(Quebec) An unfavorable poll. A bill that swells by 530 million. If the capital’s tramway project faces a storm, then new mayor Bruno Marchand promises to be its “captain”.
Posted at 12:45 p.m.
“Those who doubt that I want to carry out this project, I say to them: “look at me well”. I will defend this project with all my strength, my determination and my relentlessness, ”launched Bruno Marchand at a press conference on Tuesday.
“This project needs a unifying captain and that’s what I will be, flawless. »
Quebec on Tuesday launched a new communication offensive in favor of the tramway. On Monday, the City unveiled a non-probability survey it had commissioned from the firm Léger, which concluded that 52% of the 500 respondents opposed the project (against 41% in agreement).
“For me, 41% support is insufficient. We have to do a better job of rallying the population,” said the mayor.
He is also committed to surveying the population of Quebec again in the coming months. Whatever the results, they will be revealed, promises Mr. Marchand. Its objective is clear: to increase support for the project, which has steadily declined since its announcement in 2018.
During the last municipal campaign, Bruno Marchand did not fail to criticize the outgoing mayor, Régis Labeaume, in this file. According to him, Mr. Labeaume had not been able to sell this project well.
“I spoke to Alain Juppé, former mayor of Bordeaux. He told me that the first element is the ability to rally people, to listen to them, to hear them. That’s exactly what we’re going to do. »
More elegant than the REM
Bruno Marchand first wanted to confirm information that had leaked out during the last municipal campaign: the estimated cost of the project went from 3.3 to 3.9 billion, a victim of inflation, the galloping cost of real estate acquisitions and a year of postponement in the call for tenders.
The City is discussing with the Government of Quebec, and hopes that both the provincial and the federal, which have already promised 3 billion for the tramway, will be able to increase their stake. “We are very confident,” he said.
The new mayor had the combative tone of one who takes the pilgrim’s staff. During the elections, he dreamed of eliminating the power lines in certain historic sectors of the City. The Project Office explained to him that it would be very complicated, if not completely impossible.
But Mr. Marchand now assures that the wires initially planned could do the trick. The director of the project office, Daniel Genest, has also insisted that the overhead contact line would be “more elegant” than the catenaries planned for the REM in Montreal, and which have aroused some criticism.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
The REM catenary system along Highway 10.
“Our city will not be tainted by a wire ceiling. […] The landfill will allow us to improve the visual aspect of our city”, indicated Mr. Marchand, in reference to these poles of the tramway which will accommodate lights, and thus declutter visual breakthroughs.
“What we add is extraordinarily discreet, harmoniously integrated into the landscape. Quite the opposite, or in any case very different from what is happening in Montreal. It will certainly not make our city ugly, ”says Bruno Marchand.
PHOTO FROM A QUEBEC CITY DOCUMENT
The Quebec tramway must have an overhead contact line like this in Le Havre, France.
The mayor insisted that the status quo was not an option for his city. Forecasts show 100,000 more daily trips within 15 years in Quebec, he said.
“Doing nothing is not an option. To question the tram and to say that Quebec does not need it, for us, it is not an option. »
The City of Quebec must present on Wednesday the solution it has chosen to save mature trees along the route.