Durant Barristers Opposes the Alto High-Speed Rail Project and Makes Submission as Part of Flawed Consultation Process

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: APRIL 25, 2026

As our friends and family know well, Durant Barristers and our founder Erin Durant are located in the Alto high-speed rail study corridor in the first construction corridor between Ottawa and Montreal. As one of the few notable litigation law firms in the region, we have been hearing regularly from community members looking for assistance and are providing referrals as necessary.

We are not able to represent you in matters involving Alto as we ourselves have significant concerns regarding this project, have personal economic interests tied to the study corridor and are unexpected and unwilling witnesses to the failed consultation process ourselves. We share your concerns about the project, the way in which this consultation has been handled and the way in which our community and economic interests have been ignored in Alto's consultation materials.

House for sale on the same street as Ms. Durant's. The "reduced price" notice is a sign of things to come throughout the region. Driving by this house is a daily reminder of what our entire community has been dealing with.

Here is a link to the brief that Ms. Durant submitted to Alto, with a copy to various elected officials, as part of the consultation. It focuses on the flawed consultation, raises legal and democratic concerns about the intended expropriation process, attempts to explain how upset and offended the entire region is about the way in which this consultation was conducted, the lack of information provided and the lack of consideration for the economic interests of rural Eastern Ontario individuals, businesses and communities. It also identifies the real lost development opportunities that have already been experienced in our communities as a result of the unusualy aggressive land grab and kilometres wide study corridor stretching across most of our communities. Our brief calls for the project to be cancelled and for independent reviews into unexplained and problematic developments that turned this project from a net-benefit to rural eastern Ontario to a project that offers only emotional harm, economic distress and civil unrest.

A follow up letter is being prepared that will be sent to politicians at the Federal, Provincial and Municipal levels. Ms. Durant's prior attempt to have a discussion or meaningful debate about this issue in-person at the Liberal Convention in Montreal was unsuccessful as only two questions about the proposed rail policy was permitted and Ms. Durant was the next person in line to ask questions when the debate was cut off. Ms. Durant has subsequently resigned her membership and is no longer wishes to be associated with the Liberal Party of Canada as a result of this project and how the Government of Canada, Alto and Cadence have ignored and continually insulted our local communities.

For those looking for free legal information about how expropriations work and how the expropriation process will work for properties impacted by Alto, these websites contain accurate and reliable information written by expropriation lawyers:

• Davies Howe Article: https://davieshowe.com/bill-c-15-key-changes-to-the-federal-expropriation-act-for-high-speed-rail-projects/

  
  

• Aird and Berlis Article: https://www.airdberlis.com/insights/news/news-item/high-speed-rail-corridor--ajay-gajaria-highlights-expropriation-impacts

  
  

• SOK LLP Article: https://sokllp.com/2026/01/13/bill-c-15-key-changes-to-the-expropriation-law-framework-in-canada/

We also appreciate the effort being made by various volunteer community groups who have been releasing well-researched information for the benefit of the public. We recommend these websites in particular for those trying to quickly get up to speed on the issues and for those looking for public records, government documents and a history of events.

• Alto High Speed Rail Citizen Research: https://altohsrcitizenresearch.ca: by far the best source of information about this project with links to government committee reports, hearing transcripts, prior studies, debates, links to key announcements, various documents obtained from ATIP requests and more.

  
  

• Save South Frontenac: https://savesouthfrontenac.ca: this group has also conducted a lot of research and has produced various studies. They have done an excellent job documenting failures with the consultation, the lack of support throughout their community and they have been tracking municipal and community group resistance using helpful visuals.

  
  

• AltNo: https://www.altno.ca/resources: this group is also assembling infromation and providing it to the public. They also track and share statements made by municipal officials and are important grassroots community organizers.

  
  

• Video Recording of Community Meeting in Navan: this event was organized by various concerned members of the community and had nearly 500 people attend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=TWB41H0TdN3ldpdG&fbclid=IwY2xjawRZz7RleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeubRFFfLvA5F7ypNXDle1-V6sG5s2lI7WW9gNmUeeG594f0XdflCvUDGimoE_aem__b1Zv9TByoLwR9NMHyfhqA&v=gjI7nE7iTBQ&feature=youtu.be

• Recording of an Alto Online consultation session recorded by a community member (Alto did not record or share any of the sessions on their website): https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=uKlu3mt7QGA&fbclid=IwY2xjawRZ0ZJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe7JNj9hqaNFD3Th_KXTv73LBG2Y28K3SKalQGKpc70ZUkAJyAhpdo6j6Y-zg_aem_k-f5yv38rwdC4BIbadWeYA

  
  

AltoNo has also included links where residents can locate mental health supports. Unfortunately, we have heard from many in the community who have been under significant emotional distress. Hopefully some of these resources can be of assistance.

We personally thank these engaged, volunteer, non-partisan citizen groups for their high quality research and their efforts made in making ATIP requests and making material available online that Alto, the Minister of Transportation and the Federal Government have chosen not to disclose to concerned citizens proactively. These groups have produced high quality work and far more information, research, defensible data and historical context than anything that can be found on Alto's website.

Alto should be embarrassed that these citizens have significantly outperformed a well-funded crown corporation who has published only this information brochure to justify a nearly $100 billion project. An explanation should be provided to the public explaining the lack of available information and an apology should be provided to the citizens who live in the first development segment. Compare what Alto has produced with the detailed information that was available for the HFR project, and you will see why everyone in the first segment of the study corridor is so angry and upset. Expropriations are set to occur imminently at the end of this year and there has been zero evidence put forward that demonstrates that this is an economically viable project. No useful information or public analysis justifying decisions has been made publicly available at all.

We recognize that our community is desperate for accurate, high quality information about this project and that the community is not currently getting it from Alto, Cadence or the Federal Government. We feel your frustration and have had similar frustrations ourselves as we waste well over a hundred thousands of dollars of our time trying to find the most basic details about this project and its history. We are in the process of organizing a free, online information session with experienced expropriation lawyers who will present basic legal information, answer common questions that communities tend to have in these situations and will give everyone a better idea of what to expect if you do get a notice of expropriation. I expect that session will occur before mid-June. It will be recorded and made available to individuals throughout the study corridor. At this juncture, our advice to the community is to continue your grassroots organizing and to direct your efforts, communications and meetings towards provincial and federal politicians over the summer. Write personal letters, attend meetings where they will be in attendance to make them aware of your views (even if the meetings are about other issues), call the office of your MP and MPP and make sure your neighbours are all aware of the project. It may also be useful to spend time trying to explain the reasons for our objections to individuals who live outside of the study corridor. Individuals who are not directly impacted have not spent the time we have looking at this project and the case put forward in support of it. People are shocked to hear about the failures of the consultation and specifics of this train's requirements and lack of service to rural Eastern Ontario.

The immediate goal needs to be for there to be an immediate stop to expropriation efforts until significantly more information is made available to the public that demonstrates that this is a realistic project that will actually be built and for there to be proper public political debate exploring why the HFR project that actually benefited this region was abandoned in favour of this more expensive, more intrusive option that provides only economic harm to rural Eastern Ontario, its businesses, its local rural developers and its residents.