The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - Mark Carney's Alto Train just BLEW UP in his Face!

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, Wyatt Claypool here, and welcome back to the National Telegraph YouTube channel.

00:00:06.220 I remember at one time there were conservative activists on social media saying that the

00:00:11.680 conservative party shouldn't criticize the alto train because it makes it look like they don't

00:00:16.840 want to build big projects. I always thought that that was a really dumb argument because 0.95

00:00:21.780 bad projects are bad. The Conservatives can still be in favor of major projects while also 0.92

00:00:30.300 criticizing a bad major project, a train that could cost from $60 to $90 billion and potentially

00:00:38.480 even up to $200 billion when it is finally complete. The Alto train is currently blowing

00:00:45.420 up in Prime Minister Mark Carney's face, because it turns out building a $90 billion train that

00:00:53.300 nobody really wants could become sort of controversial. Check out this clip from

00:00:59.840 Question Period yesterday, and then we're going to get into some other stuff about the train

00:01:03.840 that is not going very well for Prime Minister Mark Carney. You could say that the project is

00:01:10.340 currently off the rails unlike this prime minister pays his full tax bill here in canada he is paying

00:01:17.940 the price of this liberal recession the only country in the entire g20 that is in a recession

00:01:25.620 will the prime minister reverse the disastrous costly inflationary liberal policies that put this

00:01:32.260 electrician back in his mother's basement and put our country in recession or will he just

00:01:36.500 sit there and smirk i should have prefaced that where peer poly have started off there was not

00:01:42.020 about the train but now the liberal house leader is going to try and maneuver into the train to try

00:01:47.540 and brag the honorable uh government house leader uh the leader of the opposition should talk to

00:01:56.420 the national president of the international brotherhood of electrical workers who has

00:02:03.460 applauded systematically our approach to building big and building big projects in this country

00:02:11.700 including mr speaker the largest electrification of mobility in the history of this continent

00:02:20.020 which is a high-speed rail project which will employ more electricians than that guy could be

00:02:26.100 in 15 years ah so much spirit behind that answer to the conservative party leader but it turns out

00:02:35.780 the the train is not very popular not with canadians in general and not even with the

00:02:43.140 leading party currently in quebec provincial politics but first let's get to pier poliev

00:02:48.660 uh shooting down the triumphalism of steve mckinnon here and then we'll get into some

00:02:53.380 some of the details about the train.

00:02:58.240 The Honourable Leader of the Opposition.

00:03:00.560 15 years, this thing won't even be under construction for 15 years, Mr. Speaker.

00:03:05.480 And in the meantime, liberal insiders in sleazebags

00:03:09.420 will be stuffing their pockets with the tax dollars of Canadian electricians.

00:03:14.580 Already, there are 13 vice presidents

00:03:18.200 who have received $2.3 million of bonuses for a train

00:03:23.800 that won't even be under construction for over a decade.

00:03:27.760 And if it ever does, we'll cost $8,000 a family.

00:03:31.500 Why does he always plunder the pockets of workers

00:03:33.580 to help the Liberal insider elite?

00:03:36.200 I just want to comment you should be careful of the words we use

00:03:41.080 if you want to maintain the kind of decorum that Canadians expect from...

00:03:44.820 Really, sleazebags is too much.

00:03:48.200 for them i think it's a completely fine word to use it's a great adjective when describing people

00:03:55.240 cutting bonus checks to themselves for a project that i think on the fastest possible timeline 0.92

00:04:01.800 might start some you know initial construction in 2029 it's a stupid boondoggle if you actually

00:04:09.480 wanted to get a high-speed rail line done you could probably just start working on it within 0.58

00:04:13.800 the year. If you had all of the pathway already approved and all that stuff, maybe that would

00:04:19.480 take a year or so. But you would just start laying down track as soon as possible. But we're going to

00:04:24.880 consult over this for multiple years before even the most optimistic timeline for actually starting

