Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to the budget implementation act with the fresh feedback and concerns of my constituents in mind. The riding I represent is made up of many different communities, but they are united by a lot of things, as are many Canadians. We did not get feedback just on election day. Members are in their communities, connecting with their neighbours and residents, getting feedback all the time.
There is one item, in particular, that is contained in the budget implementation act, the BIA, that has caused me to receive more feedback than any other single issue in my seven years as a parliamentarian, and that is the Alto high-speed rail project. Alto is a Crown corporation that proposes to run a high-speed train from Toronto to Quebec City, with stops in Peterborough, Ottawa and Montreal. It would pass through my region, and it is proposed to pass through my community. The overwhelming feedback that I have received is that it is going to have a detrimental effect for many people in homes, on farms and on recreational properties; for small businesses; for the environment; and for historic sites. I want to get into a couple of those things.
This high-speed rail project will have a train that is going to be travelling at a few hundred kilometres per hour. There will be no at-grade or level crossings, which means that, wherever a road intersects with the path of this train, it will require a vehicle overpass. This corridor, which would be up to 200 feet wide, is going to cut through the communities it is proposed to pass through, with large fences on either side, severing roads. I have not only heard feedback from my community but also spoken with the proponent, Alto, this Crown corporation, and asked if there will be overpasses at every road it intersects with. The answer was no, so this is a problem. This is going to orphan all kinds of properties and roads and create tremendous challenges with emergency response times, which are already challenging in rural areas.
It is also going to pass through the Frontenac Arch Biosphere. This is a UNESCO-recognized biosphere. The people who live in the community know the many different types of rare flora and fauna that exist in the region and in the Frontenac Arch Biosphere. Heritage sites, buildings and monuments older than our country itself, including the Rideau Canal, would be disturbed, upset and destroyed by this project.
Let us think about individual properties. I have heard from hundreds of people within the proposed corridor who have said they are not going to sell. That means that there are going to be expropriations. We heard from the minister at committee this week that those properties will be acquired this year. With a project of this scale, which is supposed to bring Canadians together, and with all of the impacts that I have mentioned very quickly, knowing there are many more, we would expect there to be consultations in the communities it would be passing through. Did I mention that there will be no stop in my community? This is going to pass through. There is going to be no service to the region, and it is going to cost $90 billion.
That is the estimate from Alto and the government, but there are many experts who are saying it will cost many orders of magnitude more than that. We are talking about a $90-billion project, and in my community, that means thousands of dollars in cost per household for a train service with fares that many would never be able to afford, and they have not even been estimated yet. They cannot afford the prices on Via Rail currently. It is expected, and all but assured, that the prices on Alto will be higher.
With all of that, one would expect that there would have been a consultation in our community. They told us to drive to another county, to drive to another district, and that they would be happy to provide us with the pitch there. That is what they have been told. That is not a dialogue.
The people who have reached out to me own seasonal properties, some of whom will not have returned to their seasonal properties yet this year. They will find out about the consultation after the consultation period is closed. I have sent postcards to every business and residence in my riding, asking people to participate, soliciting their feedback, so I can provide it to the minister and Alto. They can fill out that survey at michaelbarrettmp.ca, my parliamentary website.
It is important that folks are able to provide their feedback about something that is going to affect them very deeply. This is about properties, businesses and homes that have been in a family for generations.
I think about the folks who have reached out to me about their grandchildren, about the next generation they hope will take on their farm with intergenerational farm transfers. They are hoping to have their business go to their children or have their grandkids play in the yard. I think about what that would mean for me, if I look at my children Luke, Ama, Michaela, James and Nathan. Amanda and I are so proud of them. Watching them grow up is our dream.
For someone to be told that their property is going to be taken away from them, and that they are going to be told what it is worth, so they can take it or leave it, but not to worry because it is for a really important project for infrastructure that they will never use and cannot afford to pay for, that is not the kind of thing that brings Canadians together.
We have so much work to do in Canada. We have so much work to do to build projects that would unite us. We are a country rich in natural resources, but we do not have the infrastructure to get them to tidewater. We have areas that are looking for very specific transit projects that would help people in dense urban areas. They are looking for projects like this in corridors that exist. That is not what we are seeing here. What we are seeing is a proposal that would violate the rights of many thousands of Canadians, and they are not even being asked what they think about it.
When a Crown corporation is prepared to expropriate properties in a community but is not prepared to go to the community first to meet people where they live, that is not something that is being done with the best interest of Canadians in mind.
I do not have a property that is in the corridor, but I represent a community that has many who do. When I think about my kids, I think about their kids. I think about people who work tirelessly just to afford the dream of home ownership or to be able to have a roof over their head, to farm the land, to feed our country.
I am opposed to Alto HSR, and I am going to vote against it. It is for my community. It is for this generation. It is for the next. It is for Canada.