When Quebec delays the work of the 2nd link

For a government that says it cares about public finances and traffic between Quebec and Lévis, the Legault government is making very bizarre calculations.

On the one hand, he wants to spend 6.5 billion for a third link which has an anemic profitability in terms of transport.

On the other hand, it refuses to pay 2.7 million per year more to ensure the sustainability of the second link – the Quebec Bridge – for decades.

The situation is surreal.

In the file of the bridge of Quebec, instead of making the best decision for the people of Quebec, the CAQ prefers to break sugar on the back of Ottawa.

“The agreement [proposée par Ottawa] is not good. We are not going to accept that, ”said one of the ministers of the Legault government, Jonatan Julien, this week.

Here is that “bad deal”: Quebec would pay roughly the amount it would have paid the current owner (CN), Ottawa would add $285 million, and the people of Quebec would have a renovated bridge that could last for decades.

Ottawa estimates the cost of the work needed to ensure the bridge’s durability at $785 million. His latest offer: Quebec would pay 375 million in rent, CN, 125 million in rent and Ottawa, 285 million as owner¹. It’s a reasonable proposition. Unless the unacknowledged objective of the Legault government is to: a) bicker at all costs with Ottawa, b) fabricate an additional argument to justify the third link, c) a and b.

For 15 years, Quebec City has been trying to find a solution to ensure the longevity of the Quebec Bridge, owned by the CN rail company since 1993. (From 1917 to 1993, Ottawa owned the bridge.)

In the very long term, CN does not really want the bridge because of the major work to be done. He wants to give it away for less than a song.

The Quebec government, the main user since 1949, does not want to own the bridge. (In 1949, Quebec had asked Ottawa to adapt part of the bridge for cars, and paid each year to rent the bridge. It still rents it today so that cars can pass.)

There were no potentially interested buyers… until Justin Trudeau’s Liberals promised to settle the Quebec Bridge file in 2015. Even though the federal government sold almost all of its bridges in 1993 (it kept important bridges in Quebec) and that he hasn’t bought any since.

Seven years later, Ottawa is about to make the transaction with CN to buy the Quebec Bridge. Except that it stumbles because Quebec and Ottawa do not agree on the distribution of the costs of the work to be done, after two years of discussion.

In 2012, Quebec signed a new lease with CN renewable every 10 years to use the Quebec Bridge. CN and Quebec pay for the work according to their proportion of use of the bridge. This year, Quebec paid $7 million in rent to CN.

Next year, according to our information, the rent in Quebec should normally be nine million a year.

To buy the bridge, Ottawa sets a condition: its only two users, Quebec and CN, must pay rent for at least 25 years.

Ottawa asks Quebec for a rent of – get this – 11.7 million per year (this amount will be indexed over the years). That is about 2.7 million more than currently.

But now, Quebec refuses to negotiate with the federal government… as long as it does not buy the bridge.

The feds aren’t crazy. He wants to settle the long-term rent right away, not argue with Quebec every 10 years. Above all, he does not want to take the risk that Quebec will stop paying him rent after 10 years (this would be possible under the current lease). Knowing full well that the federal government would never dare to close the bridge and would be taken to bear all the costs alone.

And no, Ottawa does not intend to make this rent a precedent for other federal bridges. Quebec would only pay rent for the Quebec Bridge, as it has done since 1949.

In short, if Ottawa were not in the picture, Quebec would pay nine million a year to CN so that cars travel on a bridge with no guarantee of long-term sustainability. With Ottawa in the background, Quebec does not want to pay 11.7 million a year for a renovated bridge that could last, with a bit of luck, 60 more years.

As proof of its bad faith in this matter, the Legault government can hardly do better.

Last month, speaking of his third link, Prime Minister François Legault spoke of a “replacement link”, a reference to the two bridges which are aging.

That the Legault government consciously scuttles the takeover of the second link by Ottawa – for political reasons, to boost its third link, or because it no longer knows how to count – it is a blow below the belt.

Quebec does not want to buy the bridge. Perfect. But let him stop putting obstacles in the way of Ottawa. And that we find a long-term solution once and for all.

1: Quebec would also pay 200 million to redo the “deck”, ie the part of the bridge under the asphalt for car traffic. Quebec will pay these 200 million if CN remains the owner.