00:04:32.320 to build it. And by the way, one of those 13 vice presidents is literally the spouse of the

00:04:39.040 Minister of Finance, Francois-Philippe Champagne, who is the environmental vice president, which is a

00:04:45.020 fakey-fake made-up job that she was only given two months before Parliament started pushing money

00:04:50.440 towards the project. That's odd. And also, the finance minister happened to fight tooth and nail

00:04:56.680 to prevent the Alto train from being cut out of the budget to be voted on separately, basically

00:05:02.180 saying, let's pass the rest of the budget, and then we'll remove a couple controversial elements

00:05:06.980 and vote on those separately so he can debate them.

00:05:09.580 Nope.

00:05:10.200 He fought to make sure that that didn't happen

00:05:12.180 and only disclosed months later

00:05:14.060 that he had a personal stake in the project

00:05:16.580 through his spouse. 0.92

00:05:18.160 Absolutely disgusting. 0.97

00:05:19.960 The Honorable Government House Leader. 0.88

00:05:22.860 See, Mr. Speaker, the core difference,

00:05:24.980 the core difference between the people

00:05:27.220 on this side of the House

00:05:28.860 and the leader of the opposition

00:05:30.700 and the people who read his questions is this.

00:05:34.180 We believe Canadians can do it.

00:05:36.980 We believe Canadians can create a project that will add 51,000 jobs to our economy, including thousands of electricians.

00:05:45.680 We believe we can add billions to our national economy with a transformative high-speed rail project, including, by the way, one that's going to be proposed in Alberta, Mr. Speaker.

00:05:59.160 We believe in the future of this country.

00:06:01.260 it's just such a lame thing to after the person points out some real financial problems with the

00:06:11.400 project like millions and bonuses already being put out despite the fact that it's going absolutely

00:06:17.240 nowhere right now you're just like he doesn't believe in the project enough as if the project

00:06:21.960 is like tinkerbell and we have to sit there clapping our hands and saying we believe in it 0.99

00:06:25.940 doing some care bear nonsense in order to make the stupid boondoggle train come to life 0.96

00:06:31.260 When I get into the details of how much travel time this really saves people, it's completely laughable that this is worth it at all. 0.98

00:06:39.480 It is probably more expensive to take the train than to just bring your vehicle to Quebec City where this train would be going towards.

00:06:48.040 I believe it ends in Quebec City.

00:06:49.360 And you would still have your car with you and you wouldn't have to Uber around once you get there.

00:06:53.220 It's just such a waste of money.

00:06:54.960 um the honorable leader of the opposition well apparently they don't believe in their prime

00:07:01.340 minister's ability to answer questions and defend his own economic record and we believe canadians

00:07:06.300 can do a lot of things too if this government would just get out of the way

00:07:09.440 anyways we're going into french questions so we don't need to actually go any further on that

00:07:15.340 but before i get into some of the details on the spending i do just want to quickly jump over to

00:07:22.060 this article from the CBC that says Quebec would withdraw from high-speed rail project if PQ forms

00:07:29.640 next government, party leader says. Down here we see the leader of the party Quebecois says if

00:07:36.280 elected, his government would prevent the province from being involved in the high-speed rail train

00:07:40.960 which would link Quebec City to Toronto. Paul Saint-Pierre Pallamondon said Tuesday the project

00:07:48.940 does not address the needs of Quebecers. Quote, the real problem with transit is not that Quebecers

00:07:53.480 can't efficiently commute to Toronto, but that they're unable to efficiently commute within

00:07:58.100 their own city, the party leader wrote in French on X. The first phase of construction for this

00:08:02.880 project, linking Montreal to Ottawa, is scheduled to begin in 2029. In all, Alto, the crown corporation

00:08:10.160 behind the project, is planning a 1,000-kilometer electric rail line between Toronto and Quebec City

