Quebec Tramway | Legault takes over the project and entrusts it to the Caisse de dépôt

(Quebec) Faced with the explosion in costs of the capital’s tramway project, the Legault government takes the file out of the hands of Bruno Marchand and asks the Caisse de dépôt, the architect of the REM, to find the best project for Quebec.

The Prime Minister invited the mayor of Quebec on Wednesday at the end of the day to take stock of the thorny tramway project. François Legault announced to Bruno Marchand a complete overhaul of this file carried by the City for more than five years.

At the end of the meeting, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, announced that the government had entrusted the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) with the mandate to “come to us with the best structuring project for the City of Quebec » at a fair cost. It will reassess “mobility needs” in the capital.

The Caisse “has already shown its expertise in public transport projects” with the REM in Montreal, she argued. Mayor Bruno Marchand’s plan B will be one of the options studied.

The Fund will have six months to do its work. “We do not want to postpone indefinitely,” insisted the Minister responsible for Infrastructure, Jonatan Julien. The government has obtained the “commitment” from the boss of the Caisse, Charles Emond, that the mandate can be carried out within this timetable. “It becomes the government’s project,” explained Jonatan Julien.

Work is underway in Quebec to accommodate a tramway, “and we will agree [avec la Ville] on what we stop and what we continue,” said Mr. Julien. Nearly $500 million in work has already been undertaken for the tramway project, and which will be paid for by the Quebec government.

The two ministers did not want to say whether a REM for Quebec – an automated light train on its own site – would be an interesting option in the eyes of the Caisse. Let us remember that the Caisse has never hidden its ambition to export the model it developed in mainland France.

This study mandate entrusted to the CDPQ is not new. The government gave it a similar mandate to determine “the optimal solution for a structuring mobility project for the South Shore of Montreal”. This mandate does not appear to have been accompanied by such a six-month deadline, however. The mayor of Longueuil, Catherine Fournier, said in August to The Press waiting for news from the Fund for a year and a half.

As the government takes over the project, it is expected that the future transport agency will become responsible. As The Press revealed in mid-August, the Legault government intends to create a new agency to manage public transport projects and, perhaps, major road projects. It was then added that city projects, such as the Quebec tramway and the one in progress in Gatineau, could be entrusted to this agency.

“Disappointed” merchant

The mayor said he was “disappointed” after his face-to-face meeting with the Prime Minister, during which François Legault announced his decision. According to the mayor, the Prime Minister did not retain his plan B. This made the City the prime contractor for this public transport project, the cost of which more than doubled to 8, 4 billion.

“I presented him with the plan for the City to carry out the structuring transport project that is the tramway,” he added. This is not the option he will choose. Obviously, I’m disappointed. »

Despite this disappointment, Mayor Bruno Marchand said he assured Mr. Legault of his collaboration. According to him, the government’s decision does not “necessarily” sign the death of the tramway. The government has in fact suggested that all modes of transport are on the table.

“It can go from the SRB to a REM, a metro or a tram. There are several models of heavy transport. I am not a specialist in what heavy transport is, but definitely, we do not have it in Quebec,” Minister Jonatan Julien declared earlier on Wednesday.

The government’s decision is a hard blow for Quebec City Hall. Régis Labeaume unveiled the tram project in 2018. It was then estimated at 3.3 billion. A study commissioned by the City from the firm Systra confirmed the choice of the tramway, as did two studies paid for by the Quebec government in 2020.

“Failure at this level of advancement is never positive and no one will emerge unscathed. It’s a dark day for the capital and for Quebec,” reacted the general director of the Vivre en Ville organization, Christian Savard.

Mayor Bruno Marchand won the last municipal elections by adopting his predecessor’s project. The explosion of costs and the unfavorable polls – the latest showing 36% support for the project – seemed to cool the Legault government.