Key points:
Canada has proposed to build a High-Speed Rail (HSR) system connecting Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec (altotrain.ca). This HSR will pass through our region on one of two proposed routes, expropriating and fragmenting private properties, including conservation lands.
The wall-like, fenced corridor that will accommodate the HSR presents an ecologically significant barrier to wildlife movement across the landscape. The HSR will impact waterways, wetlands, open areas (e.g., fields, alvars) and forests within its path.
The proposed southern route of ALTO includes the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve (FABR), an area that is internationally recognized with a UNESCO inscription as one of the globe’s biologically significant landscapes. This region also contains the Frontenac Forests Key Biodiversity Area (within FABR). Key Biodiversity Areas are nationally and globally recognized important areas for conservation (see map below).
The proposed ALTO route will fragment the last major north-south wildlife corridor in Eastern North America, the Adirondacks to Algonquin (A2A) wildlife corridor (see photo below).
There are no direct benefits to the rural communities where the HSR will pass through without stopping. Instead, communities, roads, farms, conservation areas and private properties will be fractured. The HSR will bisect marshes and wetlands, with the potential to alter drainage systems.
We believe there are alternatives for faster (but not HSR) passenger trains that would serve these communities and have the potential to benefit the environment by reducing car travel, while preserving conservation lands and other private properties (see below).
This briefing is in response to the national proposal to build a High-Speed Rail (HSR) system in eastern Canada to connect seven cities: Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Laval, Montreal, Trois Rivieres, and Quebec City (altotrain.ca). Among the lands that may be taken to build this HSR are properties owned and conserved by the Land Conservancy for Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (LC-KFLA, see map below). Many other land trusts will be impacted (e.g., 17 of the 25 properties of the Rideau Waterway Land Trust are within the proposed southern route of ALTO). Key Biodiversity Areas and ecologically significant wildlife corridors (A2A) will be fragmented. Headwaters areas (source of creeks and rivers) that protect water quality and watershed health are within the proposed routes.
The critical importance of maintaining biological diversity is well-established. The LC-KFLA protects our biologically diverse properties that are deliberately reserved “for nature, forever”. Wildlife habitat and “corridors” of undeveloped land enable species to thrive and travel safely to feed, find shelter, and breed. Species become rare or endangered for many reasons. Amongst the greatest threats are habitat destruction and fragmentation. Human transportation corridors (e.g., roads and railways) create fragmentation and result in immense challenges for movement of wildlife that can’t fly.
Railroads have the potential to move more people per liter of fuel than cars. But the existing passenger train system in eastern Canada fails to meet these environmental benefits because it runs on a railway dominated by higher priority freight trains, causing unacceptable delays. However, the proposed benefits of a HSR connecting Toronto, Ottawa and Quebec City (e.g., reduction of carbon and vehicle use) do not appear to have been based on a thoroughly unbiased cost/benefit analysis. Rural communities within the proposed path, through which the HSR will pass without stopping, will have vast economic and environmental costs with no benefits. HSR requires an uninterrupted, 60 metre wide, heavily fenced and relatively level, straight path to accommodate safe train speeds of 300km/hr. The proposed path through our region will bisect farmlands, devalue or take private properties, permanently interrupt rural roads and may require the expropriation of properties painstakingly conserved by LC-KFLA, other land trusts and other conservation organizations that own land “in the way” of the proposed HSR.
The federal government has suggested that the significance of this project for the national economy and the environment should override the concerns of impacted rural areas. We believe that the joint efforts of the conservation community in this region and across the country to preserve biological diversity and thriving natural systems is a commitment that has equal national significance to those proposed by Transport Minister Steven Mackinnon for a HSR (see below). Rural areas should not be sacrificed for ‘progress’.
There are alternatives to HSR that will not intersect conservation lands and will provide greater benefit to the impacted rural communities between Toronto and Ottawa. The development of faster and reliable (not “high-speed”), dedicated passenger railways within existing public transportation corridors, including the 401 highway and existing railroad rights-of-way, have been proposed (see links below). While all transportation corridors impact movements of wildlife and tend to enhance the expansion of invasive plant species, using existing corridors does not create new barriers or additional invasive pathways. Rather than dismissing the needs of the smaller communities between the big cities, this rail system would be available to all. This system could provide both “express” trains between larger cities and “local” trains stopping more frequently. Because it uses existing corridors, it may cost significantly less to develop and yet would provide the energy and environmental benefits associated with all well-designed railway systems. These alternatives would also minimize the taking of private lands, including those owned and stewarded by LC-KFLA, other regional land trusts and conservation organizations.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND HOW TO COMMENT ON THE ALTO PROPOSAL:
Have your voice heard: Go to altotrain.ca to find out more information and put in a comment.
Passenger rail in 401 corridor proposal: corridortrainalliance.ca
High-Performance Rail (HPR); A Citizens’ Group Proposal for existing rights-of-way passenger railway. See March 27, 2026, article in the Kingstonist (www.kingstonist.com): Eastern Ontario proposal challenges ALTO with lower impact alternative. The article has links to their full HPR article.
Citizen initiative compiling information on ALTO impacts: altohsrcitizenresearch.ca including March 11, 2026, Minister MacKinnon’s Q and A, transcript and video link.
Algonquin to Adirondacks Collaborative: a2acollaborative.org/ See Link at top of their front page: Make your voice heard in the high-speed rail consultation Learn More: Includes a Background Primer and Media statement.
Seniors for Climate Action Now position paper https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/SCAN-Stop-ALTO-HSR.pdf
Light pollution map focused on A2A and Frontenac Arch regions. The ALTO project would reduce consequential years of progress and investment in land conservation by all levels of government and land trusts. ALTO would diminish thousands of hours of volunteer time, and donations of land and money for conservation efforts. It would also undermine the efforts of Parks Canada and other organizations that provided support and funding for the connectivity initiatives of the Algonquin to Adirondack Collaborative (A2A) and the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve (FABR) in the Frontenac Arch.
Frontenac Forests Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) is part of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve (FABR) UNESCO site. KBAs are based on scientific criteria that identify areas that have high biodiversity, including rare and threatened species. These areas are intact landscapes that support key natural biological processes, such as migration and hibernation sites. Identification of KBAs help to support conservation goals of Canada. To learn more about KBAs go to kba.canada.org.
Source of map: Wildlife Conservation Society Canada – https://wcscanada.org/newsroom/news/critical-ontario-wildlife-corridor-gets-national-recognition/
Land Conservancy for Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (LC-KFLA) mapping of Protected Lands and Adirondacks to Algonquin (A2A) wildlife corridors. The four purple circles identify areas in which a LC-KFLA property is located that will be directly impacted by the proposed ALTO routes. The LC-KFLA protects a diversity of other properties in the region mapped below that contain headwater areas, mosaic of habitats, high biodiversity and include species at risk.