00:08:15.340 with an estimated price tag of 60 to 90 billion dollars. Except they've already found that they

00:08:22.540 wouldn't even, that that is just the optimistic range. 90 billion could end up being a very small

00:08:31.500 figure compared to the 200 billion that other estimates have found that the train could cost. 0.95

00:08:36.840 And right here, this is the kicker of just how pathetic this project is. The rail network is 0.78

00:08:41.880 expected to take passengers from montreal to toronto in three hours about half the time it

00:08:47.280 takes to drive and at double the speed of via rails current trains stops are also planned in

00:08:52.940 peterborough ottawa laval and trois rivières okay and then it goes up to it mentions here the 200

00:09:01.220 billion that it could end up costing in a news release tuesday uh saint pierre palamondon said

00:09:06.120 he's concerned that the project could cost far more than than that pointing to a bloc quebecois

00:09:11.060 estimate of $200 billion for the project. If that ends up being accurate, Quebec could end up paying

00:09:15.940 $40 billion, roughly the province's contribution to federal revenues, the party says. So literally,

00:09:22.220 the amount of money that Quebec taxpayers pay to the federal government every year is what the

00:09:27.540 train could end up costing to, like, what? Maybe send a couple thousand people between Toronto and

00:09:35.160 Quebec City every single day? If that many. I wonder if that many people would be on the rail

00:09:40.200 line at all because the difference between six hours and three hours is not very much this isn't

00:09:48.200 exactly japan where to drive around the islands is a little bit tough and you're having to maneuver

00:09:54.620 around a lot of mountains and whatnot and going from tokyo to kyoto could actually be like six or

00:10:00.520 seven hours but on a bullet train you can get there in an hour and a half okay that's a real

00:10:05.660 savings. And it's actually a country with a lot of public transportation that works efficiently

00:10:12.960 and is built efficiently. We're going to be spending like four or five times the amount

00:10:18.660 that the Japanese spend on similar projects for what? We're a driving country. People drive around.

00:10:26.340 Once you get back city, you're probably going to have to take a few Ubers if you're actually there

00:10:30.420 for a while. So why not just drive and actually have your car with you and not have to pay the

00:10:35.200 ticket to get on the train. Yes, it's saving you gas money, but when we're really having to squint

00:10:40.900 and think about what is more efficient at the end of the day, it doesn't seem like it's worth

00:10:45.460 spending even the lowest estimate of $60 billion on this project. But now let's get into some of

00:10:52.920 the information on those bonuses and other problems with the project. So this is from the

00:10:58.140 Farmers Forum. Their headline here reads, Money Sucker, Alto high-speed train executives pay

00:11:04.200 themselves huge bonuses, spend $1.59 million to advertise a train that doesn't exist.

00:11:10.400 This is from James Pascal, and I will be linking the article in the description below and pinning

00:11:15.460 it at the top of the comments. It says here, Canadian taxpayers have paid $1.5 million to

00:11:21.180 advertise a high-speed train project that does not exist, but the wasting of taxpayer money

00:11:25.880 doesn't end there. Crown Corporation Alto tasked with developing the proposed $90 billion electric

00:11:32.480 train line linking Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, has so far spent $265.9 million

00:11:39.580 of its $1.3 billion budget. The advertising campaign, which began last October, promoted

00:11:46.160 a service that no one has asked for and is still years from constructing. The proposed service

00:11:53.160 ignores the rail service now only exists because of the government subsidies and that Canadians 0.54

00:11:58.540 live in a car culture. I want to go down here to the actual spending on bonuses because this is

00:12:04.200 quite egregious. It says, Alto employs 216 people, including 13 vice presidents, 44 directors,

00:12:11.080 and seven managers. All 13 vice presidents recently received bonuses. In fact, more than

00:12:16.900 half of the staff received bonuses for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The payout in bonuses was

00:12:22.760 2.76 million to 134 employees. On average, the 18 executives were each awarded $68,000

