In his haste to resolve the issue of the Quebec tramway and Mayor Bruno Marchand – whom he never really liked – Prime Minister François Legault will have created all kinds of other problems. In particular, he undermines the independence of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) to which he gave six months to examine the file.
First, there are possible and even obvious conflicts of interest. When we ask an organization to play a consulting role in an issue like the tramway, we must ensure that it has its hands free. That he will be able to recommend what he considers to be the right solution, whether the client likes it or not.
However, there is a very direct link between the Prime Minister and the senior managers of the Caisse. It is the board of directors of the CDPQ which appoints the president, as provided for by law. But this choice must be ratified by the government.
In fact, a president who openly opposes the government’s views could not remain in office. In a question like that of the tramway, it is clear that this link will play a role which can be decisive.
There is, obviously, a commercial conflict of interest. The Caisse is not a neutral actor in this matter. It has a product to sell: the REM which is, of course, a direct competitor to the tramway that Quebec City would like to build.
The Caisse has never hidden its intention to find other markets for its REM. Still with the same technology, driverless trains and with a right of way that it owns, which almost certainly means that it would be at height.
We were targeting large Asian cities that have little or no public transportation systems. But since we still don’t have any orders, Quebec would be a nice consolation prize.
One thing is certain, there would always be doubt about the assessment that the Caisse de dépôt would make of the tramway project knowing that it has another project in its “showroom”. Even if we can reasonably think that a concrete scar like that of the REM would not be immediately acceptable in a heritage city like Quebec.
Finally, there is the question of competence. First, from the start of the project, the Caisse boasted of being able to complete it “on budget and on time”. It will have respected neither – even if we can agree that cost overruns in large projects are more the norm than the exception.
But it should still be noted that the REM currently in service is only a small part of what was planned – 17 km out of 57 – and that service to Montreal-Trudeau airport should only be completed in 2027. , when it was the initial order of the Quebec government.
Likewise, the Caisse’s record (through its subsidiary CDPQ Infra) as REM operator is far from rosy when we look at the number of breakdowns.
Finally, the Caisse de dépôt does not have much internal expertise on all the other aspects that must be studied in addition to the mode of transport. We are talking about town planning, impacts on the environment, on demography, on mobility, on housing policies.
Topics that have already been studied in depth by top experts, all of whom have concluded the same thing. Either that for the Quebec region, taking into account all the factors, the tramway was the best possible project.
We have been doing studies on the issue for a decade and one wonders what the Fund will be able to find in six months which will be very different from what has already been written.
And that’s what’s most disturbing about this whole affair. The government seems to have already made its decision: too expensive and, politically, still controversial. Although we cannot deny the fact that inflation causes cost overruns in all major projects today. We only have to look at Hydro-Québec’s strategic plan to be convinced.
In context, the order made to the Fund appears to be a political order to find a way to confirm the decision that has already been taken by the Prime Minister.
This is to disregard the principle of municipal autonomy. But also – and this is the most potentially damaging – what is in question is the autonomy of the Caisse de dépôt itself, which finds itself becoming a sort of guarantor for the most political decisions of the government.
No one is going to benefit from a Caisse de dépôt which would become a sort of “think tank” serving the party in power.