With $4.3 billion already budgeted and no final price tag in sight, Ottawa is now hiring outside financial advisors to help oversee its long-promised high-speed rail line between Toronto and Québec City.In a notice to contractors, Transport Canada said it is seeking a financial advisor on an “as and when required” basis during the co-development phase of the project.“Transport Canada is seeking the services of a financial advisor … for its role during the co-development phase of the development of a high-speed rail network between Toronto and Québec City,” the notice stated, adding the department would provide guidance and direction as contract sponsor.Blacklock's Reporter says the advisory work will include reviewing and validating an updated business case, assessing financial analyses, monitoring construction costs and conducting ongoing cost-benefit reviews. No contract value was disclosed.The department said the contractor’s work would support Canada’s oversight role on the high-speed rail initiative, branded as Alto. Cabinet has so far committed $4.3 billion to the venture, though no total project cost or completion date has been made public.The latest version of the proposal was first unveiled February 19, 2025 by then-prime minister Justin Trudeau in his final days in office. It was later reannounced September 11 and again December 12 by Prime Minister Mark Carney..“Obviously future governments will make their determinations about how they spend,” Trudeau told reporters at the time. “But this investment in Canadians which starts right now is going to be very difficult to turn back on.”When asked what made the announcement different from previous pledges, Trudeau replied: “This is real now.”The proposal envisions electric trains travelling up to 300 kilometres per hour between Toronto and Québec City, with stops in Peterborough, Ottawa, Montréal and Laval. Cabinet aides have described it as the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history, promising travel times between Montréal and Toronto would be cut to three hours once operational.“Canada is getting high speed rail,” the government said in a statement, calling the service transformative for the economy.Yet the high-speed rail concept has been under study since 1967, when then-transport minister Paul Hellyer commissioned consultants to examine the feasibility of so-called bullet trains. Canadian National Railways later introduced turbine-powered “turbo trains” in 1968, promising faster passenger travel between Toronto and Montréal.On its inaugural run, a turbo train struck a freight truck at a level crossing in Kingston, Ont. The trains never achieved their advertised speeds, and the program was cancelled in 1979 due to high maintenance costs and unreliable service.Nearly six decades after the first feasibility studies, Ottawa is once again studying the numbers — this time with outside financial advisors — as it pushes ahead with a multi-billion dollar rail project still without a final cost or timeline.
