It is well known that the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, likes to play with words. A year ago, she had to apologize for having had fun placing some particularly unusual ones, such as “winterization” or “croquignolesque”, in her interventions during the study of her department’s appropriations.
Excellent communicator, Mme Guilbault also knows how to play with words. Thus, she objects to municipalities who ask the government to cover the deficits of their transport companies that the “management” of public transport is not part of the State’s missions.
Nobody claims otherwise. Indeed, the management of the activities of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) or the Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC) is not the business of the government, which does not have to determine the salaries of drivers or metro timetables. Since it is not a service that he administers, the minister concludes that he does not have to absorb the deficit. In other words, “everyone must manage their own fern”.
Prime Minister Legault definitely agreed, but he would raise cries of indignation, and he would be right, if Ottawa pretended that it does not administer any hospitals to further reduce its participation in the financing of health services. Of course, it is not a question of “begging”, as municipalities do, but rather of claiming what is due. His “loot”, Duplessis would have said.
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The mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, criticized Mme Guilbault to have “no vision of sustainable mobility” and to still live in Time for peace of Joseph-Arthur Lavoie, but he was certainly not surprised by his position. Long before taking the tramway project out of the hands of her City and entrusting it to the Caisse de dépôt, the Deputy Prime Minister’s lack of enthusiasm was obvious.
Two years ago, when there was talk of a shared lane on René-Lévesque Boulevard to limit tree cutting, she added her voice to those of the opponents, arguing that this would impose an intolerable slowdown on motorists. from the suburbs wanting to go to the city center. Rather, she pleaded for a “regional vision”.
Mr. Legault criticized the opposition for being the spokesperson for the “city lobby”, while CAQ voters come mainly from the suburbs and regions. Why would they pay for Montrealers to lug around at the princess’s expense, warm in their subway, while they themselves have to brave the storm and ruin themselves on gasoline?
Either, the government was ready to pass on to all taxpayers the bill for the third link between Quebec and Lévis, which could also be resurrected, but it argued that motorists from all over eastern Quebec could avoid hell. to which they are condemned to cross one or the other of the two bridges which span the river.
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Mme Guilbault finally admitted that the state must “support” public transit, but the government does not seem to fully realize its importance in the fight against climate change. The bill is steep and will increase, but refusing to pay it will result in much higher costs.
It goes without saying that municipalities must collaborate. The audit she has commissioned will certainly establish savings they could make. At least, on paper. The 30% gap between the remuneration of municipal and provincial civil servants is undoubtedly unjustifiable, but eliminating it would not solve all the problems. Last year, Mr. Legault proposed the same solution to municipalities which demanded an additional 2 billion for adaptation to climate change.
Like Mme Guilbault, the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Andrée Laforest, believed that they had all the necessary room for maneuver. “Cities can have royalties on development, amounts for parking fees, we give several possibilities to municipalities,” she explained. We must believe that they are unconscious of the gold mine on which they are sitting.
Whether it likes it or not, the climate emergency will force the government to increase its contribution to financing public transport. We are still far from complete free access, towards which we are tending in Europe, but any measure which would have the effect of accentuating the drop in attendance should be avoided.
We must not count on the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, to make his government aware of the importance of the issue. When he argued that the arrival of Northvolt would help reduce GHG emissions, his colleague Pierre Fitzgibbon sharply rebuffed him. He will surely not risk telling Mme Guilbault how she should take care of her fern.