The Minister of Transport AND Sustainable Mobility (let’s not forget) proved this week that she does not have a green thumb.
According to Geneviève Guilbault, managing public transport “is not a mission of the State”. Everyone “must manage their own fern”.
Um, sorry?
His expression raised eyebrows. Firstly because Quebecers who do not have young children did not know the reference to Manage your fern, a humorous album that teaches young people to mind their own business. We thank the minister for cultivating Quebec culture and highlighting a charming expression that deserves to be established in our vocabulary.
After the flowers, the pot.
Much more fundamentally, if Geneviève Guilbault’s retort raised eyebrows, it is because it demonstrates the lack of will of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) to find solutions to the serious issue of financing public transportation.
Whatever the government says, it is indeed its responsibility.
Oh, of course, no one is asking Quebec to take care of bus schedules or metro breakdowns. Daily management is not its mandate. All the same, we understand the government asking cities and their transport companies to exercise tight management of their operations.
With this in mind, Prime Minister François Legault did not fail to point out that municipal employees earn 30% more than provincial employees. Those of the transport companies are doing very well. In Montreal, Laval and Longueuil, bus drivers have a total remuneration (including social benefits) of more than $100,0001.
However, Quebec cannot say that it has nothing to do with the monster deficit of transport companies. Just in Greater Montreal, the hole is 561 million for 2025.
When the government launched the REM project, it was written in the sky that it would explode operating costs, without increasing fare revenues as much, because many users were already taking public transport. In other words, the new REM cannibalized the old clientele.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The construction of a new public transportation network, such as the REM, does not necessarily result in an increase in fare revenue.
This is a structural problem that existed long before COVID-19 caused ridership to drop, further widening the deficit of transportation companies.
The same issue will recur with the blue line of the Montreal metro, the tramway in Quebec, the electrification of buses…
So before launching other projects, we need to know who will pay to run them.
Users ?
New infrastructure is so expensive to operate that users cannot be asked to cover a third of the bill, as in the past, because prices would become prohibitive.
Especially since it is the entire clientele who would suffer, because the price is the same everywhere on the island of Montreal, regardless of the mode of transport taken. Thus, the schoolchild who takes the bus to go to school a few minutes from home would find himself unduly “subsidizing” the worker who takes the REM to go to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.
Who else can pay? Towns ?
Last December, the CAQ adopted a bill that gives municipalities the power to increase the cost of vehicle registration to finance public transportation. Several have done so. This is a step in the right direction.
In Montreal, elected officials who will launch consultations on May 6 have put other options on the table, including an increase in municipal taxes.
But at a time when we are scraping the bottom of our drawers, it is difficult to explain why the City of Montreal has just made public transportation free for those aged 65 and over, when many of them have the means to pay, thus depriving themselves of 40 million dollars per year.
And Quebec in all this?
The government could move the meter thanks to eco-taxation, which remains underused in Quebec.
At a minimum, we could index existing measures, such as the $30 contribution payable on registration renewal, in regions where there is public transportation, which has not changed since 1992. Or like the provincial tax of 19 cents on fuel, which has also not been indexed since 2013.
The time would be particularly good to raise these taxes without causing too much harm to motorists who have benefited from a three-year holiday from paying the insurance contribution associated with their driving license, since accidents have been fewer. Just for 2024, this represents savings of 600 million for drivers.
Enough to give a big helping hand to public transport!
One thing is certain, Quebec cannot wash its hands of it. Public transportation is a pillar of the fight against climate change which concerns all Quebecers, not just those who live in cities. We saw this last summer when forest fires, landslides and other weather calamities disrupted our lives across the province.
For the moment, the measures put in place by the CAQ in its Green Economy Plan (PEV) only make it possible to achieve 60% of our greenhouse gas reduction objective in 2030.2. But 2030 is tomorrow morning! For the future of our children, it is high time that we manage our fern.
1. Read the column “Public transportation: deficits and bus driver pay”
2. Consult the government report Project on financing sustainable mobility. Sustainable mobility policy – 2030