Premier Doug Ford’s eastern Ontario caucus questioning high-speed rail project

TORONTO — Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s caucus is openly questioning the viability of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s proposed high-speed rail line as senior provincial government sources say Ford is reconsidering his support for the project after Ottawa nixed plans to expand the Toronto island airport.

Eleven members of Ford’s caucus from eastern Ontario said the federal government is ignoring the voices of farmers, landowners and municipalities on Alto, the proposed high-speed passenger train service between Quebec City and Toronto.

“If Alto is to proceed, local voices impacted by this project deserve to see their feedback reflected in the project’s planning, route selection and delivery,” the eastern Ontario Progressive Conservative politicians said in a statement.

“The federal government must ensure that any potential future rail project minimizes impacts on farmland and is supported by the people affected.”

The statement was from Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn, Labour Minister David Piccini, government house leader Steve Clark, John Jordan, Tyler Allsopp, George Darouze, Billy Denault, Laurie Scott, Stephane Sarrazin, Ric Bresee and Dave Smith.

There is a mobilized backlash to Alto in eastern Ontario, where mass expropriation of land would be required to build it.

Many farmers, municipalities and landowners have come out against the project and taken their protests to the lawn of Parliament Hill.

The PC statement comes just days after federal Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon rejected Ford’s vision for the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport last week, as 87 per cent of the 87,000 respondents to a public consultation opposed the idea.

The rejection left Ford upset and disappointed and he said as much to the prime minister over the weekend, said the sources who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to share internal discussions.

The sources say Ford and Carney had a handshake deal in which the province supported Alto in exchange for the federal government’s support of an expanded Billy Bishop airport, where the runways are currently too short for jets.

Ford and his government will continue to push for an expanded airport, provincial Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said on Tuesday. A full Billy Bishop modernization plan from the Toronto Port Authority is forthcoming, he said.

Sarkaria also dismissed Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s demand to return recently expropriated lands in and around the Toronto Islands back to the city.

The province tabled and passed in the spring a bill that gave Ontario the ability to take over the entirety of the Toronto Islands, though the government said it would only take what’s necessary despite the language in the legislation.

The province also booted the city from a long-standing tripartite agreement that governs Billy Bishop airport. Ontario took over the city’s spot in that agreement, joining the federal government and the Toronto Port Authority, an arm’s-length federal agency.

MacKinnon remains bullish on the high-speed rail project, despite the province’s support wavering.

“We will of course, hope to have the collaboration of the government of Quebec, the government of Ontario,” MacKinnon said Wednesday.

“I have, personally speaking, a lot of affection for and great collaboration with, my counterpart minister Sarkaria and more broadly, the government has extraordinary co-operation on a number of very, very important economic projects with Mr. Ford’s government. That will continue,” he said in Montreal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 29, 2026.

–With files from Erika Morris and Christopher Reynolds in Montreal

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press