Surely the thousands of people who frequently travel between Montreal and Toronto were celebrating the news of a new highspeed rail to connect La Belle Province and Canada’s economic capital.

Of course, those thousands of people likely use the existing passenger rail to go to work or school – or to visit loved ones frequently. So, they can be forgiven for hearing news that a faster travel service is being planned.

It sounds fantastic and, should the project’s goals be achieved, it will mimic the rail bullet trains of Europe. The proposed 1,000-km rail line called Alto will run from Toronto to Québec City, with stops in Peterborough, Ottawa, Montréal, Laval and Trois-Rivières.

I’m wondering if any of those who are applauding this announcement bothered to look at the finer points of the deal. Or even a very large, and vital matter: the estimated cost of $80 billion by the time the project is completed.

Alto, which translates to high in both *Italian and Spanish, is apt considering the high costs of this project.

When we recognize the tab will be picked up by all Canadians, it seems as though outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wanted to give last “go **** yourselves plebs, with disdain,” from the would-be emperor turned lame duck leader.

For the record, this isn’t an anti-passenger rail post. Far from it.

I’m very excited about the passenger rail revamp and relaunch that will travel north from Toronto through Simcoe County and Muskoka on its way to Northern Ontario. But that’s not an $80 billion dollar project, it’s not even a $1 billion project and only Ontarians are footing the bill.

Taxpayers staggered

It’s an enormous understatement to note that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is against the multibillion-dollar deal. They are extremely concerned about the project’s price tag being paid for by the public.

In a news release about the railway, the CTC pointed to the current Liberal government’s fiscal record. In 2024, the government ran a $62-billion deficit, $20 billion higher than its promised fiscal guardrail. 

The news release goes on to state “the Trudeau government doubled the debt in less than a decade. Interest charges on the debt are costing taxpayers $54 billion this year.”

These figures indicate that the federal government spends more on debt interest charges than it sends to the provinces in health-care transfers.

“Trudeau is only prime minister for another couple of weeks, so he shouldn’t be borrowing billions more for a new taxpayer boondoggle,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director, in the media release. “Somebody needs to take the credit card away from the lame duck prime minister before he puts Canada further into debt.”

Concerning contracts

As well, when we look at who is getting the contracts to build this highspeed rail service from Toronto to Quebec City, there is reason for concern.

According to various news reports and the official announcement, the federal government is set to spend $3.9 billion over the next six years. That is only to fund the beginning of the join venture between a new Crown corporation and a private group of companies.

The private group consists of Air Canada, AtkinsRéalis (formerly called SNC Lavalin), CDPQ INfra, Keolis, SYSTRA and SNCF Voyageurs.

Okay. Is there anyone else who thinks this situation smells rotten?

Particularly the company formerly known as SNC Lavalin. Yes, you read that read. That SNC Lavalin.

The same SNC Lavalin who was part of a still unsettled situation in 2019. Back then, the company was publicly accused of corruption by then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould and then-Treasury Board President Jane Philpott.

The company now rebranded as AtkinsRealis pleaded guilty fraud in the Québec Provincial Court and was fined $280 million. According to reports by Western Standard , executives in an Agreed Statement Of Facts acknowledged the company paid $47.7 million in bribes to secure contracts in Libya.

New legal proceedings

As well, there is still a lot of alarm regarding the Trudeau government, his knowledge in this affair, and the lack of appropriate investigation by the RCMP.

These are excerpts from a newsroom piece from Democracy Watch, a a national non-profit, non-partisan organization, and Canada’s leading citizen group advocating democratic reform, government accountability and corporate responsibility.

On Wednesday, Democracy Watch announced that it is filing an application in the Ontario Court of Justice in Ottawa today for approval from the court to proceed with a private prosecution of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for pressuring, and directing others to pressure, then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to stop the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin in 2018 (now operating under the name “AtkinsRéalis”).

The application includes a legal opinion by a retired superior court justice (who did the opinion on the condition of remaining anonymous) supporting prosecuting the PM for the allegation of obstruction of justice, and possibly also for breach of trust.  The application also includes a “will say” document that summarizes the reasons for the application, and a summary of how the RCMP failed to investigate and uphold the law properly.

As detailed in Democracy Watch’s news release from Tuesday, the RCMP’s internal records, obtained by DWatch and also included in today’s application, show that the RCMP’s investigation was weak, incomplete, delayed and buried for years, and amounts to an attempted cover up.  The RCMP only interviewed four of 15 key witnesses, and is hiding key testimony from Wilson-Raybould, her Chief of Staff Jessica Prince, and her friend and confidante Jane Philpott.  The RCMP also accepted the Trudeau Cabinet hiding key internal communication records, and trusted without question the biased, self-interested public statements of the PM and everyone else who pressured the AG.

The more verifiable information we see coming out about the SNC Lavalin affair and Trudeau’s involvement, the more we should be lobbying our representatives to put the air brakes on the passenger rail deal.

Even those in favour of spending $80 billion dollars on the project, the fact that Trudeau is dealing with a company that admitted to corruption and bribery is reason enough for tremendous pause.

At least until the new government is formed after the next election and appropriate steps are taken to ensure the project’s funding and collaborators are above board.

Thanks for reading! Ciao for Now!

*Alto also is translated as tall in Italian.

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