1,000 people pack Perth public meeting to learn more about project
PERTH — If the people behind the proposed Toronto–Quebec City high-speed rail line were hoping to get the public’s attention, they can check that box.
More than 1,000 residents — 1,022 to be exact — packed the Perth Lions Club Hall Thursday for a public consultation on the controversial project, estimated between $60 billion and $90 billion. The mood swung between curiosity, excitement, skepticism and flat-out frustration.
The event featured several information stations, each staffed by an Alto high-speed rail official answering questions.
“I thought the event was fantastic. They called it an interactive session, and it was,” said Perth Mayor Judy Brown.
The meeting, hosted by Alto high-speed rail officials, outlined the early vision for a 1,000-kilometre electric rail line linking Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval, Trois-Rivières and Quebec City. For supporters, it represents a long-overdue leap into the future. For many rural residents, it feels more like a fast train aimed straight at their property lines.
That tension could be felt throughout both the morning and evening sessions.
On the whole, people came seeking answers, but many left feeling they still did not have them.
Westport resident Gordon Craig is one of those facing the potential impact directly. His home sits within the massive 10-kilometre-wide study corridor currently being examined by engineers — a swath of land so wide it has left many homeowners wondering whether their property is safe.
“They’ve said the 10-kilometre corridor will eventually be narrowed down to one kilometre,” Craig told Hometown News. “But they haven’t talked about the fact that they haven’t even started this, and it’s already lowered my house evaluation.”
For homeowners, the uncertainty alone can sting.
“Would you want to buy a house that is potentially in the expropriation zone?” he asked.
Property concerns were not the only issues raised.
Cindy Daigman, a county public works employee, said she attended less as a homeowner and more as someone who deals with rural infrastructure every day.
“I’m kind of here from a professional perspective,” she explained.
Rural municipalities rely on sprawling networks of small roads, many of them vital for emergency response.
“There are a lot of rural roads in our county,” she said. “When the high-speed rail corridor is developed, what will happen to those roads? Will they be blocked into dead ends?”
In rural communities where fire trucks and ambulances already travel long distances, that is not a minor concern.
Those kinds of questions are exactly what Alto officials say the consultation process is meant to surface and address.
The wide corridor shown on current maps, acknowledged Benoit Bourdeau, media relations officer with Alto high-speed rail, is creating more anxiety than was necessarily intended. However, the consultations are meant to better understand the concerns and challenges a project like this must address.
“We didn’t want to make a decision and come to communities and say, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’” Bourdeau explained. “We want feedback before narrowing it down.”
Eventually, the corridor will shrink dramatically — first to about one kilometre, then even tighter once engineers finalize the precise alignment.
“The alignment of the corridor requires as straight a corridor as possible, and every effort will be made to follow existing transportation and hydro corridors, as well as follow property lines. No roads will be closed; they’ll either get an overpass or an underpass. If we have to bisect a farm, there will be consultation with the farmer to ensure they can access their property,” said Bourdeau.
He added that if land must be expropriated, compensation would be negotiated with individual landowners at the equitable market value.
Still, that does little to calm residents whose land sits inside the possible route today.
Elizabeth Boldt said the proposed southern corridor crosses property her family had hoped to develop.
“My husband has a property in Montague,” she said. “The southern corridor includes our property, which we plan to build on.”
Until the route becomes clearer, families like hers are left in a frustrating holding pattern.
Local political leaders are also feeling the pressure. Both Lanark—Frontenac MP Scott Reid and Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes MP Michael Barrett were present at the morning session and have been vocal in their opposition to the proposal.
Rideau Lakes Mayor Arie Hoogenboom said the map being circulated shows the southern corridor slicing through roughly two-thirds of his municipality.
“And I’m really upset about that,” he said.
Hoogenboom said his office has been fielding calls from worried residents ever since the maps appeared.
“I’ve had nobody contact me to say they’re in favour of this,” he said, though he suspects confusion and misinformation may be fuelling some of the alarm.
Still, he believes there are practical questions planners need to address, particularly for farmers.
“If a farm gets bisected, how do they move heavy equipment?” he asked. “How do they move animals from one field to another?”
He also worries that some roads that currently connect directly may require long detours to reach the nearest crossing, similar to changes made when Highway 401 expanded decades ago.
Hoogenboom said he would like to see a traditional town hall meeting held locally.
“I want a meeting in Elgin at the Lions Hall,” he said. “Not everyone is following this online.”
In Perth, the mayor said she remains conflicted about the proposal.
“On the whole, I’m worried about expropriation and disrupting farmland. I’m not sure it’s as catastrophic as people think it is,” Brown said.
Despite the concerns, the project is not without supporters.
Resident Richard Schooley argued the environmental payoff could be enormous. By his own rough calculations, high-speed rail could eliminate 200 flights a day between Toronto and Quebec City and remove 100,000 cars a year from Highway 401.
“This is going to be an electric train,” he said. “The greenhouse gas effect is significant — it’s huge.”
Critics often counter that building a new rail line will damage landscapes along the route. Schooley acknowledges that concern but believes careful planning could minimize the impact.
“The least offensive route might be north of Highway 7,” he suggested. “There’s more rock up there and less farmland.”
And if it means fewer cars clogging the highway?
“We all benefit,” he said. “If I’m driving on the 401 and there are fewer cars, I benefit too.”
He was not the only voice in favour, though perhaps the most enthusiastic.
“I would say as a millennial, I’m somewhat in favour and want to see Canada embrace modern technology,” said Perth resident Aydan Lalonde. However, he doubts the project will benefit him directly, given the timeline needed to build it.
That timeline stretches decades.
The first segment, between Montreal and Ottawa, could begin construction around 2030 and take roughly seven years to complete. Other segments would follow, with the full 1,000-kilometre corridor potentially completed by 2042.
Bourdeau said the broader goal is to shift how people travel along the corridor. He pointed to Spain’s Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line as an example. When it opened, trains carried about 20 per cent of travellers between the cities. Two decades later, that figure has climbed to roughly 80 per cent.
The population along the Toronto–Montreal–Quebec City corridor of about 18 million people is slightly larger.
But if Thursday’s meeting proved anything, it is that high-speed rail may move quickly while public opinion moves much more slowly.
Residents left the hall carrying maps, pamphlets and a long list of unanswered questions.
For now, the sleek trains that politicians like to talk about remain decades away. The debate over where they might run, and whose backyard they might cross, has already arrived.
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