Letter: Rideau Waterway Land Trust opposes potential southern route of high-speed rail line
Editor’s note: The following is a submitted letter to the editor regarding the potential southern route proposed for the Alto high-speed rail corridor. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Lanarkist.
To the editor,
Rideau Waterway Land Trust (RWLT) has helped the community protect environmentally sensitive lands in the Ottawa–Kingston corridor for over 30 years. Most of the properties we steward were donated by landowners or purchased with the support of community donors. RWLT pledged to protect these lands in perpetuity, often under strict terms of the federal Ecological Gifts Program.
The attached map (above) shows that 17 of the Trust’s 25 properties fall within the southern route of the proposed Alto high-speed rail corridor. If this route proceeds, the impacts could be significant. Lands the community invested in, in good faith, to preserve forever may face ecosystem degradation or even expropriation. This concern is heightened by the dense cluster of conserved properties in the Rideau Lakes area, which creates a natural choke point of sensitive lakes and protected wetlands — conditions unsuitable for high-speed rail.
RWLT’s lands are part of a broader network that creates connectivity with properties protected by governments, conservation authorities, non-profits, and other land trusts. Organizations such as A2A and FABN have spent decades strengthening ecological connectivity in the UNESCO Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve. This region forms a critical land bridge between Algonquin and Adirondack Parks — one of the last intact forest corridors in North America — and contains one of Canada’s highest concentrations of species at risk, with more than 50 at-risk species found here.
Rail service that reduces greenhouse gas emissions is a laudable goal, but the southern route risks creating a new barrier across this landscape. Mitigation measures may be proposed, but the wildlife crossings required for a truly permeable corridor may be prohibitively expensive or infeasible. Given the environmental impacts, the southern route should be abandoned or substantially rerouted. We urge the federal government not to let expediency lead to poor decisions that result in the degradation of critical habitats and wildlife corridors.
John Grass
Board Chair, RWLT