As it happens, I asked a number of specialists that very question.
First of all, there are the costs tied to the complexity of completing that kind of project in Canada, because we've never built that type of track before. That could explain why it's so much more expensive. In addition, expropriation costs are much higher in Canada than in Europe for high-speed rail projects, particularly for routes into cities.
I'll conclude by mentioning, as I said at the end of my address, that serious work needs to be done on project costs, because that would allow genuine public debate based on actual costs, which we don't have at the moment.