(Quebec) To continue carrying out major public transport projects, Mobilité Infra Québec should have independent sources of revenue, says Valérie Plante. The mayor of Montreal believes that it would be “disastrous” to require cities to pay part of the bill at all times.
“Having a dedicated fund would really help a lot, it would give predictability and it would allow decisions to be made in the longer term,” said Ms.me Plant at press briefing on Friday.
She was accompanied by several other municipal elected officials, who participated in the “national meeting on the future of collective transport”, organized urgently by the Union of Municipalities of Quebec following the debate surrounding the operating deficit of transport companies.
Mme Plante was reacting to the tabling of the bill which will create a transport agency by Minister Geneviève Guilbault. The latter believes that cities should expect to pay part of the bill for the construction of public transport projects.
“I expect the municipalities to collaborate and agree on an amount. This is also planned [qu’à défaut d’entente]it is the government which will determine the contribution in question,” she said on Thursday.
“That’s not true.”
The mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, vigorously opposes it. ” No. The minister said, it is historic that cities pay for public transport infrastructure networks. It’s not historical. This happened a few times, with a fee on the REM, and an agreement [sur le tramway de Québec], but it is not historical. The UMQ will participate in the discussions, but beyond that [il faut savoir] where we are going from here to 2040, how much does it cost us and how we finance it. It cannot be financed piecemeal, we will not succeed,” he said.
Mme Plante added: “the Montreal metro, the line to Laval, there was no contribution from Laval for that. So it’s not true that it’s historic. And it can’t [devenir] wall to wall, it would be disastrous,” she added.
Mme Plante instead believes that the Quebec government must consult citizens on “not easy subjects”, a bit like the metropolis does. His administration will ask Montrealers if we should reduce service, increase the tax bill or tax motorists, for example.
The Meeting organized by the UMQ quickly took a political turn. “I hope that we are finally listened to, and not just heard,” said Stéphanie Lacoste, the mayor of Drummondville, host city of the opening gathering.
The president of the UMQ, introducing Minister Guilbault, who was coming to give a speech, stressed to her that his bill “raises serious concerns in the municipal sector”. He emphasizes that:
- Land use planning is a municipal responsibility, and this agency must preserve their autonomy.
- It is “unthinkable” that cities “find themselves alone with the deficits coming with the implementation of new projects”
Slow down electrification
For her part, Minister Guilbault retorted that “we cannot denounce the corollaries of a status quo, and not to give ourselves the chance to reform the way of doing public transport in Quebec”, specifying “I Don’t criticize anyone.”
Mme Guilbault affirmed for her part that she wants to operate, for financing, “by agreement to make financial arrangements project by project”.
She also mentioned that she is “thinking about something” for intercity transportation. And she is considering postponing the schedule for the electrification of bus fleets, a flagship environmental commitment of the government which is costly for cities.
Mayor Bruno Marchand said that for his city alone, the bill is 3 billion. “We hear you on electrification. We listened to you. You are listened to. The targets in the Green Economy Plan are well intentioned. […] We have very very ambitious targets: 55% electric urban electric in 2030, but we clearly understand that this puts a lot of pressure. I’m thinking about something, I’ll get back to you,” she said.