Durant’s Rants (Substack)

[PODCAST] Railroaded by the Government of Canada and Alto: Why Has the High-Speed Rail Consultation Gone Off the Rails in...

In this episode, host Erin Durant, a lawyer and resident of the Alto high‑speed rail corridor, details her personal discovery of the project and the chaotic, opaque consultation process affecting rural Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. She critiques the government's reliance on a scant 29‑page brochure, the lack of publicly available feasibility studies, and the apparent disregard for rural communities despite earlier committee recommendations to prioritize inclusive growth. Durant highlights how expropriation notices are being issued without transparent economic or risk analyses, and she contrasts this with a 150‑page high‑frequency rail study that was effectively hidden from the public. Her perspective combines legal expertise, firsthand impact, and grassroots research to expose systemic information gaps and procedural failures.