In the greater Quebec region, the words “tramway” and “third link” sometimes seem to divide the population as much as the question of sovereignty at the time of referendums. As 2024 approaches, the fate of the two projects is more unclear than ever, but certain benchmarks remain. Here are some facts to use to calmly guide your family holiday discussions.
The third link is more popular than the tram
Surveys on these subjects have been constant since 2018, when Mayor Régis Labeaume officially relaunched the tram project. On the other hand, the proportions observed vary depending on the size of the region studied.
The third link project is particularly popular when we include the municipalities on the south shore of the St. Lawrence. In 2022, 60% of people supported it, according to a SOM survey, and among respondents from the Chaudière-Appalaches region, this rate rose to no less than 81%. There remains the question of costs. In its 2022 survey, the polling firm spoke of a bill of $6.5 billion. What would happen with a bill of 10 billion, like the one mentioned by Minister Geneviève Guilbault when abandoning the project? We ignore it.
Conversely, the tram always had more supporters when only residents of Quebec City were surveyed, where up to 50% of people supported it in 2018. On the other hand, even this support has declined : it stood at only 36% in a Léger poll carried out at the end of October.
Dead or alive, the tram has already cost more than half a billion dollars
Even if it does not materialize, the tram project has progressed enough for hundreds of millions of dollars to have been injected into it.
When the Legault government put the project on ice at the beginning of November, the City of Quebec had already invested $525 million in the adventure. However, the Marchand administration expects the sums committed to reach 613 million at the end of 2023, and suggests that the bill could even climb to a billion thereafter. The government having authorized more than $900 million in spending, the City is still evaluating whether the entire amount should be used to complete the projects and honor the acquisitions already in progress.
Another unknown: if the project is abandoned, it is still unclear what compensation will be paid to Alstom, which had obtained a contract worth $569 million for the manufacture of the trainsets.
In short, at least, you will have to wait six months to find out the amount of the total bill. This is the moment when the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) will present to the Quebec government its opinion on structuring transport in the capital.
The third link is always in the plans
The six-month mandate entrusted to the Caisse de dépôt includes another component: improving mobility in the region, “particularly between the two shores”. And the analysis of a possible third link is part of it, confirmed Minister Geneviève Guilbault in November.
We will recall that in April, the Legault government abandoned the project on the pretext that the traffic on the two bridges crossing the St. Lawrence in the capital region no longer justified it. But the day after his defeat in the Jean-Talon by-election at the beginning of October, a shaken François Legault reopened the door to the third link. In what form and where? Nothing was specified then. It is “clear,” Mr. Legault said, that the decision to abandon the highway portion of the third link project “hurt his party very much.” “There are several people in the greater Quebec region who felt that we were not respecting our promise,” he admitted.
The Caisse de dépôt must submit its report in June.
The government has already rejected the option of a third link near the two bridges
The day after the Prime Minister’s exit, elected officials from the South Shore quickly expressed their preference for a third link passing through Île d’Orléans, east of the heart of Quebec. An option similar to that defended by the Conservative Party of Quebec of Éric Duhaime.
Then, at the end of November, engineer Daniel Toutant and Professor Bruno Massicotte suggested in the media that this third link be installed near the two current bridges. Located on the east side, next to the Quebec Bridge, it would start from Chemin des Îles, in Lévis, and then turn into a tunnel on the north bank of the river, up to Pierre-Bertrand Boulevard. They also suggested this location, arguing that the two current bridges are exposed to seismic risks.
However, in 2021, the Ministry of Transport rejected this option, judging that it was the worst among the four it was studying, due in particular to its low impact on the flow of traffic and the problems it posed for road safety.