00:12:31.040 in one year for the high-speed train that doesn't exist. So yeah, based on the current

00:12:38.020 spending trajectories that we're seeing, it is laughable that we could come in within that $60

00:12:44.620 to $90 billion range. Now, the fact that the Bloc Québécois are signaling this thing could cost

00:12:50.720 $200 billion probably means that's kind of accurate because this is a project in theory

00:12:57.160 you think that Quebec MPs would be in favor of. It is a project made in Quebec, and it is a

00:13:04.160 socialistic party. The Bloc kept a car quite left on fiscal issues that are literally blowing the

00:13:10.800 horn on the costs here. If they are sounding the alarm, that means it's a big problem. So this

00:13:17.320 entire project that was supposed to be a big boon to mark carney's liberals as we're building

00:13:23.400 nation building major projects is now becoming something that's going to get them in trouble

00:13:28.400 with the current pq who are definitely going to be forming the next government

00:13:32.980 turns this entire thing into a giant political liability and i just want to show you just what

00:13:38.380 the current polling looks like in quebec so you understand it's not like this is like a second

00:13:43.380 place party or a party that's barely in first criticizing the project no no this this party

00:13:49.480 is firmly in the political driver's seat right now in quebec so this is the current 338 polling

00:13:57.840 numbers just to give you guys impression of what's going on now the b the quebec liberals are coming

00:14:03.540 up here right now, but it is currently on average PQ30, Quebec Liberals 28, CAQ 20, CPQ 13, and the

00:14:13.800 Quebec Solid there at eight. The PCQ is the Quebec Conservatives. CAQ is the, you know, the vehicle

00:14:21.120 from former Quebec Premier, what is it, Francois Legault. This is what they currently look like.

00:14:27.940 so pq plus two liberal s8 tie pq1 tie pq3 it's pretty all over the place the pq used to be

00:14:36.800 leading far more but i still think that they're going to be probably able to win this next election

00:14:41.880 and in fact if they have to form a coalition government they're going to be forming a coalition

00:14:47.540 with other quebec separatists like the solidaire or with nationalists like the caq or even if they

00:14:55.200 want to work with the conservatives which seems very unlikely they are anti the train currently

00:15:00.400 the only people pro train are in sometimes first place although i wouldn't quite believe that main

00:15:06.540 street research number uh or they are in second place amongst a bunch of other parties that are

00:15:13.540 very anti-train there are 28 of quebec voters that are effectively voting for a pro train party

00:15:20.400 So not a great look right now for Prime Minister Mark Carney.

00:15:23.860 And then mentioning Steve McKinnon, mentioning the potential for a high-speed rail line between Calgary and Edmonton.

00:15:31.560 No.

00:15:32.500 No, we're not building a high-speed rail line between Calgary and Edmonton.

00:15:36.140 That would be a massive waste of taxpayer money.

00:15:39.160 We're a driving province.

00:15:40.780 What are you going to do?

00:15:41.840 Cut down the commuting time to one hour rather than two hours?

00:15:46.080 It's not that long of a drive, and I think people can handle it.

00:15:49.400 it's just one of those things I every time people push these like transportation projects and talk

00:15:54.760 about how convenient it would be they never actually seem to consider if the money actually

00:16:00.660 offsets the convenience element sure build trains everywhere it costs zero dollars it doesn't cost

00:16:06.540 zero dollars and we actually have to live in the meat world down here of you know physical reality

00:16:12.620 with things that can be touched we actually have to figure out if all the steel money and time

00:16:19.240 is worth slightly reducing commutes for people who probably only drive every once in a while

00:16:25.000 between Toronto and Quebec City. Anyways, with all that being said, thank you guys for watching

00:16:30.440 this video. Make sure to like, share, subscribe, and I'll see you all next time.

The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - June 10, 2026

Mark Carney's Alto Train just BLEW UP in his Face!

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