New brake on the development of public transit in the region. Millions of dollars in subsidies promised by Quebec last year remain caught in the gears, to the chagrin of municipalities and organizations located outside major centers.
According to information compiled by The duty, the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ) is still withholding a portion of the sums it had to pay under the Assistance Program for the Development of Public Transit (PADTC), tabled last November. This ended at the end of March.
Without being able to accurately quantify the needs of its members, the Union of adapted and collective transport of Quebec (UTACQ) estimates that many of them are in the red by an average of $200,000 or $300,000. In Lanaudière, for example, the MRC de Montcalm has still not received the amount of $285,000 it expects from Quebec.
“It’s not necessarily new, but there, [ne rien recevoir] until the end of April, it’s unheard of,” notes the chairman of the UTACQ board of directors, Marc-André Avoine.
The MTQ was “late” by filing the terms of its subsidies in November, he agrees. But in the regions, where incomes are more limited, the delays hit hard. “We are at the end of our resources,” says Mr. Avoine. We are now wondering about the ability to maintain services for the future. »
In Charlevoix, we fear service cuts. The Charlevoix Collective Mobility Corporation, which provides public and adapted transit services from Petite-Rivière-Saint-François to Baie-Sainte-Catherine, had to assume nearly a month and a half with its “own cash”, observes its general manager, Nancy Tremblay.
“Our financial requests were made on time, but no sum has come down yet,” she says. The Corporation, she continues, is pending “over a million dollars” to date.
Paratransit too
The problems don’t stop there, according to Marc-André Avoine. Several MRCs report that in adapted services too, the money is sleeping in the coffers. “The majority” of UTACQ members are still waiting for “between $100,000 and $200,000” to arrive safely from the Paratransit Subsidy Program, launched in April 2021 by the MTQ.
“We got a bit fooled,” says Nancy Tremblay.
In smaller organizations, says Mr. Avoine, “we’ve run out of steam.” “What has happened in recent months is that the municipal sector has advanced the grant from the ministry. Then it didn’t happen everywhere. So we have choices to make: do I pay for my gas? I pay my drivers? I pay my suppliers? “, he underlines.
The Charlevoix Collective Mobility Corporation has gotten away with it so far, reports Nancy Tremblay. However, each day more and more without seeing the color of the subsidies, the organization gets closer to a request for emergency aid from the MRC. “Are the mayors going to agree to pay me $500,000?” she asks aloud. There could be risks of service disruption. »
“Regional Government”
The Ministry of Transport had not responded to our questions at the time of this writing. Quebec still launched a special program during the pandemic – the Emergency Assistance Program for Public Transportation – supposed to compensate for the losses of organizations and municipalities. The Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority, which covers Greater Montreal, also claims to have been fairly compensated in 2021.
“These sums have not compensated for the lack of subsidies. We received $50,000 in total,” observes Nancy Tremblay.
Last week, the Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel, made a live announcement from Mont-Joli, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent, to confirm his intentions to offer round-trip plane tickets at $500 to Quebecers wishing to travel in the region. On several occasions since coming to power, Prime Minister François Legault has prided himself on leading a “government of the regions”.
“Clearly we are pursuing a dichotomy between wishes and realities,” says Marc-André Avoine. In more colorful language, it looks like ankle boots don’t follow your lips. »