Alto Opposition Extends In Interesting Directions
(EDitors Note - After this article was written and was being printed, before it was published - the leader of the Conservative Party of
Canada Pierre Poillievre, announced his partywas opposing the Alto project)
When Save South Frontenac started getting the word out to South Frontenac residents the potential corridors for high-speed train travel included one in South Frontenac, there was not much prior knowledge in the local community that there was a high-speed rail project on the federal radar.
All that has changed over the past two months, thanks to a lot of meetings, social media posts, newspaper articles, radio and tv appearances. Every community that has territory “in the gray” on the Alto map has responded, and the responses have been universally opposed to the project in its current iteration.
This has included city, township and county councils, community groups that have sprung up everywhere, conservation groups, and many others throughout Eastern Ontario.
Other rural communities along the route in Quebec have been active as well.
Alto representatives made it clear from the start that the public consultation phase was about them hearing from the public about the specifics of their own communities, and not so much about Alto telling people what their plans are, because those plans have not been developed yet.
While those communities have certainly had a lot to say, they have also been frustrated because aside from some very basic information, Alto has little to say. To be fair to Alto, the process was not designed for Alto to answer questions, but only for Alto to gather information to help them narrow down their choice for a corridor.
If the Alto leadership did not know that the reaction in Eastern Ontario would be hostile to the project, they should have. There are no benefits coming from the project to these communities, only losses.
Among the groups and individuals opposing both potential Alto routes through the region, the southern opposition has been the loudest and most persistent, at least partly because there are more people living along that potential route than the northern one, but there has been little or no support along the norther route either.
Opposition from our local MP’s has been swift and predictable as well. Scott Reid from Lanark-Frontenac Kingston, and Shelby Kramp-Neuman from Hastings Lennox and Addington, are both Conservatives, so they have no need to toe the Liberal party line.
Property Owners rights formed a central element in Scott Reid’s politics when he started out, and his skepticism about Liberal Party initiatives is deeply ingrained in his politics as well. So he jumped in with both feet and has been asking questions, not only about expropriation in our region, but about the viability of the project itself. Shelby Kramp-Neuman expressed concern at first, but in her most recent monthly newsletter, she has gone further, roundly rejecting the Alto project.
To me, this signals that the Federal Conservative Party, which has not been vocal for or against the project over the past year, is ready to question it more vigorously. The party has long advocated for large industrial projects to proceed, and would not want to be on the wrong side of a popular infrastructure build, but perhaps at the leadership level they now see the Alto project as a liability for the Liberals and are ready to be exploit it.
When Ontario Premier Doug Ford jumped into the conversation, siding with the 401-corridor proposal which is not even part of the Alto mandate, it was also a signal.
The Team Canada approach taken by Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney generally means that each of them have agreed to let the other take care of their own business. For Ford, and his advisers, to weigh in heavily against what Alto was set up to do, is a bit of a breach of that.
Michelle Foxton, who is a tireless Liberal Party voice in the Frontenac - Lanark Kingston riding, and has been the candidate for the party in the riding in the last two elections, has found herself in a difficult position. While she came out early in support of local community activists engaging politically over the Alto corridors, she was careful not to oppose the project itself, saying it was too early to do that.
Two weekends ago, however, she made a new post about Alto. Still careful not to attack a signature Liberal government project, she nonetheless said it should not go through Frontenac County, but along the 401 corridor, essentially taking the same position as the Mayors of South Frontenac and the City of Kingston, and the Premier of Ontario.
There are two positions about Alto emerging in our region. The first, and cleanest one, is opposition. It says that the train should not proceed. The second, that the 401 corridor is the place for high-speed rail, is anything but straightforward, for a number of reasons.
The 401 corridor is very narrow when it comes through urban areas, and it would have to be widened into places where there are lots of people, and buildings and businesses. In Kingston, a new hospital is planned for the 401 corridor. How does that work?
If the 401 corridor was so attractive, why was it bypassed in the first place, in favour of the countryside, away from people? And if it is brought into the picture as an option, that essentially entails freezing the Alto process, and starting over again, at least insofar as the Ottawa to Toronto leg is concerned.
The 401 high-speed rail corridor idea brings substantial issues to the process that the rural plan was designed to avoid, including making thousands of people sell their homes and move, instead of hundreds.
It is in all likelihood a non-starter. Tt it is understandable at least for City of Kingston politicians and their MP to promote because a stop on Alto would be a massive boon to Kingston, so even if it does not arrive, at least they can say they tried.
For everyone else, it is more of a convenient way to say not to Alto, without actually saying no to Alto. ■
