(Quebec) Régis Labeaume’s tramway project remains on track in Quebec. The new mayor of Quebec is accelerating the pace and will inject nearly 300 million in 2022, even if he has expressed reservations and says he wants at all costs to avoid the “errors of Ottawa”.
“We said we believed in the tram and we are working very hard to ensure that this tram arrives on time with the improvements we have proposed,” said Bruno Marchand on Tuesday when unveiling his first budget.
The mayor presented a budget in the continuity, with a tax increase of 2.2% in line with inflation and a decrease in the debt of 10 million.
An interesting measure, Quebec will abolish late fees in all its libraries, retroactively, because they are, in the words of the mayor, “a problem for the most disadvantaged clienteles”.
The City intends to spend 284 million for the tramway in 2022, in particular to prepare the streets to accommodate the rails. Since the announcement of the project in 2018, 226 million had been devoted to it.
This means that, by the end of next year, half a billion will have been injected into this important public transport project valued at 3.3 billion. The City presents it as the most important investment in its history.
But even if millions are raining, the new mayor does not hide his concerns about the failures of the Ottawa light rail, marked since its launch in 2019 by irregularities.
“The situation in Ottawa is not good. A commission of inquiry has been set up, ”the mayor said on Monday evening during the city council. “We are obliged to learn from what is already known and from what the commission of inquiry will teach us. ”
Bruno Marchand was committed during the electoral campaign to carry out the project launched by Régis Labeaume. But he did not fail to criticize the outgoing administration on its way of communicating with the population, and had denounced the cutting of some 600 trees on the route.
The mayor promised to take stock with the population during the second week of January. “We aim to deliver a tram by 2028.”
The Marchand brand
The new administration that came to power in early November only had a few weeks to fine-tune the budget. However, she was able to include some measures of her own.
Bruno Marchand had thus promised during the campaign to abolish late fees for books borrowed from the library. “Late fees are a problem for the most disadvantaged clienteles. It keeps people away from libraries, ”the mayor explained.
Quebec thus joins other cities which have removed them, notes the mayor, according to whom these experiences are generally positive.
“People shouldn’t think of libraries becoming open bars where you take the book, but never bring it back,” he says. You can’t borrow 100 pounds and never bring it back. You have to bring your books back before you borrow others. ”
The Merchant administration has also provided for a 10% tax credit for owners of buildings that accommodate restaurants, hotels or retail businesses.
This “pandemic” measure will affect nearly 1,200 owners. The credit cannot exceed $ 5,000 per building.
Minority, the Marchand administration will need the support of elected representatives of the opposition to adopt the budget.
The leader of the official opposition said he was “generally satisfied”. But Claude Villeneuve did not want to commit to voting in favor of the budget. “It will depend on the answers we have to our questions. ”