Alto (VIA HFR – VIA TGF Inc.) is a federal Crown corporation and wholly owned subsidiary of VIA Rail incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA) by the Trudeau government in 2022 with a mandate to provides the strategic vision and oversight for the Government of Canada on the Alto High-Speed Rail (HSR) project:
develop and implement the High Frequency Rail project, including the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of passenger rail services in Ontario and Quebec through one or more agreements with the private sector, in cooperation with the Minister of Transport
Order in Council
VIA Rail is the federal Crown corporation mandated to operate the national passenger rail services on behalf of the Government of Canada.
Agent of the Crown
Alto operates at arm’s-length from VIA Rail and acts as a dedicated project office for the HSR Initiative. It is an “Agent of the Crown“, a legal status held by some Crown corporations (like Alto) but not others (like VIA) which gives it additional immunities and privileges:
A Crown corporation that has agent status enjoys the constitutional immunities, privileges and prerogatives that are enjoyed by the Crown and can bind the Crown by its acts.
The Crown is ultimately fully liable and financially exposed for all actions and decisions by its agent corporation while the corporation is operating within its mandate. In other words, the corporation’s assets and liabilities are the assets and liabilities of the government.
For a non-agent corporation, the government is not legally liable for the specific actions of the corporation, unless the corporation acts under explicit direction of the Crown, and has, in the eyes of a court, created a common-law principal-agent relationship.
Agent status and Crown corporations
Accountability
Alto is accountable to Parliament through the Minister of Transport who maintains an arm’s length distance from the day-to-day operations of the corporation while fulfilling his obligations under Canada’s governance and accountability regime for Crown corporations – Financial Administration Act, CBCA, and government-wide Crown corporation policies and practices.
