Elected officials join forces to resurrect the 3rd link in the east

(Boischatel) A coalition of elected officials from the suburbs and regions close to the capital came out Thursday to demand a new inter-river link in the East, an old project which had been buried by the CAQ.

The Eastern Coalition, which brings together elected officials from Côte-de-Beaupré and Chaudière-Appalaches, wants to put pressure on the government in a unique context: the CDPQ-Infra will present its report next week on the mobility in Quebec, which must normally consider the relevance of a third link.

We must put an end to “the famous horseshoe”, insisted Alain Vallières, general director of Bellechasse Economic Development, during a press conference in Boischatel. Mr. Vallière was referring to the detour that motorists arriving from the east must make to take one of the two bridges to the west that connect Quebec to Lévis.

The Coalition wants nothing to do with a new link from downtown to downtown, as the CAQ defended before abandoning the highway project. She demands three things: that the link be to the east, that it allows the transport of goods and that the government guarantees its realization “in order to avoid a new cycle of politicization of the issue”.

The Coalition is not formally asking for public transportation on the new link, although it assures “not to be against it”. The group, made up of 25 MRCs, cities and municipalities, has not quantified the number of motorists who could use this future link.

“This project is supported by a very, very strong majority of the population in our regions, I believe it is time we heard them,” insisted the mayor of Thetford Mines, Marc-Alexandre Rousseau, who is also president of the Chaudière-Appalaches regional table of elected officials.

The leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Éric Duhaime, made a point of attending the exit of the elected officials. Mr. Duhaime is campaigning for a third link which would use the Île d’Orléans.

“We have just announced a bridge between Île d’Orléans and the North Shore […] at 2.7 billion dollars which will essentially benefit 8,000 people,” indicated Mr. Duhaime, who believes that all that remains is to connect the island to the South Shore.

Note that the prefect of Île d’Orléans was not alongside the elected representatives of the Coalition on Thursday.

Éric Duhaime thinks that regardless of the recommendations of CDPQ-Infra, the Quebec government must achieve this new link to the East.

“It is not technocrats in Montreal who will decide what type of link there will be between the South Shore and the North Shore of Quebec. It belongs to the people of Quebec,” he said.

Remember that the CAQ government announced in 2019 that it would favor a third link to the east. A year later, Quebec lined up behind a city center to city center scenario. Then in April 2023, like a thunderbolt, the CAQ gave up on a new highway link between the banks, brandishing the absence of data to justify such a project estimated at $10 billion.