TORONTO – That did not take long! Before the fog was cleared from the camera lenses, critics began to heap scorn and criticism on Justin Trudeau’s announcement about a High-Speed Rail (HSR) route from Toronto to Quebec City (via Ottawa and Montreal, of course. 

Why this and why now? In the most optimistic scenario, he will be gone from the political scene on March 9. It may happen sooner if Chief Justice Paul Crampton renders a decision respecting the legitimacy of prorogation earlier.

That is not Mr. Trudeau’s only problem, the day (February 19) he felt it necessary to insinuate this policy gem into his Party’s Leadership race, an online journalism enterprise, the Bureau, released documents purporting to be obtained from the RCMP, though Access to Information (https://www.thebureau.news/p/explosive-new-rcmp-transcript-renews).

The document, in recounting [parts of] the Minister of Justice exchanges with Trudeau’s staff in the SNC Lavalin affair, suggests that he and his advisors may be open to obstruction of justice charges, as may be members of his senior staff now busily engaged in the leadership campaign of Mark Carney.

SNC Lavalin was experiencing legal difficulties at home and abroad related to its methodology for accessing government contracts. SNC would be one of the firms with an interest in the HSR, if the Liberals, under whoever, survive the next election and stay on track with the announcement. No pun intended.

Back to the project: it is worthy only if it can survive detailed scrutiny measured against a cost-benefit analysis that includes jobs, infrastructure, industrial development and so on.

Several press outlets staffed with senior journalist reliant on corporate memory, or able to access government relations people with expertise in the matter, immediately suggested that neither the cost estimates ($3.9 billion – 5% of what 26 feasibility studies suggested would be realistic), nor the timelines, nor the geographic terrain made sense. To suggest that this was a well-thought-out plan would evoke rounds of laughter capable of being heard worldwide.

During the period when my career compelled me to take an in-depth professional interest in Windsor-Quebec City proposals for a 1,300 km HSR (twenty five years ago), until I was retired from Political office (fourteen years ago), Italy drilled a tunnel through the Alps to connect with French terminus on the other side. China built 13,000 km of HSR to connect with Beijing, etc.

It did not help that Minister Anita Anand, in the Q/A after the announcement for an 800km line, said that construction would begin five years after the design stage. Not to denigrate her resolve, or that of the current Prime Minister, who knows where she and Mr. Trudeau will be five weeks from now – they have both effectively resigned from office.

After the 2008 election, I was assigned as vice-Chair of the House of Commons Transport Committee and Chair of the Sub-Committee on High- Speed Rail. We examined all the studies available to us; met with management of companies who might bid; visited their facilities or those of their partners in Canada; assessed the capacity to produce rails, our engineering capacity for rail stations and amenities; consulted on any land claims and so on. We were on a roll.

All the party leaders were on side because we took all their concerns nation-wide into account. Then I “was moved upstairs” to Chair the public Accounts Committee, before we could file a report.

It remains a viable project only if it extends from Windsor to Quebec City. Maybe the next government will take up the challenge.