The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) will ultimately have to eliminate 230 positions, the equivalent of a 5% reduction in its payroll. The carrier assures that these cuts will not affect the level of service, but does not hide that it fears for the future in 2025.
“It’s the last thing we want to do, but we have to balance our budget,” said the general director of the STM, Marie-Claude Léonard, at a press conference in the city center on Thursday.
Cuts of 50 million had already been announced during the last budget, but there was still a shortfall of 46 million to absorb.
Three measures will make it possible to fill a significant part of this residual shortfall, i.e. 36 of the 46 million. The elimination of 230 positions will first alone free up at least 25 million. All the workers concerned, who have been met in recent days, are employees or managers “not directly linked to the service offering”.
In other words, these are not bus or subway drivers. Administrative departments, such as procurement, partner relations, communications or accounting, will be most affected. Around 70% of positions were already vacant; therefore 60 people will lose active employment.
Spending will also drop by nine million on goods and services, which includes, for example, communication or marketing campaigns. A sum of two million will also be drawn by adjusting the operating budget of certain projects. The targets of the AZUR train replacement program could, for example, be revised downwards. There will therefore be 10 million left in the STM’s shortfall. In total, the cuts will be around 86 million.
A service preserved… in the short term
For the moment, the level of service will remain intact, to which the company has formally committed in recent months. The frequency of paratransit will be increased by 29.5%, returning it to the 2019 level.
Still, Mme Léonard does not hide the fact that she has a lot of concerns for the future. “It’s certain that we fear for the service offering in 2025,” she said. At least, as we move towards ways of reducing recurring expenses, we will not leave with a deficit from year to year, but it is certain that we still have concerns. »
This all comes as new negotiations will soon begin with a view to establishing a “recurring and predictable” funding framework over five years for public transportation, a mandate given by the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault. Short-term discussions, for 2024, ended abruptly last December, after weeks of negotiations in the public arena.
“What we want to have is predictability, that it does not settle at the end of the year,” Ms.me Leonard on the subject, Thursday.
Quebec will also soon launch performance audits on the ten transport companies in Quebec, with the aim of evaluating the expenses of these operators. “Our objective through this will be to demonstrate the effectiveness of the STM,” persisted the DG, ensuring that its group is already audited by several external firms as part of its regular activities.
165 million in three years
In three years, i.e. since the 2022 fiscal year, the public transport operator will have made budget cuts of around 165 million in total. These cuts were 27 million in 2022, then 52 million in 2023, finally reaching 86 million in 2024.
During its preliminary budgetary plan in mid-November, which La Presse first revealed, the STM had initially mentioned the elimination of 120 employees. Given the increase in cutbacks, however, we have since known that the STM, whose finances are fragile like all transport companies, would have to cut more positions. The figure of 255 positions was even mentioned at one point.
In the longer term, the STM reiterated Thursday that it is also committed “to a plan to reduce recurring expenses by 100 million over five years.” In other words, the cuts are likely to continue to multiply over the coming years.