The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) “does not necessarily” have the mandate to propose a project for a third link between Quebec and Lévis, its president and CEO, Charles Emond, declared Wednesday.
He affirmed that the mandate of his subsidiary CDPQ Infra is to present recommendations in June on the options to choose or not to improve mobility in the greater Quebec region.
“What we promise you for June will be all our recommendations which will be tabled, documented, explained, including all the options that we are not going to do and those that we are going to do,” he said. in a press briefing at the National Assembly.
As for the possibility of an inter-river link, this hypothesis will be examined particularly through the prism of traffic, indicated the president and CEO.
“In the mandate, we ask to look at mobility, including the inter-river connection, but what we are going to do is look at the traffic data, study all the possible options and come up with a recommendation,” said -he said.
The mandate does not, however, oblige CDPQ Infra to recommend the construction of a link between the two shores.
“What we have to look at is the best way to arrive based on mobility needs and traffic data, and all options will be studied. And we will see what we recommend and what we do not recommend,” said Mr. Emond.
At the end of March, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, MP for Lévis, made affirmative remarks about the third link, which his government defended tooth and nail during the electoral campaign and then transformed it into a public transport project, then resurrect it with its motorway component.
“The commitment we have from the Caisse is that they will submit a project for an inter-bank link. That’s a given,” assured Mr. Drainville when addressing business people.
Analysis in progress
Mr. Emond was visiting the National Assembly on Wednesday, as part of the study of the CDPQ’s budgetary appropriations, in parliamentary committee.
Alongside him, the president and CEO of CDPQ Infra, Jean-Marc Arbaud, said that representatives of his subsidiary had met with Mr. Drainville and MPs from his region at the end of February.
“I was not present. What we had to do in this meeting was present the master plan of what we were looking at,” he said.
So far, no conclusions have been presented, and all that has been explained is the CDPQ’s approach in this matter, assured Mr. Arbaud.
“We haven’t finished the studies, we will have finished them in June, and I can’t talk about a result. I can assure you that I have never had a discussion with a person directly to say: “We are going to create a system like that.” No. »