We are at a crossroads for public transit in Quebec. We, the economic, social and environmental leaders of the G15+ collective, believe that we must find ambitious ways to fund this essential service in a predictable manner throughout Quebec.
Three years ago, when all of Quebec was put on hold to deal with the pandemic, we responded to the call of the Quebec government and made proposals for a united, prosperous and green recovery. Prioritizing investments in sustainable mobility seemed essential to us. Essential to move people who depend on public transit to get to work or who are looking for an alternative to solo driving, to reduce non-productive hours spent in congestion, to fight the climate crisis, to improve our health and to counter the soaring cost of living.
Remember that before the pandemic, even if public transit was gaining in popularity and reaching record levels in some places, the offer was far from ideal: insufficient frequency and quality in several municipalities, buses and metro cars saturated in hours peak and underdeveloped long distance services.
Then, telecommuting and new travel habits caused ridership to drop and, by extension, the revenues of transport companies.
The governments of Quebec and Canada have put emergency aid in place to maintain essential services. We applauded them. However, it is clear that these aids are insufficient.1 in the face of the magnitude of the needs of users, and they do not provide any predictability to our transport companies which are calling for help.
Previous Transport Minister François Bonnardel pledged to avoid service cuts and agree on a five-year financial framework that would provide predictable funding to transport companies and bring users back on board. The G15+ organizations expect the new Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, to follow up. This agreement should make it possible to avoid any cuts in services and to involve the federal government.
Closing the Transit Investment Gap
Premier François Legault’s ambition is to close the wealth gap with Ontario.
The good news is that public transit clearly contributes to bringing us closer to it thanks to an impact on the Quebec economy nearly three times greater than that of solo driving.2, both in terms of employment and money. Conversely, road transport, which costs society five times more than public transport, keeps us away from it.
Knowing this, is it acceptable to devote 70% of our transportation investments over the next 10 years to the road network?3of which 24% is dedicated to the construction of new roads, while this share does not reach 30% in Ontario?
To ask the question, is to answer it. The situation is no longer tenable.
We invite the Prime Minister to set a new ambition for Quebec that will support its goal of creating wealth: close the investment gap in public transit with Ontario, which is three times higher per person in our neighbour.
In its Plan for a Green Economy 2030, the Government of Quebec is committed to rebalancing its investments between the road network and public transit, in addition to developing major public transit projects in several regions of Quebec. We are delighted with these commitments, which are in line with a key objective of its 2030 Sustainable Mobility Policy, that of increasing the public transit service offer by 5% per year by 2023.
We believe that more ambitious means must be put in place to make alternatives to solo driving more attractive. We propose to double the public transit offer within 10 years in all regions of Quebec.
Meeting this challenge would constitute a major legacy for Quebec society and a source of pride for the coming decades.
Public transit, a priority for Quebecers
Connecting people from all regions with attractive and competitive public transit must become an ambition similar to that of criss-crossing our territory with high-speed Internet.
We call for accelerated investment in the development and maintenance of sustainable mobility infrastructure, a priority clearly expressed by Quebecers4. The money is there, it is only a matter of political will.
This is an investment that will benefit household wallets, the know-how of our rolling stock manufacturers, the environment, our health, social inclusion and road safety. All the dimensions of our individual and collective well-being would emerge strengthened.
Think about future generations. We need to give them more public transit, not less. We must have greater ambitions, not less. Let’s get moving right now.
* Co-signatories, members of the G15+ collective: Karl Blackburn, President and Chief Executive Officer, Conseil du patronat du Québec; Denis Bolduc, General Secretary, Quebec Federation of Workers; Annie Chaloux, Professor, School of Applied Politics, University of Sherbrooke (research partner); Éric Cimon, Executive Director, Association of Technical Resource Groups of Quebec; Leïla Copti, President, COPTICOM, Strategies and Public Relations; François Delorme, economist and lecturer in environmental economics, School of Management, University of Sherbrooke (research partner); Gabrielle Desbiens, President, Network of Regional Cultural Councils of Quebec; Sylvain Gariépy, President, Order of Urban Planners of Quebec; Sabaa Khan, Executive Director Quebec/Atlantic, David Suzuki Foundation; Denis Leclerc, President and CEO, Écotech Québec; Charles Milliard, President and CEO, Federation of Quebec Chambers of Commerce; Natalie Pouliot, Executive Director, Coalition of Community Organizations for Workforce Development; Colleen Thorpe, Executive Director, Equiterre; Martin Vaillancourt, Director General, National Group of Regional Environmental Councils of Quebec