Council seeks Alto's answers
Mayor Crate frustrated by lack of information about potential local impact
Mayor Bob Crate is frustrated that Alto High Speed Rail staffers won’t answer his council’s questions about the project.
Last week in a meeting, council asked two staffers for details such as expected ridership, why the rail line is necessary and the cost and was told that the staff had the information but couldn’t share it without the permission of the federal government, Crate told Robert Washburn in an interview for Consider This.
“How can you fight when they’ve got all the information and we’ve got nothing?” Crate said.
Crate was also upset that municipalities along the proposed routes between Toronto and Ottawa weren’t given advance notice of the plans or a chance to ask questions. “Somebody should have come and spoken to our council and told us what was going on, but they didn’t and I told them, you threw us under the bus,” he said, adding that some residents have complained that he is keeping information secret, but that’s simply not true.
He said the municipality will push Alto to hold a public meeting in Trent Hills so everyone can have their say and get their questions answered.
Alto has had meetings in Peterborough and Madoc, and one is scheduled for Stirling on March 25 from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the Stirling and District Lions Club at 435 West Front Street. These public sessions, which end March 29, are essentially a roadshow that outlines the ideas but don’t answer questions, Crate said.
Crate warned that a 60-metre corridor thorough Trent Hills could cause major disruption for farmers and the municipality since many roads would dead-end at the fence.
“It would destroy our community. I’m beyond myself to think that we are being treated like we don’t matter. To me, they’re destroying the fabric of rural Ontario for greed.”
Crate said he can’t see the need for such a rail line, especially with a $120 billion or more price tag. “I think we’d be better served with a better flow of traffic to Toronto.
The lack of information is creating fear among local farmers, Crate says.
In addition to the public meeting, you can join virtual sessions or comment online until April 24. Details here.
There are several Facebook groups dedicated to the Alto project, including this one for Trent Hills.
Alto says its online consultation platform has had 185,000 unique visits, 14,774 completed questionnaires, and 10,420 comments submitted on the corridor map. It has held 26 open houses across Québec and Ontario, with a total attendance of 9,194 to date. The 10 bilingual virtual meetings held in French and English have had 1,300 participants.
“Based on the feedback received and continued analyses, additional rounds of public consultation will be held in the coming months, particularly regarding the more detailed study corridor for the first segment planned between Montréal and Ottawa,” its website says.
You can read all Trent Hills News stories on my website here.
I attended the meeting in Madoc, Councillor English was there and when I was coming out councillor Pope was going in. Common sense would tell you that they will not want to come through Hastings and Campbellford but you can,t always take that for granted. If they are not stopping in Belleville or Kingston why would they want to build bridges in Hastings and Campbellford to cross the Trent. Going back to my young days there was a CP track going through Havelock. Passengers would be met with Ames bus line to take passengers to Campbellford. At that time the front line had not been built. There is a rail line from Toronto to Havelock to service the two mines North of Havelock. The tracks end at Havelock but the right away still runs East I believe to Ottawa. We took a rail trip from Belleville to Quebec City. The freight trains have preference over via passenger trains. Via would have to go off on a siding to allow freight trains to pass. In Montreal we had a four hour layover to go on to Quebec City. Business people like to take via from Ottawa Belleville because they can do work on the train to Toronto or to Ottawa. I believe it will happen to satisfy the business people. I think common sense should prevail that they take the Northern route following the old cp rail right away. Keep your finger crossed. Mayor Crate can speak with English and Pope about the project. I would think that if a vote was taken by the persons attending the meeting that there would be no new rail happening.