The CAQ has just abandoned its main electoral promise, that of building a third highway link between Quebec and Lévis.
We can underline the cynicism of the political game. We can point the finger at these politicians who go back on their word once the electoral victory has been consummated. But we can also rejoice that the announced environmental disaster – the construction of a twin-tube intended mainly for transport by car – will not finally see the light of day. Phew!
We will know this Thursday what the Minister of Transport has in her boxes, but the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, is right to salute the courage of Geneviève Guilbault, who is also an elected representative from Quebec. Pragmatic, the Deputy Prime Minister decided to “pull the plug” on this project and it is all in her honor.
This turnaround gives hope that the Legault government is able to evolve on issues that seemed to be dogmas for the CAQ.
We now hope that the Minister of Transport will show the same determination and the same common sense in the face of the financial challenges posed by the construction and maintenance of our road infrastructures.
Faced with increasingly high bills, we absolutely have to rethink the way we finance our roads and bridges. The status quo is unsustainable.
There aren’t 36,000 solutions, and we’ve already argued that here1the users of these infrastructures, that is to say motorists, must be taxed more.
The numbers speak for themselves. The fund that finances the construction and maintenance of our roads (the Land Transportation Network Fund) has run dry. While the amounts from registration fees, driver’s licenses and a gas tax are stagnating due, among other things, to the proliferation of electric vehicles, the cost of infrastructure work is rising. sharply.
Inflation in the cost of building materials and the shortage of skilled labor are pushing prices up month by month.
The latest estimate for the construction of the new Île-aux-Tourtes bridge, west of Montreal, should convince the most recalcitrant of anti-taxes: 2.3 billion dollars, or 65% more than expected at the origin, even before the first shovelful of earth.
This bill is in addition to the repair work on the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel, the cost of which is estimated at $2.5 billion.
That’s not counting the upcoming major repair work on a 5-kilometre section of the Metropolitan Autoroute! And we are only talking about the Montreal region.
In Quebec, in addition to the possible link between Quebec and Lévis, major work will have to be undertaken on the Pierre-Laporte bridge. According to the most recent Quebec Infrastructure Plan, $20 billion should be allocated just to upgrade the province’s road infrastructure. Ouch!
We are facing a financial abyss. And we have a moral obligation, if we don’t want to mortgage future generations, to implement the necessary solutions.
There is at least one obvious measure available to us, which has been discussed for years: introducing a kilometer tax. The most recent plea for this tax – in force in several states around the world – can be found in a report by the Department of Energy and Natural Resources which dates from September 2021 and which we have already quoted here.2.
The kilometer tax is also the solution favored by the majority of experts in town planning and transport planning.
We know the chronic allergy of the CAQ to any new tax, but the Legault government no longer has a choice. He must start thinking right away.
Time is running out when you know that it can take up to ten years to set up a new tax collection system.
Geneviève Guilbault must therefore demonstrate the same courage that she showed in the face of the third link project.
She must convince her government that in politics, there are no sacred cows. Not even a new tax.