Speaking of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney not processing unwelcome information well, as we frequently are, he recently intoned that the absurd ALTO high-speed Laurentian rail project to blast through farmland and cottage country so people can get from Toronto to Montreal slightly faster is popular. Blacklock’s Reporter quotes him that “There is strong interest in getting Alto done” although it also notes that “In-house cabinet research shows taxpayers are wary of the venture managed by publicly-owned Alto Corporation.” In fact everything is wrong from its impact on property and the environment to its cost, an alleged $90 billion that in Canada is almost comically understated, to its rationale. So naturally Carney picked a guy with a proven track record of bungling such projects at huge cost to advise him.
As columnist Brian Lilley wrote:
“If ever there was a sign that the Alto project is destined for disaster, it’s the decision to hire former Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster.”
And why, you may ask if not from here, especially if here is Toronto? Well, you see:
“The former head of Metrolinx couldn’t get Toronto’s Crosstown LRT across the finish line, now he’s advising Ottawa on $150B high-speed rail project”.
And in Canadian governance, nothing succeeds like failure:
“Hired in 2017 at just over $500,000 a year, Verster continued collecting raises and bonuses while failing to deliver what was promised. His salary eventually topped out at $883,000 despite never delivering the Crosstown. In April 2023, as insiders in the Ford government pushed to boost Verster’s salary to more than $1 million a year, it was revealed that part of the reason for the Crosstown delay was that tracks had been improperly laid…. It was Verster who was in charge of that work and Verster who oversaw fixing it, two years after the track was laid and only after the problem was exposed in the media. Verster’s time at Metrolinx came to an end in late 2024, far too late to save taxpayers from the ridiculous delays and cost overruns, as well as his unjustified salary and expenses. It was only after he was gone that it was reported publicly that Verster had been collecting a car allowance of $13,392 per year despite not owning or leasing a car.”
And who among us? Well, who among them? Lilley further writes that:
“According to the Star, Verster’s role with Alto will be to advise on understanding regional transit dynamics in the Toronto area and help integrate high-speed rail into Toronto’s existing system. Still, given his track record with the Ontario government, it’s shocking that Verster is being allowed near the project at all. The same could have been said when the Wynne Liberals first hired him to run Metrolinx in 2017. Verster had been a managing director at ScotRail in Glasgow from May 2015 until February 2017. During his tenure with the Scottish rail company, there were problems with punctuality, reliability, overcrowded trains and a deterioration in labour relations. At one point, to deal with late trains, ScotRail solved the problem by having trains skip stations rather than stopping to pick up and drop off passengers.”
Would it be tactless to observe that Carney’s time in Britain, as governor of the Bank of England, also featured high pay and low performance? It seems to be a thing.
As Blacklocks further observes:
“The Prime Minister said the new railway would benefit all Canadians by connecting to regional VIA Rail routes. He did not elaborate. Records show VIA ridership peaked in 1981, prompting cuts to daily service from Vancouver to Halifax beginning in 1985.”
And anyone who’s ridden it knows delays are chronic, costs are excessive and fortunately there are cars, aeroplanes and buses. But the main point is how Carney’s bloviating style reveals a bloviated mind:
“Part of the value of Alto is it creates significant additional capacity. The integration of regional routes with that high speed rail will increase competition in all forms of transport and improve reliability and service. We are really going to the heart of it.”
Something to bear in mind, and beware of, with his whole overblown bureaucratic major-project hype and agencies, of which by the Opposition’s count there are now 13, all with jobs for insiders so at least the gravy train still serves lots of gravy though what exactly any of them has achieved remains misty. They’re forever saying stuff like “The federal government is committed to fighting climate change and reaching net-zero by 2050 by taking a pragmatic and durable approach. This includes building major clean energy projects across the country, driving mass electrification, and making significant investment in the low-carbon economy.” But when you get a press release “Canada breaks ground on North Coast Transmission Line to deliver clean power and reduce emissions” that burbles about “doubling our grid by 2050 to meet demand and secure sovereign power supply” remember that these guys can’t even run a railroad, though they can run it right through your cottage.
In the interest of disclosure, one of us is in the possible corridor and flies a “STOP ALTO” flag. But our main plan for stopping it is relying on the internal incompetence that makes it highly likely that the only thing that will be fast or high about it is the spending of public money.
