It is not reasonable to pay $36 billion for an entirely underground route for the Eastern Metropolitan Express Network (REM), according to François Legault.
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“I was very surprised at the $36 billion. I had a hard time swallowing my sip of coffee when I read that, ”launched the Prime Minister, Wednesday morning, during a press scrum in Quebec.
A report prepared by the committee behind the project recommends a 34 km route whose track would be entirely underground, and whose final bill would reach $35.9 billion.
However, the government has never asked the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) to work on a completely underground project, said François Legault.
“We’re going to look at the costs, we’re going to look at what’s on offer, but Quebecers definitely don’t have the capacity to pay for a $36 billion project,” he said.
- Listen to the interview with Guillaume Tremblay, Mayor of the City of Mascouche, at the microphone of Jean-François Baril via QUB-radio:
When he left the Council of Ministers in the afternoon, the Minister of Finance Éric Girard added to this by affirming that such a cost “discredits” the project from the outset, and that the government will prefer to invest first in other infrastructure, considered more urgent.
“I think the issue when you throw out numbers like that is that it discredits the project when you start. I would tell you as a manager of public funds, it is certain that Maisonneuve-Rosemont is more urgent than a project like this, ”he said.
The new ARTM proposal is an alternative to the first version of the REM de l’Est, controversial because of an aerial section that was to cross downtown Montreal. Due to a lack of social acceptability, the Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal took over the project in May 2022.
As in the first version of the project, the route would connect the Pointe-aux-Trembles district and the Cégep Marie-Victorin.
- Listen to the political column of Nic Payne, political analyst, at the microphone of Alexandre Dubé via QUB-radio:
However, rather than making a direct link to the city center, it would include two connection points to the metro’s green line, and an extension of four stations to Rivière-des-Prairies, Laval and Charlemagne.