Bill C-15 received royal assent after moving swiftly through the Liberal-packed Senate last week.

Marketed as an omnibus budget bill, the legislation quietly embeds the High-Speed Rail Network Act within it, effectively handing the federal government sweeping new tools to fast-track the ALTO high-speed rail project.

Earlier this week, ALTO CEO lobbied the senate for “buy in” on a “regulatory framework” (hint: Bill C15) to expropriate properties in the path of their $90B mega project if “preferred voluntary agreements” are unsuccessful pic.twitter.com/3Tob5hITKX

— Tamara Ugolini 🇨🇦 (@TamaraUgo) February 28, 2026

The proposed 300+ km/h bullet train would link Toronto to Quebec City along a dedicated corridor with five mandated stops along the way. A public-private partnership led by the CADENCE consortium, which includes AtkinsRéalis (formerly SNC-Lavalin), now holds special fast-track authority to acquire land.

The route carves a straight, 60-metre-wide (more than 200 feet) fenced corridor through prime farmland, rural homes, wetlands and ecologically sensitive areas across southern Ontario and Quebec.

“Almost immediately”

That’s how fast Transport Minister Steve McKinnon says private property could be seized after approval of the ALTO high-speed rail

Expropriation of pristine farmland and private hunting land, for a $90B megaproject that won’t be on time or on budget pic.twitter.com/mSWNVzr9nv

— Tamara Ugolini 🇨🇦 (@TamaraUgo) February 26, 2026

And Bill C-15 has just rewritten the rules, declaring the project “for the general advantage of Canada,” securing federal jurisdiction and bypassing standard processes under the Canada Transportation Act. It streamlines the Impact Assessment Act and, most significantly, amends the federal Expropriation Act specifically for ALTO.

If the Minister of Transport determines land is required, the Crown is automatically deemed to need it for a “public work.” There is no mandatory prior negotiation. Landowners receive abbreviated notice and a short 30-day window to file written objections, with no public hearings and many longstanding appeal rights stripped away or diluted.

Farmers whose fields are bisected, drainage systems destroyed, and operations fractured will face a process that treats private property as an inconvenience to industry, rather than a right.

Preliminary cost estimates already range from $60 billion to $90 billion, yet no finalized business case or detailed engineering has been made public. If history is any indication, a mega-project like this will be unlikely to stay on budget.

Proponents promise halved travel times and economic gains, but those benefits must not come at the expense of due process and property rights.

This is not the first time Ottawa has used legislation to seize land from rural Canadians. In 1969, the federal government expropriated roughly 39,000 hectares for Mirabel International Airport in Quebec, displacing thousands of families.

The project delivered massive social and environmental disruption but was ultimately underused; much of the land was later sold back to families, yet the damage was already done.

Closer to home, the case of Frank Meyers of Quinte West, Ontario, stands as a stark warning. A fifth-generation farmer whose family had worked the land since 1798, Meyers lost 220 acres in 2012 when the government expropriated it for an alleged expansion of Canadian Forces Base Trenton.

He rejected the $1.6 million offer, returned the cheques unopened and fought the process every step of the way.

In 2014, while he was away, his farmhouse and barns were demolished.

Years later, the promised military relocation never materialized. The land sat idle — a “dead zone” of former productive farmland — until reports surfaced in 2023 that it would become an ammunition depot, far from the original justification.

Seize private land first and argue value later, rewriting rules whenever a shiny new flagship project demands it, isn’t governance, it’s power without restraint.

Rural Canadians warned this line would be crossed, and Bill C-15 doesn’t just prove them right, it proves the warnings were ignored.

Sign the petition to stop the Alto rail line!

8,626 signatures

Goal: 10,000 signatures

Ottawa is advancing ALTO — a proposed 300 km/h rail line from Toronto to Quebec City — with a projected cost of $90 billion and no guarantee that'll be the end of it.

The plan would carve a 1,000-kilometre corridor up to 60 metres wide through productive farmland and private property, dividing communities and affecting families who receive little to no benefit. In many stretches, there are no rural stations planned at all.

Other megaprojects have spiralled in cost and delay. Meanwhile, consultations are closing quickly, and concerns remain about expropriation, oversight, and accountability.

Before billions more are committed and land is permanently disrupted, Canadians deserve transparency and a full public debate.

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