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Quebec Farmers Fight Back Against High-Speed Rail Plan
Farmers and elected officials in Repentigny, Que., want a proposed Toronto-Quebec City high-speed rail line scrapped over fears it will cut through their land.
Farmers east of Montreal are pushing back hard against the federal high-speed rail project that could slice through their fields - and they say nobody asked them about it first.
Guillaume Alary, a third-generation crop farmer in Repentigny, Que., says he learned about the project at the start of 2026 and was never consulted. He grows wheat, corn, and soybeans across more than 260 hectares that his family has worked since his grandfather's time. "I'm concerned about my land, my family. I'm concerned about the land and families of my neighbours," Alary told Global News on October 30.
What the Project Proposes
Alto, the federal agency overseeing the project, is developing a high-speed rail network connecting Quebec City and Toronto. A significant portion of the proposed corridor runs along agricultural land, including through the Lanaudière region east of Montreal.
Alto said it held consultations earlier in 2026 and received 20,000 comments. In a statement, an Alto spokesperson said that as the corridor nears more urbanized areas like Repentigny, the priority is "to identify a route that minimizes impacts on residential neighbourhoods and agricultural lands."
Why Farmers Say That's Not Good Enough
The concern isn't just losing land outright. Simon Duval, regional president of the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) in Lanaudière, says a rail line cutting through a property creates serious operational problems. If a farmer's fields end up on both sides of the tracks, they have no easy way to move equipment across.
"Half of your land is going to be on the other side," Duval said. "The detour you're going to have to do to access the other side is going to totally ruin the financial aspect of it."
Repentigny city councillor Normand Urbain made the same point in practical terms: "Imagine having a train pass right in the middle of your farmland and you have to bring your tractors from one side to the other. You can't pass over the rails."
Duval said the regional farmers' union's position is straightforward: "Right now what we have to do is stop the project."
Political Pushback Adds Pressure
The opposition isn't only coming from farmers. Bloc Québécois MP Patrick Bonin, who represents Repentigny federally, said he cannot support the project as it stands. His reason echoes what farmers are saying: "There is no proper public consultation and environmental assessment."
That criticism carries weight. Large infrastructure projects in Quebec have a long history of running into trouble when Indigenous and agricultural consultation is handled poorly or too late in the process.
What Comes Next
Alto has not confirmed a final route, and the agency's public position is that minimizing impact on farmland remains a priority. But for Alary, the uncertainty itself is damaging. He doesn't yet know how much of his land he could lose, and that limbo makes it hard to plan for the season ahead, let alone the next generation.
The Toronto-Quebec City corridor is one of the most discussed infrastructure ideas in Canada, with proponents arguing it could cut travel times significantly and reduce highway and air traffic between the country's two most populous provinces. The tradeoff with agricultural land in the St. Lawrence lowlands is a tension the project will have to resolve before it moves any further.