With the approach of the budget, the “government of the regions” ticks almost all the boxes in terms of infrastructure, but the rate of progress of the projects continues to cause dissatisfaction.
In the Gaspé, anger was brewing until recently over the railway file. “The stagnation that has characterized the planning of these repairs since June 2020 is unacceptable”, wrote the editorialist of the newspaper. graffiti, Gilles Gagné, in February. A few days later, the Minister of Transport was on hand to launch the reconstruction of a railway bridge, the first progress in 20 months. The pace of construction has not accelerated much, but Gaspésie cannot say that it has been completely forgotten.
The major infrastructure projects will be unveiled on Tuesday, when the new five-year infrastructure program (PQI) which accompanies the budget is tabled.
Officially, the timetable for infrastructure works must be based on independent assessments. However, the engineers of the Ministry of Transport are exposed to “political pressures”, according to what the Professional Association of Engineers of the Government of Quebec (APIGQ) said during its passage in parliamentary committee in February 2021.
At the time, reported La Presse canadienne, the APIGQ declared that the machine was sometimes “pushed” to speed up projects for partisan purposes, in order to favor constituencies or win seats.
In the office of the Minister of Transport, a source assured us this week that “politics do not [mêlait] not the schedule and work priorities”. Despite everything, the firm was pleased to “deliver the goods”.
Delivery facilitated, he concedes, by Bill 66 adopted in December 2020 to accelerate the completion of infrastructure projects during the pandemic.
Ripple in the East
Recall that, during the 2018 election campaign, François Legault had promised to form a “government of the regions”. A formula revisited at the last general council of his party, this fall. “My dream is that the XXIand century, this is the century of the regions of Quebec”, had launched the Prime Minister in his speech.
However, several of them, among the most remote, elected opposition MPs in 2018, particularly in eastern Quebec.
In Bas-Saint-Laurent, for example, half of the deputies sit on the other side of the Blue Room. In the region, the file that is currently making headlines is that of the ferry service to Charlevoix, the City of Cacouna wishing to take over from Rivière-du-Loup for the departure and arrival of boats.
Earlier, during his mandate, Minister François Bonnardel had yielded to the demands of the people of Trois-Pistoles who were pressing him to finance the renovation of their ferry, theLegacy 1.
Stay the old extension file of Highway 20 between Trois-Pistoles and Rimouski, demanded for decades by local elected officials. Although the CAQ has promised to make it a priority, the pressure is less strong locally, because the project no longer has consensus since the election of the new mayor of Trois-Pistoles, Philippe Guilbert.
Abitibi must wait
Meanwhile, the file for the bridge between Baie-Sainte-Catherine and Tadoussac is progressing, to the great pleasure of elected officials from the North Shore, who see it as a way to “open up” their region.
The Minister of Transport has just launched a call for tenders for the realization of a socio-economic study, an announcement which partly masks the delays in the delivery of the study on the opportunity of the project launched last fall .
Same thing in the case of the extension of the 138. Work is in progress and the Ministry of Transport unveiled, on March 14, an agreement with the Innu to clear part of the territory between Kegaska and La Romaine.
However, the government is in a less comfortable position in Abitibi, where the slow refurbishment of Highway 117 is fueling its share of impatience.
Last April, Minister Bonnardel reassured many by announcing the creation of a “project office” to oversee this vast undertaking. However, almost a year later, the engineer who will be responsible for the office has not yet been named.
The elected officials of the CAQ also face some discontent in the Centre-du-Québec. The government had offered the region what it was asking for with the widening of Highway 55. Now the City of Bécancour is asking the Department of Transport to modify the project.
In the Outaouais, the population is asking for answers in the hospital file. In the fall of 2020, the government announced with great fanfare that the Outaouais would have its new hospital, as it had promised during the election campaign. But in recent weeks, rumors of a remote location from downtown Gatineau have sparked outcry. In the region, some opinion leaders are already talking about making it an electoral issue.