Behind the scenes, strong tensions tore apart the city’s public transport stakeholders last year, even paralyzing the financing of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) for a month.
This is what the official opposition revealed at Montreal city hall on Monday, during the testimony of the head of the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM).
The organization withheld its transfers to public transport operators, totaling millions of dollars, throughout the month of May 2023 because they were slow to provide certain data. It is the ARTM which collects all the income linked to the sale of subscriptions and tickets.
“There was withholding of [paiements aux] four public transit organizations for a month and subsequently it was resolved with political interventions to ensure that we could have the data,” recognized Benoit Gendron, general director of the ARTM.
This decision sparked the anger of the STM. “I would like to express my great concern about the lack of transparency and openness that your organization demonstrates towards us,” wrote Director General Marie-Claude Léonard, in a letter obtained by the official opposition at the Hôtel de city, via access to information. The document is dated May 25. “The withholding of the provisional amount for the month of May […] is unjustified and causes cash flow management challenges and unnecessary financing costs. »
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The general director of the STM, Marie-Claude Léonard
“Your decision to withhold the interim payment does not respect the collaborative mechanisms we have agreed to,” the letter added.
The STM assured that it had provided all the necessary information. This was not the opinion of the ARTM. “The example that I often give: we know the number of people who travel on the REV [piste cyclable] Saint-Denis, but we did not know the number of people who used the line [de bus] 31 on rue Saint-Denis,” reported Mr. Gendron.
The boss of the ARTM assured that relations had greatly improved between his organization and public transport operators.
“There is a clear improvement,” he said before the municipal council. “Let’s say that, in the first years of the new governance, we went through more tumultuous periods. But I think that’s all behind us. All stakeholders must work together to find solutions to financing issues. »
“While we argue, it affects other people,” he added.