The federal government releases in extremis funds that will prevent plans to extend the blue metro line in Montreal and the tramway in Quebec from being “compromised”. Ottawa and Quebec reached an agreement on Monday, just days before the deadline.
The bilateral agreement frees up $2.7 billion from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP). The government of François Legault had until March 31 to get their hands on these sums. Otherwise, they would have remained frozen in Ottawa. “The flexibility obtained from the federal government is a great step forward,” said the Quebec Minister responsible for Infrastructure, Jonatan Julien, in a tweet published on Monday.
The conclusion of an agreement will serve to concretize the new section of the blue line of the metro towards Anjou. It also “loops” the financing of the Quebec tramway, indicated to the Duty a federal source familiar with the matter.
Without agreement, “the project [de tramway] could have been compromised, given the importance of the contribution at stake. Same thing for the blue line project in Montreal, ”wrote the office of Minister Julien – also responsible for the Capitale-Nationale region – in an exchange of emails.
According to the latest estimates, the extension of the blue metro line will cost taxpayers $6.4 billion. Before the cost overruns anticipated by the City of Quebec, the tramway bill reached 4 billion.
“Dozens of communities across Quebec will benefit from this collaboration,” the federal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities wrote on Twitter on Monday. “Excellent news,” added the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante.
The federal government’s CIIP provides $33.5 billion for the construction of public transit, green and community infrastructure projects, in particular. It could not be used for the development of new roads like the third link between Quebec and Lévis, said our source in the government of Justin Trudeau.
The deadline for negotiating an agreement with Ottawa on the allocation of CIIP funds had been moved up from 2025 to 2023 in the last federal budget, in April 2022.