“Managing public transport and transport companies is not a mission of the State. »
Those who still had questions about the vision of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, will have obtained their answer on Wednesday, during the study of budgetary appropriations in Quebec.
Public transport companies like the STM and exo are in the dark red. Their deficit will exceed half a billion next year. There is talk of drastically reducing the frequency of the service, and increasing a series of prices, to make up a portion of the shortfall.
Reaction from the minister? Deal with your problems!
“We don’t have the luxury of passing our deficit elsewhere,” she said. Everyone, as I like to say, must manage their own fern and find their own solutions. »
I have news for Mme Guilbault: the fern of public transport has dried up.
The gardener who promised to take care of it, the Legault government, has abdicated. He seems intent on watching the plant wither little by little. All his promises to encourage “sustainable mobility” and to increase the “service offering” by 5% per year were just that, one might say: promises.
Empty words.
The COVID-19 pandemic, as we know, has given the industry a blow in the shins. Ridership has dropped drastically, and it has still not returned to “previous” levels.
Quebec has injected more than 2 billion to help carriers since the pandemic. This is a “historic” boost, as Minister Guilbault repeats. Indeed.
But for the future, for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, there is still no precise game plan. The deficits looming on the horizon are dizzying.
The shortfall for the operation of bus, metro and commuter train networks amounts to 561 million in 2025 in Greater Montreal. Over five years: almost 3 billion. Several scenarios are on the table to replenish the coffers, and none of them is encouraging.
There is talk of taxing car registrations more. To increase property taxes. To merge or abolish certain companies. To raise prices for users. To reduce the frequency of buses, commuter trains and the metro.
As misfortune never comes alone, we learned on Wednesday that the commissioning of the next sections of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) will be further postponed. Inauguration date? Unknown.
The financial crisis we are currently witnessing is acute, but there is nothing new under the sun.
Transport companies have been struggling to make ends meet for more than a decade. These agencies fall under the responsibility of the cities, which must negotiate with the Quebec government at the end of each year, urgently, in order to obtain funds to cover their shortfall.
The chronic deficit situation has become critical since the pandemic.
The commissioning of a first segment of the REM further widened the shortfall. Cities must pay contributions to the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) to operate it, which further reduces the sums intended for the existing network.
How to resolve the budgetary impasse?
A meeting is planned for the end of June between Minister Guilbault and the mayors of the Montreal Metropolitan Community, which brings together 82 cities. They will discuss (once again) the recurring financing problems of the region’s public transportation networks. That is all.
What we are witnessing could be summed up as follows: a game of ping-pong (increasingly unsightly) between Quebec and the cities.
Geneviève Guilbault’s position is as follows. Quebec already invests a lot in public transportation, but municipalities also have tools in their hands to collect new revenue to finance them. They should use them.
The cities are open to using certain levers, but they believe that Quebec should respect its “Mobility Policy – 2030”, which provides for a constant increase in the service offer.
This is where things stick, on both sides. No one wants to bear the brunt of imposing new taxes or fees. The ball goes into the field.
However, it should be an obvious social choice. Investing more in public transport, for the Quebec state, should go without saying, especially in light of the billions that are being injected into the battery sector.
Boots don’t walk the talk, as the other would say.
There are savings to be made, that said. There was waste, mismanagement, excesses.
Geneviève Guilbault asked carriers to reduce their expenses to absorb part of their deficits. The STM has already announced recurring cuts of $86 million (5% of its budget), and there will be others. The right thing to do.
The minister has ordered independent audits which will provide a portrait of the real state of finances and governance in each transport company. Results by fall.
The ARTM has also commissioned studies which analyze different “optimization” scenarios. According to my sources, the idea of abolishing or merging certain agencies is being considered. There is even talk of stopping commuter trains.
But in any case, even by merging and compressing squarely, the savings could hardly exceed 200 million. This will leave a huge hole that will be difficult to fill without majorly reducing the quality of service or imposing a series of new taxes.
Nothing to make anyone want to abandon their tank to jump on a bus.