Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Tuesday turned the proposed Toronto-to-Quebec City high-speed rail line into a fiscal and property-rights referendum, pledging that a future Conservative government would cancel the Liberal-backed Alto project.
Poilievre’s case rests on figures, with the project projected at up to $90.0 billion, or nearly $8,000 for a family of four as he put it, and above the federal deficit figure of $78.3 billion cited from the 2025 budget. Second, he pointed out that the government has already spent more than $700.0 million since 2022 without any track under construction.
He also mentioned that the Alto CEO said “real construction” would not start until 2030, later than the Liberals’ earlier timeline. Poilievre also cited a McGill Transport Research Lab estimate that says the line would require $2.54 billion in first-year annual subsidies, more than double VIA Rail’s total annual cost.
He paired that cost attack with a performance critique of the current passenger rail system. The Auditor General found VIA Rail’s on-time performance at 51% in 2024, with Q1 2025 performance dropping as low as 30%.
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Poilievre further warned the route could require the seizure of thousands of acres of private property in Ontario and Quebec, invoking the Mirabel Airport precedent. In 1969, the federal government expropriated nearly 100,000 acres for Mirabel, displaced roughly 12,000 people, then used only 5,000 acres. Passenger flights there ended more than 20 years ago.
Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon rebutted Poilievre, calling Alto a “generational investment” and said the project would boost GDP by $35.0 billion annually, create more than 51,000 well-paying jobs, and improve travel, work, and study access for people across the corridor.
He further argued that the line would serve 20 million people with faster inter-city travel and stronger economic integration between major urban centers.
A poll cited in the debate shows 62% support for the project. Yet Poilievre’s release also says two-thirds of surveyed Canadians would not use the service even once a year.
Despite this rage against the Alto project, critics also highlighted that the Conservative platform includes support for “rail infrastructure across Canada, including innovative high-speed passenger rail where warranted.”
Poilievre tried to close that gap by shifting the alternative toward targeted, lower-risk transportation investments. He said Conservatives would back projects that improve movement of people and goods faster and at lower taxpayer risk, including runway expansion at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and upgrades to existing roads such as designating Ontario’s Highway 11 a project of national importance under the Building Canada Act.
In this fight, the rail line is no longer just about trains. It is about what kind of nation-building Canadians still want to finance.
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