CDPQ Infra, which abandoned a public transportation project on the South Shore of Montreal last week to focus on the Réseau express métropolitain (REM), “cannot do everything at the same time,” says the Minister of Transport. , Geneviève Guilbault. This will not prevent him from continuing his study of mobility needs in Quebec.
Ms. Guilbault took advantage of the start of the parliamentary term on Tuesday to come to the defense of the REM operator, who, after more than three years of studies, decided to withdraw from the project. “We have to be realistic,” underlined the CAQ minister, in a press scrum before question period.
“When we think that they must finalize the commissioning of the first branch of the REM, that they must finish the rest of the REM, that they now have a planning mandate for mobility in the greater Quebec region, I , I think it’s okay that they are focusing on that,” she added.
In 2020, Quebec entrusted CDPQ Infra with the mandate to find the “optimal solution for a structuring mobility project” in the axis of Taschereau Boulevard, in Longueuil and Brossard. However, on Friday, the mayors of these two cities explicitly asked the Coalition Avenir Québec government that this project be instead overseen by a possible government transport agency.
Not a bad sign for Quebec, says Guilbault
In the context, withdrawing from the project on the South Shore was a “responsible decision”, according to Ms. Guilbault, who maintains all her confidence in CDPQ Infra in its study of means of mobility in Quebec, which should produce results next June .
“The mandate they have is in a first phase,” she said Tuesday. “It’s planning, it’s a mobility proposal. We are not even in production yet, let alone in future exploitation. So, they have all the competence and will to carry out the mandate they inherited in the National Capital. »
Ms. Guilbault assures residents of the South Shore of Montreal that there will be a route in the region. The abandonment of the project by the Fund in no way means that the project will go to the trash. “We, as a government, what we want is to deliver projects,” she said.
“We must increase our capacity to deliver projects. We must be able to do more than one or two at the same time,” she added, once again suggesting that she would create an agency to manage major transport files.
CDPQ Infra, which operates the REM, experienced a series of technical difficulties last week, which pushed some to abandon public transport and turn to the car. This division of the Caisse de dépôt et placement was also preparing a project in eastern Montreal, before Quebec decided to take it out of its hands.