Tabled Tuesday, the budget says legislative changes will streamline approvals and reduce regulatory uncertainty for the planned high-speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced in September that the government would speed up engineering and regulatory work on the project to get construction underway within four years.
Still skeptical since HSR gets dangled every election by the LPC, but it seems it’s getting closer to reality. Still a while till the planned construction start but if it starts, I think it’ll likely be built, at least between TO and MTL. A three-hour trip for a low price would be a significant economic boost for the region and bring ON and QC closer together.
I’ll believe it when the contracts are signed and shovels are in the ground. With a minority Liberal government, I have a hard time believing it’s going to happen.
It’s good to hear progress, but unless the Liberals maintain power, there’s still too much uncertainty if it’ll take off.
We are well past the conceptual stage, and into design. i.e. the government has stopped asking “should we?” and over the last couple years has started asking “how?”
Good point, though it feels like there’s already uncertainty being stoked in the media questioning how much longer this government will last in power. I don’t think that was even the case under Trudeau when he got his last minority government with much fewer seats than Carney.
Suffice to say, I really want to see some ground breaking on the project but I won’t hold high hopes until we get to that point.
We are already decades behind on rail. Given Canada’s track record on this, we will probably debate and delay the project until it is significantly outdated by the time it is completed.
The liberals love cars though.
Agreed.
