The mayor of Montreal said she was “very concerned” to have learned of the suspension of public consultations on the tramway project in Lachine, information revealed by The Press last Friday.
Speaking for the first time on the subject since last week, Valérie Plante said that she was now asking for a date for resuming the process.
“When we heard the news, it surprised us and obviously very concerned us. You know how much public transport is important to us,” she said Wednesday at city hall, at a press briefing. “I decided to communicate directly with the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility to ask her what is going on and, above all, to ask her for assurance that this project was going to be done well. Mme Guilbault told me that yes, it was always planned. »
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According to our information, the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) was to disclose this fall several scenarios of routes and modes of transport for the “great South-West project”, which must connect Lachine to downtown Montreal. The process was suspended by Quebec, at the request of the Prime Minister’s office.
“What we want is a date,” continued Mme Plant, Wednesday. “What I need as soon as possible is confirmation with a date to resume consultations. »
The mayor is particularly concerned about the federal check of 800 million already promised since 2019. “If we don’t take it to provide public transportation in the metropolitan region, it could go to another province,” she stressed. These amounts must return to the metropolitan region.
With Charles-Éric Blais-Poulin, The Press