Carney Puts $4.7 Billion Into VIA Cars Built in Canada

Mark Carney: “Cars once made in the United States, now made here at home.” Ottawa is putting more than $4.7 billion into VIA Rail for 313 new passenger cars from Alstom Canada. Manufacture and assembly land in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and La Pocatière, Québec. Design and engineering sit in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville. First time in four decades the Crown corporation’s cars are built in Canada.

The package is the largest investment in VIA’s history. Nearly 700 jobs in Ontario and Québec. More than $1.6 billion in economic benefits. Alstom taps a network of more than 900 Canadian suppliers and maximises Canadian steel in structural assemblies. Buy Canadian is the frame: contract at home, paycheques at home, steel at home.

Some of the long-distance, regional and remote fleet is more than 70 years old. The new cars cover eight routes outside the Québec City–Windsor Corridor, across eight provinces, including communities with few alternatives. Dining cars, panorama cars and sleepers stay in the mix, with modern amenities and better accessibility. In 2025 more than 216,000 passengers rode those routes.

Add the recent $1.95 billion for 45 Stadler locomotives and a Montréal assembly and maintenance plant, and federal fleet renewal tops $6.6 billion. Industrial policy dressed as passenger rail. The cars used to cross the border. Now the plant does.