Discussion · Government Orders
Jean-Denis Garon Bloc Québécois
“The Alto train project does not have a real business plan. A study shows it will have 15 million fewer passengers than claimed, and it will need over $50 billion in subsidies. Taxpayers are right to worry about how much this project will cost.”
“Madam Speaker, there is no business plan. We ask questions and Alto responds by spending millions of dollars on advertising instead of giving us the facts. For the first full year of operation, according to McGill University researchers, Alto is overestimating the number of passengers by 15 million per year. According to the McGill University study, over the years and in today’s dollars, more than $50 billion will have to be spent on subsidies, just to keep this project going. The government is going to have to pay 15% of the project’s costs up front. The government is going to have to expropriate more land than they need so they can sell it back to developers to fund 15% of the project’s costs. That is if there are no cost overruns, and there will be cost overruns. Let us see how they work. Let us see how they approach people. Aside from the expropriations, my constituents and all Quebeckers and Canadians are right to be worried about Alto when it comes to their taxes.”
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Madam Speaker, there is no business plan. We ask questions and Alto responds by spending millions of dollars on advertising instead of giving us the facts. For the first full year of operation, according to McGill University researchers, Alto is overestimating the number of passengers by 15 million per year. According to the McGill University study, over the years and in today’s dollars, more than $50 billion will have to be spent on subsidies, just to keep this project going. The government is going to have to pay 15% of the project’s costs up front. The government is going to have to expropriate more land than they need so they can sell it back to developers to fund 15% of the project’s costs. That is if there are no cost overruns, and there will be cost overruns. Let us see how they work. Let us see how they approach people. Aside from the expropriations, my constituents and all Quebeckers and Canadians are right to be worried about Alto when it comes to their taxes.