Mr. Speaker, like several of our colleagues have already done, I would like to take this opportunity to mention that yesterday, one of my employees celebrated five years of service. I would like to thank India La Haye for her work and congratulate her on this recognition.
Now let me return to the motion and the subject at hand. Ultimately, what we are discussing here is the Alto high-speed rail project. I have already said several times here, in response to certain colleagues from the Bloc Québécois during their speeches, that I too believe that what happened in 1969 is unacceptable and inexcusable. I have said it before and I will say it again, but it is no longer 1969. It is 2026. In the meantime, a lot has changed, and a similar situation would not and will not happen in the case of the Alto project or any other public infrastructure project.
A comparison is being made here, as our colleagues from the Bloc Québécois have pointed out several times. It reminds me a lot of what was also said in 2016-17 about the Réseau express métropolitain, or REM, project in the Montreal area. The government at the time also made certain legislative changes to ensure that the project would be carried out quickly, on budget and on schedule. There were also all kinds of fear campaigns. People said that it would be the end of the world, that it would never happen, that it was impossible, that no one could do it. They said that the government had given the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec the power to seize people's properties. All of that was said. Many concerns were raised by several political parties at the time, parties that were in fact related to our colleagues in the Bloc Québécois.
Now, several years later, the REM project is a reality, despite the problems associated with the pandemic, among other things. There have been some strange incidents, such as the discovery of explosives in the Mont‑Royal tunnel, but none of the disastrous and catastrophic scenarios that were raised at the time came to pass. There has been no confiscation of private property either. I understand the concerns of people in the Mirabel region, but to suggest that the 1969 scenario will repeat itself nowadays is a stretch, because we are not in the same situation at all.
What exactly is the Alto project? This high-speed rail line connecting Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto has been a topic of discussion for about 30 years. For all sorts of reasons, some good and some not so good, it never happened. It never materialized. Successive governments have all ended up backing down and abandoning the project for all sorts of reasons. Now, however, our government is firmly committed to moving forward and making this project a reality. We are going to take a structured, organized approach, having learned lessons from the past while carrying out other government and infrastructure projects.
Of course the rift of 1969 still hangs over our heads. It is something that we still think about to prevent such situations from happening now.
That is why we created a project office, Alto, to do this preliminary work. We also created a private consortium, Cadence, with companies that have extensive experience with this type of project to ensure that we take the time we need, but no more, to complete such a megaproject. We want to ensure that we complete this project within a reasonable time frame so that we can control costs.
Alto is a government agency that represents the government. It has begun this groundwork. I would even say that we are in the pre-consultation phase. We have established a corridor that is rather wide, very wide even. Of course, the route is far from final. I think that we are doing things right. By taking four years to carry out this project, we are making sure that things are being done quickly, but not too quickly for a project of this magnitude.