The Alliance Transit will release a new report on Tuesday, deploring the underfunding of public transit in Quebec, particularly compared to the road network and to Ontario. She implores the next government to diversify the sources of funding, while the political parties multiply the announcements in the electoral campaign.
“The next government is going to have to do more to fund transportation networks in a sustainable way,” says Samuel Pagé-Plouffe, coordinator of the Alliance Transit, which brings together some sixty organizations, such as Équiterre, Trajectoire Québec and Vivre en Town.
The next government will have to do more to sustainably fund transport networks
The report, of which The duty obtained a copy, demonstrates that the surpluses of the Terrestrial Transport Network Fund (FORT) — a Quebec government fund that finances public transit and road transportation — should continue to decrease, and that they risk being “resorbed completely” for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. This will result in a “depletion of the fiscal space” of the government, according to Transit.
“Within two years, if we look at the trends, the fund may be empty,” sums up Samuel Pagé-Plouffe.
The Alliance also deplores the fact that, of the investments in transportation confirmed in the Quebec Infrastructure Plan for the next ten years, only 30% are allocated to public transportation, the rest being reserved for road transportation. In Ontario, public transit represents 71% of the investments in the province’s “Capital Plan”, recalls the Alliance Transit report.
“We cannot continue to put so much money into the road network, because we are encouraging urban sprawl and the use of the solo car,” says Florence Junca-Adenot, professor at UQAM, a transport specialist. public and member of the expert committee of Transit.
Rather, it proposes an equal distribution between the two, and to “promote the maintenance” of the road network, instead of proposing “too many” new projects, to allow more space for public transport.
Required solutions
Municipalities, also partly responsible for financing public transit, also plan to incur a deficit in this regard of $460 million per year from 2024, according to the Union of Quebec Municipalities. Last May, the provincial government therefore undertook to agree to a five-year financial agreement to offset this deficit and ensure the development of public transit in Quebec.
“This agreement, which will be negotiated at the start of the term, is fundamental to getting us out of underfunding,” says Samuel Pagé-Plouffe.
He specifies that a diversification of the sources of income of the FORT is also essential, since if nothing changes, they could be called upon to decrease, whereas “nearly half of the income comes from the fuel tax” and that all vehicles will be electric within two decades.
The Alliance is also in favor of an increased financial contribution (penalty) for owners of polluting vehicles, and supports a recommendation by the Montreal Metropolitan Community to extend the vehicle registration tax to all municipalities in Quebec. “I do not understand why it is so difficult to implement such measures”, indignant Mme Junca-Adenot.
The professor also proposes that “two-thirds of the revenue from the carbon tax go to public transport”. The government of François Legault reduced this share to 25% earlier this year.
The Alliance Transit should also specify its recommendations to diversify the sources of financing for public transit in Quebec “in the coming months”, according to Mr. Pagé-Plouffe.
“Threatened” ambitions
The latter welcomes Quebec’s Sustainable Mobility Policy, which notably provides for an increase in the supply of public transit services by 5% per year.
The Plan for a Green Economy [du gouvernement provincial] is also ambitious in terms of the development of public transport, but we can’t wait to see structuring public transport projects accelerate,” he adds.
Mr. Pagé-Plouffe believes, however, that certain “recent positions threaten compliance with the targets”, while the budgets allocated to new road transport projects, such as the third Quebec City link, could prove to be too overwhelming in his opinion: “We can definitely do more. »