(Quebec) The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec was not only given the mandate to find the best structuring transport system for the capital: the Legault government also asked it to find the best option to improve fluidity between the two shores and to submit his solution for a possible third link.
CDPQ Infra therefore has six months to find answers to questions that have been tearing the national capital apart for years. The branch of the Caisse which notably brought the REM to life in Montreal officially accepted on Monday the mandate given by Quebec.
The Caisse has a two-part mandate, we can read in an email sent Monday by the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, to the president and CEO of CDPQ Infra, Jean-Marc Arbaud.
- Identify a structuring transportation project to improve public transportation for Quebec City.
- Improve mobility and fluidity in the Metropolitan Community of Quebec, particularly between the two shores.
Minister Guilbault’s office confirmed that this second part of the mandate includes a possible proposal for a third link. We remember that the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) was elected in 2018 by promising a new link between Quebec and Lévis.
This was first envisaged to the east, via the Ile d’Orléans. It was then presented from “downtown to downtown,” but that option involved one of the largest tunnels in the world and a possible cost of $10 billion. It was then reimagined as a “two-tube”, before being in turn put on ice and then resurrected by the CAQ.
To help it in this fairly ambitious mandate, CDPQ Infra will be able to count on the numerous studies commissioned by the government regarding the third link. Quebec has already paid at least 59 million for studies of all kinds.
The studies commissioned by the government and the City of Quebec which led to the choice of the tramway will also be provided to the Caisse.
More details to come.
With Tommy Chouinard