In the middle of the construction holidays, while the tourist season is in full swing and Quebecers who love their land want to take a break, union members working for the Société des traversiers du Québec (STQ) have chosen to strike. The connection between Matane, Baie-Comeau and Godbout will be disrupted from July 22 to 26 and from July 29 to August 2. Since the beginning of the summer, strikes have also affected the service between Quebec City and Lévis, between Sorel-Tracy and Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola and between L’Isle-aux-Coudres and Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive.
These service interruptions do not all have the same impact. Despite what the people of Quebec say, they can still count on two bridges to get from one shore to the other, while waiting for the fantasy of the third link. The shutdown of service between the Côte-Nord and the Bas-Saint-Laurent is more damaging, because it forces road users to take a detour of more than two hours to take another river shuttle or four to six hours to go via the Quebec bridges.
The situation is no less worrying, to the point that the PQ MNA for Matane, Pascal Bérubé, has asked that the crossings between his city and the Côte-Nord be declared essential services by the Legault government. He also deplores the silence of the CAQ MNAs from eastern Quebec, and rightly so.
In the comedy of the third link, the caquistes are not lacking in imagination to revive this stillborn project. The last good joke starts from the premise that the economic security of eastern Quebec is at risk in the absence of an additional link between Lévis and Quebec City. Let’s take the reflection a little further. If the argument had the seriousness that the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) gives it, political actions would multiply to strengthen and improve the river shuttle services that would create a link between the economy of the Côte-Nord and that of the Bas-Saint-Laurent. This is not the case.
This labour dispute between CSN and STQ union members brings an anomaly to the surface of the public debate. Ferry services are not an essential service. This is not the fault of the Legault government, but the consequence of a decision rendered in November 2020 by the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec (TAQ) concerning the Matane–Baie-Comeau–Godbout link.
In this decision, the TAQ recalled that the strike is a fundamental right, which can only be limited for reasons of health or public safety. Supermarkets and their warehouses have long been supplied by road, and not by boat, in the corridors of the north or south shore of the river. Similarly, there is no interdependence between health services in the two regions.
MP Bérubé mentions the disastrous consequences for tourism in the region. Tourisme Côte-Nord and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Manicouagan are also asking that Quebec declare the Matane–Baie-Comeau–Godbout link an essential service. Their concerns are legitimate, but they do not meet the criteria for making the ferry an essential service. Today’s portrait is no different from that of 2020.
In short, the strike is the equivalent of a “package of unrest,” and that is precisely the purpose of the exercise. But in the circumstances, it is not a life-or-death situation requiring more assertive state intervention. The strike is not unlimited, and the TAQ still has a say in determining the level of service required during the strike.
Last but not least, the crossings between Rivière-du-Loup and Saint-Siméon, as well as between Trois-Pistoles and Les Escoumins, are spared from the conflict since they are not operated by the STQ. Even if the detour is painful for the vacationer who is at the end of his tether, he is not short of options for cutting through the waves from one bank to the other of the majestic St. Lawrence.
Little information has circulated about the pace of the discussions between the Steelworkers Union and the Ferry Corporation, except that the wage conditions are no longer up to the expectations of the workers. Ferry employees earn an average of $21.50 an hour, and they are demanding $30, as part of a five-year catch-up plan.
The employment contract expired on 1er April 2023. A 15-day blitz of negotiations held in July did not produce the expected results. Both parties have shown wisdom in requesting the intervention of a conciliator. All the circumstances call for caution and patience in the hope of a negotiated resolution of the conflict.
This strike is nonetheless a problem for the economy of these two magnificent tourist regions. The conflict, as well as the silence of the Legault government, sends a very sad message to the affected communities. It is as if their misfortune, their well-being and their aspirations count for less than a handful of dollars in a negotiation.