Real Estate Montreal | The Press

How wonderful to see all the players in the municipal, metropolitan and provincial world waking up at the same time on the eve of the start of work on the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel.

It’s impressive to witness this avalanche of solutions to improve mobility in the greater Montreal area: let’s add public transit! Let’s ban solo driving at rush hour! Let’s deliver the goods at night! Let’s encourage telework! A real festival of ideas.

Over the past few hours, we have been jostling at the microphone of Paul Arcand and Patrice Roy to propose solutions to reduce the impacts of the work. Even the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, added his two cents by proposing free public transport for the east end of Montreal. Who says better ?

Too bad there wasn’t a table around which all these fine people could have discussed and planned the impact of the work announced a long time ago.

Ah, but wait… this table exists! This organization, which brings together all the partners affected by mobility in the greater metropolitan area, even has a name: Mobilité Montréal. Perhaps it should be renamed Immobilité Montréal?

Created by the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ) to plan the impact of the work on the Turcot interchange, Mobility Montreal aimed to propose mitigation measures, improve the public transport offer, ensure the fluidity of traffic …

At the time, there were mayors Vaillancourt, Tremblay and Saint-Hilaire, respectively mayors of Laval, Montreal and Longueuil. Around the table, there was also the Quebec Truckers’ Association, the three transportation companies, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, and so on. In short EXACTLY the same actors who are challenged today by the works of the tunnel.

A little over a decade later, it is clear that Mobilité Montréal has become an empty shell. Otherwise how to explain this mess of planning and communication?

We are assured that the technical committees of Mobilité Montréal are active, but it seems obvious that this structure no longer has a head, that the steering committee has become a ghost committee.

Shame. Because if Mobilité Montréal had done the work for which it was originally created, if the “partners” members of Mobilité Montréal had started planning the impact of the work last spring, and if they had given the which was essential in August, when we knew that the site was going to become a lot bigger than expected, this psychodrama could have been avoided.

As we have already written, the current confusion is the result of the MTQ’s lack of vision and leadership. The new minister Geneviève Guilbault seems to want to do much better than her predecessor. She has made the tunnel a priority issue since taking office, and we salute her. But it’s a bit late. Today, the minister almost implores citizens to bet on car sharing, while begging companies to encourage telework. We are no longer talking about a plan B, but a plan D for despair.

Of course, the psychodrama of the tunnel is not only the result of the lack of planning of a construction site. It is also the consequence of chronic under-investment in public transport.

In cities around the world, we invest in the development of transport networks on an annual basis. In Montreal, the last metro station was inaugurated… 15 years ago.

Add to that that we have developed all-by-car suburbs where getting around by public transport is in many cases an obstacle course. Not surprising that the situation exploded in our faces a few days before the start of work.

Let’s hope that this collective trauma serves as a lesson and encourages massive investments in public transport. It’s pretty much the only positive thing that can come out of all this mess.