, and also MP Shelby Kramp, have spoken up.

For Scott Reid, whose statement can be found on his Facebook page, it is straightforward enough. He has long championed property rights, attempting to enshrine them more strongly in law, and he laid out how, even if Alto is never built, Lanark and Frontenac County property owners and businesses who find themselves on or near the route that is chosen, could lose out in a big way.

He said there are a few ways this can happen, all of them profoundly unfair to people unlucky enough to be living in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He also characterised the entire project as a Liberal government spending exercise that will only cost money and deliver minimal, if any benefit to people living in the urban centres it is intended to link up.

And there are some real questions about the viability of the project, to be sure.

The Liberal candidate in our riding, Michelle Foxton, has not announced her intentions for the next federal election, which could be months or years away, but is acting like a candidate nonetheless. She also finished a lot closer to Reid than at any time before, raising the possibility that this riding is now a competitive one for the first time, this century.

She also posted a video about Alto, telling Frontenac County residents to speak out, loudly, to stand up for their rights, to make sure everything is done correctly. She clarified her position for the Frontenac News in an email this week, saying it would be premature for her to make any pronouncements about the project as it is being pursued by Alto.

“Given that a formal consultation process is underway, I do not believe it would be appropriate for me to prejudge the outcome before that work is complete. Communities across the riding are actively participating in those consultations, and their input should be the focus at this stage. Alto must fairly consider all options arising from this process. I am focused on listening to the concerns and solutions that our neighbours are putting forward — including concerns with respect to conservation and climate change, the preservation of vital farmland, and needed improvements to transportation — and I’ll keep doing everything I can to ensure that they are heard by all of the respective officials.”

Scott Reid and Michelle Foxton do not formally represent their parties' positions on Alto, but they are also experienced enough politicians to make sure what they say will not cause any problems for their parties either.

The Liberal Party gets most of its support from the urban ridings whose residents, at least potentially, have something to gain from a high speed rail service. It would not likely be the number one reason to vote Liberal in the next election, especially given the cost of the project, which is sure to balloon into 12 figures, over $100 billion.

In rural ridings, like ours, it can only hurt the Liberals, as recent events have underlined.

The Liberal Party is presumably aware of this, and since they do not hold any of the ridings in Eastern Ontario, and could consolidate or pick up ridings in the vicinity of Ottawa and Peterborough, who do have something to gain from high speed rail, it is not that hard to sacrifice a riding like Lanark-Kingston.

If the Liberals were able to come very close, or even win, this riding, or ridings like it, they would carry the nation easily, and form a massive majority. They can get that majority without them, so unless Alto becomes a negative for them nationally, they are not likely to abandon it.

The local politics about Alto thus far, including all the talk about Kingston, and the very real threat to property owners in Eastern Ontario, at least raises the idea that it will not be easy to bring this project to fruition from a political standpoint, in addition to the logistical, financial and other difficulties that Alto and its government supporters, were already very aware of.

Among the questions rural communities need to put to Alto is about the viability of the project from an economic standpoint.

If in 30 years we are all driving EV's that can easily take people from Montreal to Toronto, on a self-driving expressway, at minimal cost, do they need Alto?