Too many public transport projects in Quebec are starting without knowing whether they are really “necessary”, says the manager of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM), CDPQ Infra, which wants to position itself as a “partner of choice” for the future transport agency, Mobilité Infra Québec.
“We often see a problem in Quebec, which is to do a project from point A to point B, except that we don’t know if it is really necessary,” said Jean-Marc Arbaud, President and CEO of CDPQ Infra, on Thursday. He was testifying in turn before the Commission des transports et de l’environnement, which is studying Bill 61 this week.
He says that Quebec must quickly “give itself the capacity to carry out more public infrastructure projects.” “To achieve this, the first step is to plan. We must develop a global vision of mobility […] and master plans that allow projects to be planned and phased over time.”
According to him, CDPQ Infra could “be a partner of choice for the future agency”, due to its “ability to collaborate effectively with all stakeholders”.
“We can bring a lot of expertise to the general planning, and secondly in a realization phase, on everything that is structuring, call for tenders, design, technological choices. Then, of course, because it is also our reason for being, by contributing financially,” persisted the manager.
I think we have learned a lot from the REM, and that today it has recognized expertise, unique in North America, in terms of project management.
Jean-Marc-Arbaud
As soon as the arrival of Mobilité Infra Québec was announced, Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault also expressed her desire to place CDPQ Infra at the heart of the process. “Apart from the STM, which delivered the metro in recent decades, who has delivered a major public transit project in contemporary history? It’s CDPQ Infra,” she said in an interview with The Press.
Choices to be made
Jean-Marc Arbaud also took advantage of his outing on Thursday to deliver a warning to the government, which is juggling several public transportation projects, both in eastern Montreal with an $18 billion tramway, in Laval and Longueuil, but also in Gatineau and the Quebec region.
“The reality is you can’t do them all. You have to prioritize them. And you have to be realistic. You can’t do all of this overnight,” he said.
In Quebec City, however, “it has to start quickly,” insisted Mr. Arbaud, whose team is still “in discussions” for the signing of the contract on phase 1 of the tramway project, after having recommended in June a route from the Le Gendre sector in the west to Charlesbourg in the north. “It’s a good project. It needs to be concluded quickly,” he noted.
For the rest, the challenge will be to simplify regulatory processes, says the head of the real estate arm of the Caisse de dépôt. “You cannot, when you have 8,000 workers working on a project, wait for a decision on a permit, an authorization. If the rules are subjective or could become so, or are not the same everywhere, it is a big problem for competitiveness.”
That said, “if there is a vision, planning, if all the players see a perspective on the projects, that it is realistic, local businesses will be much more likely to invest,” added Mr. Arbaud.
“It’s not just Montreal and Quebec City. There are other cities. And these cities can’t access technical expertise right now,” he also recalled, calling on Quebec to diversify its skills. “We have to be able to bring everyone around the table to evaluate each project.”