The creation of the Mobilité Infra Québec agency paves the way for a “revolution”, according to the Minister of Transport, where the opposition suspects, on the contrary, a “major centralization operation” that risks further politicizing transport issues and encroaching on the areas of jurisdiction of cities.
The study of Bill 61, the legislative piece that provides for the creation and supervision of Mobilité Infra Québec, began Tuesday in parliamentary committee. The new agency, long touted by its creator, Minister Geneviève Guilbault, must eventually become responsible for carrying out “opportunity analyses, planning or carrying out complex transportation projects” at the government’s request.
Since “the appetite for public transit is relatively new in Quebec,” explained the minister, her department does not have the experience to design or manage major public transit projects. The government sees, in the emergence of “a small team with very specific expertise,” a way to dream bigger, cheaper and faster in this area.
It seems to be a trend. I just hope that one day, we will not change the name of the Coalition avenir Québec to Agence Avenir Québec.
“This will revolutionize the way we develop public transportation,” says the elected official from Louis-Hébert. “We can expect,” she stressed, “a substantial reduction in public funds invested in infrastructure.”
“Great arrogance,” according to the opposition
The opposition parties see it differently. The Nelligan MP, Liberal Monsef Derraji, mocked this umpteenth agency created by the Coalition avenir Québec, whose much-vaunted promises will, according to him, be slow to materialize.
“It seems to be a trend,” he said ironically at the opening of the proceedings. “I just hope that one day, we will not change the name of the Coalition avenir Québec to Agence Avenir Québec.”
His colleague from Taschereau, Solidaire Étienne Grandmont, instead denounces “a major centralization operation” marked by “great arrogance” toward cities and their transportation companies. “We can’t talk about Bill 61 without putting the last year into context,” he said. “In the last year, the minister has been very harsh toward municipalities: she called them incompetent, she imposed performance audits on transportation companies, they were called ‘beggars.'”
The elected representative for the Magdalen Islands, the PQ member Joël Arseneau, for his part, recalled that his former colleague Sylvain Gaudreault had proposed, under the Marois government, the creation of an agency aimed at “depoliticizing” transportation in Quebec.
“It[était] quite the opposite, he stressed, of what we see in this bill.” According to him, Mobilité Infra Québec, dependent on the decrees and mandates that the government will give it, will not enjoy the autonomy desired by the former PQ Minister of Transport.
Encroachment of the municipal world
The Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ) is concerned about the unilateral powers that the bill plans to grant to Mobilité Infra Québec. Bill 61 provides that the agency can, for example, begin a project without the approval of the municipalities concerned and impose the contribution that a city must pay to finance a transportation project on its territory.
So many “swords of Damocles” hanging over municipalities, according to Solidarity MP Étienne Grandmont, and which are “not acceptable” in the eyes of the UMQ.
“The example that often comes to mind is the extension of the metro in Laval,” said its president, Martin Damphousse. “The City of Laval did not contribute: lucky! he said about this project costing $745 million. If it had had to contribute, even just 10%, imagine the impact on the tax bill.”
The Association des constructeurs de routes et de grands travaux du Québec (ACRGTQ) and the Pomerleau company welcomed the creation of Mobilité Infra Québec, which is capable of concentrating expertise and providing greater predictability in transportation. “We see the agency as the common thread that will better equip the construction industry,” said Sophie Morin, vice-president of Pomerleau. “Certain elements,” qualified the ACRGTQ’s general manager, Gisèle Bourque, “however, raise questions.”
The bill does not, for example, outline any definition of the “complexity” of the projects that will be the responsibility of Mobilité Infra Québec. This notion would deserve to be specified, according to the association, since the current vagueness “could encompass all of the work carried out by our members.”
The Quebec Federation of Municipalities expresses the same wish to “ensure that the expertise of Mobilité Infra Québec can be used for regional projects”, and not only those in large centres.