{"id":536089,"date":"2026-03-14T15:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T15:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/536089\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T15:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T15:02:12","slug":"canadas-high-speed-rail-line-ontario-residents-push-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/536089\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s high speed rail line: Ontario residents push back"},"content":{"rendered":"

BATTERSEA, Ont. – A hunting and fishing outfitter in Battersea, Ont. is worried Canada\u2019s new high\u2011speed rail corridor could shut down his business. Gord Boulton also fears it could cut him off from much of the land he has lived on for 30 years.<\/p>\n

The owner of Rockridge Outfitters learned in January that a proposed route from Toronto to Quebec City could run through his 650\u2011acre property or another 350 acres he owns nearby. \u201cMy heart just sunk,\u201d he said. \u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe it and couldn\u2019t believe that all of my neighbours as well would be affected by this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"High speed rail Gord Boulton runs Rockridge Outfitters in Battersea, Ont. (CTV News) <\/p>\n

Boulton, a retired Kingston police officer, bought the land when he was 18. Clients now come to the property to hunt deer, turkeys and catch fish. He says they often return because the setting is remote and quiet with several camps. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very special,\u201d says Boulton. \u201cThere\u2019s very few places like this.\u201d <\/p>\n

He worries a fenced, high\u2011speed rail line \u2014 with trains potentially passing twice an hour at 300 km\/h \u2014 would block access to a private lake, disrupt wildlife, and erase the atmosphere his business depends on.<\/p>\n

\u201cA train coming through here would just completely destroy my business,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019d hear it everywhere.\u201d <\/p>\n

He\u2019s also concerned for his family. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what we\u2019d do. Whether we would move somewhere else. We hope we don\u2019t get to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing local opposition<\/p>\n

Boulton has joined a fast\u2011growing opposition movement and started a Facebook group called Save South Frontenac, which has thousands of followers. He says volunteers are going door to door and placing flyers in the local newspaper to reach residents who don\u2019t use the internet.<\/p>\n

Some are worried about their property values and that their land will be expropriated. The rail line would be fenced on both sides to keep wildlife out, but those fences would also block rural roads and turn many into dead ends.<\/p>\n

Some people fear longer emergency response times and daily travel delays. Boulton worries his 30\u2011minute drive to Kingston, Ont. could instead take 75 minutes if he has to detour to an overpass or underpass. <\/p>\n

\"\"High-speed rail Gord Boulton owns a 650-acre property north of Kingston, Ont. He worries the high-speed rail line could cut across his land separating the two sides from each other. <\/p>\n

Boulton also questions the consultation process. He says project representatives have not provided environmental or wildlife\u2011migration studies. \u201cHow can someone like myself make an informed decision whether they think it\u2019s a good idea or not, if they can\u2019t provide the information for you to make that informed decision?\u201d<\/p>\n

Alto, the Crown corporation leading the project, says they are still months away from selecting a specific route for the Ottawa\u2013Montreal corridor which will be the first section to be built. Routes toward Toronto and Quebec will take longer to finalize.<\/p>\n

CEO Martin Imbleau says consultations are ongoing, with \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of comments already collected. He says there have been questions about the environmental impacts, ticket costs, ridership forecasts, and landowner concerns about possible routes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not done yet,\u201d he said, adding that online consultation will be extended.<\/p>\n

Public reaction split<\/p>\n

Imbleau says community reactions when building a road or rail line follow a predictable pattern: <\/p>\n

\u201cWhere there\u2019s a station, people want the station elsewhere. Where there is no station, communities want a station,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when there\u2019s an alignment picked, people want the alignment elsewhere,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s very normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says comments at the public consultation meetings have been mixed but believes the majority has been positive.<\/p>\n

\"\"High-speed rail Martin Imbleau is the CEO of Alto, the federal Crown corporation, building the high-speed rail project. (CTV News) <\/p>\n

Alto is studying a 10\u2011kilometre\u2011wide corridor. It includes a straighter northern alignment between Peterborough and Ottawa and a southern option closer to Kingston. <\/p>\n

The hope is to whisk passengers from Toronto to Montreal in three hours, which is just over half as long as the journey by car. <\/p>\n

Imbleau says the process will move to direct talks with landowners once the initial Montreal-Ottawa route is chosen in the fall. He would not specify which month he expects that to be. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fair market value and full compensation for everything,\u201d he said of expropriations where necessary adding discussions will be face\u2011to\u2011face and not by email. <\/p>\n

Because of the required fencing Imbleau acknowledges that some roads will become dead ends. He says Alto is working with farmers and municipalities to determine how far apart crossings should be placed. \u201cWe need to have a reasonable distance,\u201d he said. \u201cProbably underpasses in farmlands and overpasses in other places.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"High-speed train The Alto high-speed train would travel at 300km\/h and go from Toronto to Montreal in three hours \u2013 just over half the time it takes to drive. (Alto) Construction timeline<\/p>\n

Construction on the Montreal\u2013Ottawa segment could begin in 2029 or 2030. Imbleau says building the first leg could take six or seven years. The cost of the project has been pegged at between $60 and $90 billion dollars and is not expected to be entirely complete until 2040. <\/p>\n

Despite the challenges, he says high\u2011speed rail is essential for Canada\u2019s future. \u201cItaly has done it. Spain has done it. France. Everyone has done it. So it\u2019s a national priority,\u201d he said. \u201cMobility creates wealth and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building this for Canada. Rick Mercer used to say that we\u2019re the world champions in high speed rail studies. We\u2019ve been studying for 40 years now. It\u2019s time to build it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gord Boulton just hopes it won\u2019t be near his rural community. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to put a train somewhere, put it where the train system already is and don\u2019t put it through the middle of Mother Nature and destroy it. We\u2019ve destroyed Mother Nature enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BATTERSEA, Ont. – A hunting and fishing outfitter in Battersea, Ont. is worried Canada\u2019s new high\u2011speed rail corridor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[712,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-536089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-apple-news","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}