(Quebec) Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault wants to “take control of the destiny of public transportation” and “centralize [sa] planning” with the creation of an “independent” agency. Mobilité Infra Québec will determine the projects that can move forward and will carry them out with the agreement of the government. And surprise, she will be responsible for “diversifying sources of income” in order to finance them.
A week after declaring that “managing public transport and transport companies […] is not a mission of the State”, the minister reframes her message on the eve of the tabling of her bill creating Mobilité Infra Québec.
“We need to complete what I call the public transportation network, then have projects everywhere, in the right places, at the right time. And the only way to do that is to really centralize the planning […] and to take control of the destiny of public transport in Quebec which, for my part, is the State’s mission in terms of public transport,” she says to The Press as part of a series of media interviews.
She insists: “the only way” to effectively develop public transport “is to create expertise within the Government of Quebec which will be outside the Ministry of Transport”.
Expertise, “we [l’]”We don’t have it in the ministry, we don’t have it in the Quebec government and we don’t know how to take this, large-scale public transport projects.” She wants to correct this “huge gap” which can be explained by the low number of projects piloted in Quebec since the creation of the Montreal metro.
Mobilité Infra Québec will not be subject to the Civil Service Act – like Santé Québec – and will have up to 50 employees. This agency will be led by a CEO “who will build a small team with a more innovative, more agile corporate culture than what we are used to knowing in government”. It will be “focused on results and on delivering projects as quickly and efficiently as possible with people used to doing them”.
“Whether it’s the CEO or the members of the team, they could be people who come from elsewhere” and “who might want to come and do projects here in Quebec.” “There will perhaps be people from the government who will want to apply and who are very good. There may be people [provenant de] private firms,” she adds.
Quebec no longer wants to be “dependent” on the Caisse de dépôt et placement for the development of public transportation. Mme Guilbault was, however, inspired by the subsidiary CDPQ Infra to design her agency.
At national scale
The multiplication of project offices in each city makes no sense, according to her. “Everyone does their own little thing over the course of the elections, over the course of each person’s interests, it fluctuates,” she underlines. “Resources are scattered” when instead we need to “concentrate” expertise and create “a sort of super project office” with the agency.
Mobilité Infra Québec will carry out “national-scale planning” for the development of public transport, “sequenced planning of logical projects”. The minister recognizes that “we could see an overlap with the mission of the ARTM”, the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority. Her bill will not make any changes to the mandate of the organization that she has already accused of being ineffective.
According to Geneviève Guilbault’s explanations, the government will “entrust mandates” to Mobilité Infra Québec which “may relate to the analysis, planning and implementation” of projects.
“The agency will have this capacity to evaluate which project would be good, in which location,” specifies the minister. It will therefore have the power to choose the projects that will be carried out. The government will then determine whether or not it gives the green light to finance them.
“The government will confirm a mandate for the agency, then above all confirm the completion of a project. […] The government cannot be completely outside of this, because the whole question of investment planning and management goes through the government. »
The financing challenge
For the moment, the minister is not setting a target to increase the public transport offer. The Sustainable Mobility Policy adopted in 2018 under the Liberals has the objective of an increase of 5% per year until 2030, but the CAQ government is in the process of revising it.
Geneviève Guilbault also does not specify the portfolio of projects that will be entrusted to her agency. She discusses the projects under study or in planning included in the 2024-2034 Quebec Infrastructure Plan: the “structuring projects” of public transport in Quebec (subject to the recommendation of CDPQ Infra), Longueuil, Laval, Gatineau , from the east and southwest of Montreal. The projects under study or in planning at the PQI are estimated at $38.4 billion and no amount is planned to finance them. We will have to find the money.
The challenge is significant: for the next 10 years, Quebec already has planned spending of 153 billion to renovate or build public infrastructure in its PQI. The Land Transport Network Fund (FORT), which is used to finance roads and public transport, is in deficit.
PHOTO CAROLINE GRÉGOIRE, THE SUN
Geneviève Guilbault, Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility
It’s no secret that it costs more to maintain and develop what we have to do than the money that is available. So everything we can do in terms of financing, we are in the process of thinking about it and then exploring it.
Geneviève Guilbault, Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility
“But our objective with the agency is also to be able to diversify the sources of revenue as much as possible,” adds the minister, without going into details and without commenting on the idea of new taxes. She refuses to give further details, limiting herself to mentioning the idea of “optimizing the number of partners”.
For Mobilité Infra Québec to succeed in carrying out the projects, the minister is banking heavily on the upcoming bill from her Infrastructure colleague Jonatan Julien. The latter will modify the rules regarding the management of public contracts. The goal is for government projects of all kinds to be completed up to 25% faster and cost 15% less.
“My agency, without these modifications, it would give me nothing more than what we are already doing,” recognizes Geneviève Guilbault.
“There is a fundamental problem with our way of carrying out major infrastructure projects and our lack of attractiveness on the market which means that the projects are extremely expensive and that we have very few bidders,” adds she said. Firms say: “I no longer contract with the government, it’s too complicated, it’s too expensive, it’s too long, it’s too risky, it no longer interests me.” So we want to bring these people back. »