(Quebec) After accusing François Legault of “politicizing” the Ministry of Transport, Éric Duhaime continued his campaign in Quebec City on Monday with another show of force in the riding of La Peltrie, where he hopes to dislodge the CAQ minister Éric Caire.
Updated yesterday at 11:11 p.m.
“Mr. Legault hides studies on the third link because they don’t suit his business,” he told his many supporters crowded into the Boston Pizza bar in L’Ancienne-Lorette in the evening.
The leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec then attacked Minister Éric Caire, who is seeking a new mandate in La Peltrie. Mr. Caire said he was ready to resign in 2018 if the construction of the third link did not begin in a first term of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ). He had made this statement in an interview with the FM93 radio station. Éric Duhaime took care to play the excerpt in front of his galvanized supporters.
Today, the construction hasn’t even started, it’s not even the same project anymore and they don’t even have the start of a study to justify their new project.
Éric Duhaime, leader of the PCQ
Éric Duhaime is campaigning in the regions of Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches on the construction of a bridge worth at least 3 billion to connect the two shores east of the national capital. The CAQ is instead proposing a $6.5 billion tunnel made up of two tubes to avoid crossing Île d’Orléans.
The MTQ “politicized” by Legault
From the start of the day, he accused the head of the CAQ and outgoing Prime Minister, François Legault, of having “politicized” the Quebec Ministry of Transport (MTQ). “Who asked to remove from the website a study of the Ministry of Transport on the third link which was done in 2018? “, he asked at a press conference.
He personally filed two requests for access to information at the MTQ offices to urgently obtain all the studies on the third link project between Quebec and Lévis, and on the safety of the Pierre-Laporte bridge. François Legault had admitted on Friday that no study had been carried out for his four-lane motorway tunnel project.
An “opportunity study” evoking five scenarios for a bridge or tunnel between the south shore and the north shore of the St. Lawrence River had recently disappeared from the MTQ website, as reported by The Press a few days ago, only to reappear the next day. This analysis was carried out under the Liberals at a cost of 8.4 million by the firms Stantec, Tetra Tech and Hatch in 2018.
At least seven contracts for external studies, the cost of which amounts to 28 million, were granted by the MTQ in the file of the third link. Six of the seven studies were commissioned during the CAQ’s mandate.
If he wanted to kill the third link, he would do exactly what he is doing. It’s irresponsible. People realize that for four years it was a bluff.
Éric Duhaime, leader of the PCQ
“Mr. Duhaime is saying nonsense once again,” reacted the caquiste leader and outgoing Prime Minister, François Legault, in the afternoon. He repeated that studies “are in progress”. “When they are going to be over, they will be over,” he said.
Éric Duhaime gave the MTQ seven days to provide him with the documents in order to make them public before the October 3 election. The deadline provided by the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information is a maximum of 20 days, but the department may request additional time, so responding to a request can sometimes take months.
With Tommy Chouinard, The Press