The Quebec government’s record on public transportation is “filled with broken promises,” according to several organizations who met in downtown Montreal on Monday morning.
Since its first mandate in 2018, the Legault government has had “a catastrophic record” in terms of public transport, denounced Christian Savard, general director of Vivre en ville, during a press conference.
According to him, “in terms of public transport development, we are facing a field of ruins” and “on the major structuring collective transport projects that Mr. [François] Legault had promised, none is currently being implemented.”
The general director of Vivre en ville then listed the government’s “broken promises” in terms of transportation: “There was a tramway for Gatineau, there was a tramway for Quebec, there was a structuring project for the east of Montreal. There was a possible REM or metro to Laval. There was a possible REM to Saint-Jean and Chambly and there was a structuring network for Longueuil. »
But, added Christian Savard, “as we speak, none of these projects are on track. They have either been completely abandoned, put on pause or on their third study, so we are not moving forward at all.”
Access to viable transportation, Équiterre, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Montreal Regional Environmental Council, Piétons Québec, Vélo Québec and Vivre en ville are calling for more funding so that public transportation meets the needs of the population.
These groups are far from convinced that the possible creation of a transport agency, whose mandate would be to carry out structuring projects, is the solution to the development of efficient transport infrastructure.
“If we had positive indicators” which “showed that the government will invest 50% of the money dedicated to transport in public transport”, as “it was included in the government plans”, then “perhaps that we would be more positive about the creation of the agency,” said Christian Savard.
The role of the CDPQ called into question
The organizations were also concerned about the increased role of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) in public transportation.
“By providing studies of four or five projects to the fund, there is a form of disempowerment of the government. The arrival of CDPQ Infra would have been supposed to ensure that we do twice as many projects and not that we do just one and then everything stops,” said Christian Savard, of the organization Living in the City.
He was referring in particular to the recent withdrawal of CDPQ Infra from the project to extend the Réseau express métropolitain on the South Shore.
The spokesperson for Access to viable transports was no more tender than her colleague from Vivre en ville towards the government, indicating that “the only thing” that it “has been content to do in public transport until now , it’s about cutting ribbons.”
According to Angèle Pineau-Lemieux, “the only achievements of the government today are those which were started by its predecessors”.
She emphasized that the Quebec region “is the only metropolitan region of more than 500,000 inhabitants in Canada not to have a structuring public transport network.”
“Finally, remember that the government was committed to identifying solutions to financing problems, in particular by concluding a five-year agreement and through a financing project,” indicated Blaise Rémillard, responsible for mobility and urban planning. at CRE Montreal.
However, he added, “the deadlines initially established for these two approaches have long passed.”
Steven Guilbeault reiterates his support for the tramway in Quebec
These organizations were gathered in downtown Montreal, on the sidelines of an event organized by Trajectoire Québec and in which Canada’s Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, is to participate.
He was to be present in Montreal as guest of honor at the “benefit luncheon” organized by Trajectoire Québec, but an unforeseen event forced him to participate in the event by videoconference from Ottawa.
During an exchange of around thirty minutes with the president of the communications agency Copticom, Leïla Copti, the minister notably reiterated his support for the tram project in Quebec, which is on pause, while the CDPQ Infra analyze it.
“It is certain that we are a little saddened to see the procrastination that there is on the tramway project in Quebec, but we continue to believe in this project,” said the minister.
A project which, according to Steven Guilbeault, has been the subject of “sufficient studies”.
The city of Quebec, indicated the federal minister, “needs a structuring network” and it “is one of the only cities in North America of this size which does not have a structuring public transport network worthy of of this name”.
Last year, during Trajectoire Québec’s annual fundraising luncheon, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, took advantage of the event to announce the holding of consultations on the financing model of public transport.
This year, Minister Guilbault was not part of the list of guests present at the event.