The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) uses a “brutal style of management” and shows “organizational opacity” which could lead Quebec to modify the law to “reframe” the group’s activities, reveals a report filed Wednesday morning at the National Assembly.
Posted at 11:21 a.m.
Updated at 11:48 a.m.
In interview at The Pressthe Minister of Transport François Bonnardel indicated that he will give the organization “a few weeks” to straighten the bar after the “extremely harsh” findings set out in the document.
The ARTM has been responsible since 2017 for planning and coordinating all public transit in the greater Montreal area. Until then, it was torn between several companies such as the STM, the STL and exo.
However, things did not go as smoothly as expected, confirms a report from the Ministry of Transport concocted with the help of an external investigation firm. Far from there.
“The main stakeholders in public transit in the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) consulted on the efficiency and performance of the ARTM criticize the latter for its abrupt management style and organizational opacity which constitute, according to them, real obstacles to the establishment of a real and constructive collaboration”, one can read there.
The 82 cities of the CMM, as well as the leaders of transport companies in Greater Montreal, were surveyed as part of this survey. Their findings are stark.
“Generally, stakeholders expressed dissatisfaction with not only the ARTM’s ways of doing things, but also the way it carries out its administrative and planning responsibilities,” the report said.
“In the latter case, the stakeholders believe that the ARTM is overstepping its responsibilities by interfering in operational sectors that are the responsibility of public collective transport organizations,” we add.
Stakeholders also denounce the organization’s lack of transparency and a lack of public transit expertise on its board of directors.
“Confusion” with the Fund
The COVID-19 pandemic and the advent of CDPQ Infra in the portrait of public transit played an important role in the poor performance of the ARTM, underlines the document.
CDPQ Infra, a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, has been piloting the construction of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) since 2016, built in the form of a public-private partnership.
The significant powers granted to CDPQ Infra have hampered the ARTM’s real ability to carry out its mission of planning public transport in the metropolitan region, the report points out. “Several stakeholders agree to express some confusion regarding his roles [de CDPQ Infra] and those of the ARTM. “.
The first REM branch should be commissioned next fall between the South Shore and downtown Montreal. CDPQ Infra will own this 67-kilometre automated train network for at least 99 years, unless it decides to sell it.
Turning point
The release of this report comes at a pivotal moment for the ARTM. Changes have already been made to the organization this spring with the replacement of the chairman of the board of directors, Pierre Shedleur, by Patrick Savard.
The ARTM will have to fulfill a big mandate in the coming months: to concoct a new version of the REM de l’Est, after CDPQ Infra’s withdrawal from this 10 billion megaproject. The work will be done in partnership with the City of Montreal, the MTQ and the STM.
Prime Minister François Legault declared that Patrick Savard will be “very involved in the file”, and that he will not hesitate to roll heads if the ARTM does not collaborate sufficiently in the relaunch of the project. “If necessary, there will be changes made to the management of the ARTM,” he said in early May.
François Bonnardel reiterated this warning in an interview with The Press Wednesday. “It’s a signal that I send to the leaders, that I send to Patrick Savard, to Benoît Gendron [le directeur général de l’ARTM] : you can’t sit back and say that things are going well. Otherwise, it won’t work. »
The Minister of Transport wants the ARTM to become a “lighter” and “transparent” organization, which will be able to “avoid bureaucratic heaviness and, above all, refocus on the question of strategic planning”.
He gives “a few weeks” to the leaders of the group to propose a “roadmap”, and “a few months” to implement it.
normal stage
The creation of the ARTM by a law of 2016 provided for the tabling of a report by the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ) in the National Assembly no later than five years after the creation of the organization.
Quebec seems inclined to modify certain provisions of the law on the ARTM to recalibrate the division of powers between the ARTM and transport companies such as the STM. The Minister of Transport should also be able to intervene more directly to correct the situation with the ARTM, according to the report.
“It seems desirable to consider that the Minister of Transport has a general power of intervention, the use of which, when required, will aim to bring corrective measures to ensure compliance with the rules of sound management,” we write. . Such power will have to be defined within the framework of the law establishing the ARTM. »
The ARTM has not yet reacted officially to the filing of the report on its poor performance.
Long-standing reviews
The ARTM has been the subject of numerous criticisms since its creation in 2017. A survey published by The Press last November revealed that the organization’s performance has drawn the wrath of all public transit organizations in Greater Montreal, which are overseen by the ARTM.
In a series of government documents obtained by The Pressthey denounced several “duplication” between their work and that of the ARTM, heavy “bureaucracy” and a lack of transparency.
Quebec also refused last fall the strategic plan tabled by the ARTM. The government has ordered him to “prioritize” a list of projects totaling $57 billion and establish a more specific “financial framework”.