The new measures to improve safety on Highway 50 until its complete widening planned for 2032 do not “represent the solution so hoped for” by the people of Outaouais and the Laurentians.
This is at least the reaction of the Liberal MP for Pontiac in Outaouais, André Fortin, to the measures first revealed in The Press then confirmed by the CAQ government on Friday by way of a press release.
Work to install safety barriers on the most dangerous sections of Highway 50 is expected to begin in the fall of 2025, announced Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault.
By then, starting this summer, police surveillance will be increased, particularly in areas where there is the greatest risk of accidents. Mobile photo radars will also be installed by the end of the year.
According to Minister Geneviève Guilbault, this announcement responds “in a concrete and rapid manner to the expectations of the population in terms of road safety on Highway 50.”
His colleague at the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) and minister responsible for the Outaouais region, Mathieu Lacombe, insisted for his part on the fact that his government was “working twice as hard” to quickly secure sections of the highway with contiguous lanes.
The CAQ government has already committed to widening the entire length of the highway to four lanes, while warning that this could take another eight years (2032).
The main road link between the greater Montreal area and Gatineau, on the north shore of the Ottawa River, is considered dangerous by experts, including a coroner who has investigated several fatal accidents that have occurred there over the past 11 years, our investigation published Friday revealed. Adjacent lanes are present on approximately 94 of the 158 km of this highway.
Improvements proposed today [vendredi] by Minister Guilbault, although useful, remain temporary and do not represent the solution so hoped for by many residents of the Outaouais and the Laurentians.
Liberal MP André Fortin
Accelerating the widening, “that’s the priority,” he says. “The real solution remains widening the highway, and at this level, improvements are slow,” the Liberal elected official laments.
The CAQ must make “specific commitments on accelerating the next phases of the expansion with a clear timetable for each section,” concludes the official opposition member.
“Public relations operation,” accuses the PQ
Friday’s announcement “has all the appearance of a public relations operation to limit the damage on the part of the government and mask its indolence on the issue for the past six years,” said Parti Québécois (PQ) spokesperson for transport and MNA for the Magdalen Islands, Joël Arseneau.
The PQ member accuses François Legault’s government of not having a “comprehensive plan, as he himself called for in 2016.” In a 2016 press release, when the CAQ was in opposition, Legault’s party accused the Liberals – in power at the time – of not having a “specific plan” to make the highway safer. The CAQ wrote that the Liberals were “sleeping on the gas” while the fatal accidents continued.
The PQ is asking the current government to “respond to the recommendations of Coroner Langelier,” since it is “an important security issue.”
Since her first investigation in 2013 into a fatal accident on Highway 50, coroner Denyse Langelier has recommended installing crash barriers to separate lanes where traffic is going in the opposite direction.