The Legault government rejects the idea of imposing a kilometric contribution to the trucking sector to promote the decarbonization of heavy goods transport, whose greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are increasing sharply.
“We will not move forward with the addition of a kilometer tax,” said the office of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility Geneviève Guilbault, in a statement sent to The PressWednesday, in reaction to the flagship proposal of the most recent opinion of the advisory committee on climate change.
This independent committee of experts responsible for advising the Minister of the Environment recommends that Quebec make the trucking industry pay for the kilometers traveled on the province’s roads and develop rail and maritime transport of goods, noting the ineffectiveness of current government measures.
“Quebecers are already the most taxed in North America,” says Minister Guilbault’s office to justify its rejection of the committee’s proposal.
The argument startles Professor Catherine Morency, holder of two research chairs on mobility at Polytechnique Montréal and member of the committee, who recalls that the proposed measure is not a tax, but a price charged for the use of an infrastructure.
“People forget that when they go to the United States, there are tolls on the roads, they are everywhere,” she says, adding that kilometer pricing is more equitable than a fixed toll, on a bridge for example.
The proposed measure would also make it possible for the trucking sector to assume the external costs of its use of public road infrastructure, which is not currently the case and which gives it a clear advantage, underlines M.me Morency.
She adds that the government has the responsibility to make ecological choices more advantageous, which is not currently the case in terms of freight transportation.
It’s easier today to transport goods to a half-empty truck, and that’s me dear. This is what needs to change.
Catherine Morency, Polytechnique Montréal
“Interesting” proposals
Other proposals from the committee are, however, “interesting and several are already being implemented,” says Minister Guilbault’s office, citing the rehabilitation of railway lines in Gaspésie and Chaudière-Appalaches, as well as the government maritime strategy.
“Significant sums are also invested in rail and maritime transport,” says the minister through her press secretary, Léonie Bernard-Abel.
However, these sums represent a small proportion of investments to decarbonize the transport sector, noted the opinion of the committee, emphasizing that “only 55.3 million dollars are devoted as a priority to modes other than road” out of the 476 million of the Quebec green plan.
“It’s not enough,” says Catherine Morency.
GHG emissions from the road freight transport sector increased by 61% between 1990 and 2021, while they must be reduced to zero by 2050, recalls the professor.
“The longer we wait, the more difficult and costly the major transformations will be,” she says.