The Greater Montreal transportation companies have not succeeded in making Quebec give in and will ultimately not obtain more than 200 million in 2025. As for the future, the carriers remain in the dark, still not knowing what they will have in the coming years.
The Press was able to confirm that an agreement had been reached in recent days between the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) and the Quebec government. The latter will provide, as planned in its initial offer, some 200 million to the carriers of Greater Montreal.
According to our information, the share covering services on the island of Montreal will be around $100 million, approximately $24 million in Longueuil, $23 million in Laval, $35 million in the southern suburbs and $18 million in the northern suburbs. The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain will be responsible for investing the sums in the right place.
The entourage of the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, had been hinting for several weeks that she would not give in on her initial offer of $200 million. This represents approximately 70% of the “cyclical” deficit of carriers, attributable to pandemic losses. Faced with a shortfall of $561 million, the transport companies were demanding $421 million.
However, it is still unknown how much the carriers will have in 2026, 2027 and 2028. The goal would be to reach a long-term agreement by September. “The problem is not resolved at all. We want to continue negotiating with the government to have more predictability,” summarizes the president of the Table des préfets et élus de la couronne nord (TPECN), Denis Martin.
We are all putting a lot of pressure on our transport companies at the moment. Everything is being studied to save costs. The objective remains at all costs not to cut into the service provided to citizens.
Denis Martin, President of TPECN
Disappointment and bitterness
In the short term, the agreement for 2025 risks displeasing many elected officials and citizens, since it means that the increase in the vehicle registration tax (TIV), which the cities hoped to be able to reduce if the aid from Quebec was more lucrative, will remain at 150%.
The tax will indeed increase from $59 to $150 per car in Greater Montreal in 2025. For municipalities, this will mean an additional $320 million in revenue per year. Until now, the $59 tax generated $127 million annually. The remaining gap between government assistance and the deficit, approximately $40 million, will be filled by numerous financial optimization measures.
In the southern suburbs, which had opposed the increase in the TIV from the start, people said they were “deeply disappointed” by the outcome of this case.
“This decision seriously affects our region, which is already disadvantaged in terms of public transport. […] “Our citizens are largely dependent on their vehicles, due to the lack of viable alternatives such as bus services,” said the president of the Table of Prefects and Elected Officials of the Southern Crown, Christian Ouellette.
In the office of Laval Mayor Stéphane Boyer, it is considered that “the agreement for 2025 allows us to close the budgetary parenthesis, but is still accompanied by difficult choices, in particular certain cuts in the transport companies that will reach their limits very soon, by affecting the service as little as possible”. “We are still looking with the government for a project on major optimizations on the metropolitan level, reforms that will allow us to make real efficiency gains”, it was added.
“Our discussions with cities on the deficits of transport companies are continuing and we still hope to conclude an agreement soon that will provide predictability for the coming years,” was the response of Minister Guilbault’s office.