The Capital Transportation Network (RTC) succeeds in extremis to balance its 2024 budget, estimated at $280.7 million, an increase of $20 million compared to projections established for 2023.
Just a few weeks ago, the RTC was heading towards a deficit of $30 million due to ridership returning to only 84% compared to the pre-pandemic level and an inflationary context which is causing bills to inflate. Recently confirmed one-off government assistance of $30 million allowed the RTC to complete its budget in green ink.
In total, the RTC made 28 million trips in 2023. Its àVélo shared bicycle service added 670,000. If the RTC adds up the half a million trips provided by its paratransit service, it can claim nearly 30 million trips and aims to increase this number by 4.3 % in 2024.
“The situation remains fragile,” however, noted Nicolas Girard on the sidelines of the presentation, Thursday, of his first budget as general director. The RTC rules out any reduction in services for 2024, even announcing the addition of 300 additional shared bicycles to the network which last summer had a total of 1,000. Fifteen new stations will be added to the 100 already in place, including three along the popular Promenade Samuel-de-Champlain.
The Flexibus, an on-demand transport service that benefits the city’s outskirts, will also arrive near the city center, at Anse-au-Foulon and Cap-Diamant.
Stung by the fact that the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, is demanding a slimming regime from Quebec transport companies, Nicolas Girard underlined, without naming the Deputy Prime Minister, that “for every dollar spent at the RTC, there is, 87% which goes directly to the service.”
“We sometimes hear people say that we could easily reduce the budget of transport companies by not affecting services,” he insisted. It is not knowing our reality to make such assertions. »
The RTC, however, managed to save a few million in 2023 and intends to do so again in 2024. Hiring constraints and the reduction of senior managers made it possible to save $5.2 million this year. The reduction in travel, conference and training costs also saved another million.
In 2024, the RTC intends to save another three million dollars. In total, in two years, these optimization efforts will have saved $11.6 million, or 4% of the total budget presented for 2024.
Electrification, a financial burden
The electrification of the RTC fleet will, however, deepen its debt, warned Nicolas Girard. “It is a priority of the Government of Quebec, but which has an enormous impact,” explained the director general. The government finances 95% of electric buses and 85% of infrastructure, but there is an amount that remains the responsibility of the RTC and which creates a pressure of 635 million dollars on our debt service for the next 10 years . This is the concrete impact that it will have. Yes, we must achieve electrification, but we must also have the financial means to have an improved service offering so that there are customers on electric buses.
The general director did not want to quantify his ambitions under the new power of taxation on registration granted to cities. “It will be up to elected officials to determine what amount will better finance public transportation,” said Nicolas Girard.
The proportion of greenhouse gases emitted by transport amounts to 64% in Quebec. It is 43% in all of Quebec.