yup. It no doubt need blasting, but MTO has built plenty of freeways through similar terrain on the relative cheap. Blasting in the grand scheme of things actually isn't all that expensive.
I mean.. it's not hard to shove a few sticks of dynamite down a hole and then plow it out of the way:
In Fact.. this process is likely far cheaper than buying the more expensive land to the south. It wouldn't surprise me if a decent chunk of the alignment east of Peterborough is literally still crown land and doesn't even need expropriation.