Quebec farmers fight Alto high-speed rail line mapped across their farmland
Third-generation grower never consulted as route splits family land, agency cites 20,000 comments while union demands project scrapped
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Guillaume Alary grows wheat, corn and soybeans on more than 260 hectares in Repentigny, Quebec — land his grandfather worked before him. He learned at the beginning of this year that a federal high-speed rail line is proposed to run through it. Nobody had asked him first.
Alto, the federal agency overseeing the project, wants a high-speed network between Quebec City and Toronto, and much of the proposed route is mapped along agricultural property. Farmers and local elected officials in Repentigny are now calling for the project to be scrapped. The Union des producteurs agricoles has taken the same position: Simon Duval, the union's regional president in Lanaudière, says farmers whose properties are divided by the line face detours that would hurt their bottom line.
The damage is mechanical before it is financial. Tractors and equipment cannot pass over the rails, as Repentigny city councillor Normand Urbain points out, so a farm split by the tracks is a farm where every field operation becomes a journey around them. Alary, a third-generation farmer, says the uncertainty has left him worried about his land, his family, and the land and families of his neighbours.
Alto's response is procedural. A spokesperson told Global News the agency held consultations earlier this year and received 20,000 comments, and that as the corridor approaches urbanized areas such as Repentigny, the priority is to identify a route that minimizes impacts on residential neighbourhoods and agricultural lands. Minimizing impact on farmland is not the same as avoiding it.
Bloc Québécois MP Patrick Bonin, who represents Repentigny, says he cannot support the project, citing the absence of proper public consultation and environmental assessment. A farmer who learned of the route months into the mapping is an odd consultation record for an agency holding 20,000 comments.
The gains are diffuse and deferred — faster trains along the corridor — while the costs are concentrated and immediate, landing on whoever owns the land between the stations. Alary's family has held its ground for three generations. Alto has 20,000 comments and a route mapped across it.