François Legault’s exit on the third link between Quebec and Lévis did not change much in the strategies of the mayors of the South Shore. While the rest of Quebec thought the project was well buried, they continued to mobilize and pressure for it to become a reality.
“We have not stopped working on the file,” explains in an interview the prefect of the MRC of Bellechasse and mayor of La Durantaye, Yvon Dumont.
They “hoped” that the government would reconsider its decision, said Mr. Dumont, “but not in the circumstances in which it happened.”
Even before Jean-Talon’s by-election on October 2, the prefects and mayors of the Chaudière-Appalaches region had planned a meeting with elected officials from Île d’Orléans to rally them behind the project of a link passing through their territory, says the prefect of the MRC of Lotbinière and mayor of Val-Alain, Daniel Turcotte.
“We wanted to find a strategy, bring a bridge, do something, push the issue even further,” specifies this elected official whose municipality is 70 kilometers from the capital.
The local CAQ deputies, Stéphanie Lachance and Isabelle Lecours, have never stopped relaying these concerns to the government, affirm the two prefects.
In Beauce too, interest in the third link has never dried up, according to the deputy for Beauce-Nord, Luc Provençal. Even after the motorway tunnel project was abandoned, the MP continued to work on its completion. “I have only ever hidden myself personally, from the moment there is a decision [d’abandonner le projet en avril]I worked on this file,” he told journalists Thursday.
And added that last week, the caucus of elected officials from Chaudière-Appalaches discussed it to develop a strategy aimed at pushing the issue. “We need a road link,” he insists.
Opportunity for the Conservative Party
According to the poll aggregator Québec 125, the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) would win in the two Beauce ridings if a provincial election took place today. In Bellechasse and Lotbinière, the PCQ and the CAQ would be face to face.
In the constituencies of Lévis and Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, which are respectively represented by Bernard Drainville and Martine Biron, the findings are less damning, but local pressure remains strong.
On Wednesday, the Greater Lévis Chamber of Commerce and Industry urged the government to prove its good faith. “To prove our sincerity and above all to make up for lost time, we [lui] ask to quickly set up a monitoring committee on which the Chamber of Commerce will sit. »
Meanwhile, the mayor of Lévis, Gilles Lehouiller, was back on the airwaves of CHOI-Radio “The population will not give up on this project and every day, we have proof of it. This morning, at 8:30 a.m., I was on Highway 20 towards Saint-Nicolas and I had trouble getting around St-Romuald. For what ? Because everything is clogged at the head of the bridges. »
A “mobility project” or a bridge
Thursday morning, Martine Biron remained vague on the form that the project could take, referring to a “mobility project for greater Quebec”.
But the local tenors only have a bridge via the Île d’Orléans. “We never asked for a tunnel,” says the prefect of Lotibinière, Mr. Turcotte. Even if his MRC does not benefit directly because it is at the other end of the territory, to the west, he believes that a bridge to the east will improve fluidity near the bridges.
Asked about the possibility of this taking another form, the prefect of Bellechasse jokes that we could always bet on… a helicopter.
Like MP Luc Provençal, Yvon Dumont justifies this choice by the need to be able to transport goods more efficiently. “The South Shore has a developed industrial sector. To distribute your products, you must make them as accessible as possible by reducing transport costs. »
Support for Île d’Orléans?
Mr. Dumont and Mr. Turcotte further argue that the people of the island are less opposed to it than one might think. “From what we heard through the branches, there was interest in a third link going through them,” mentions Mr. Turcotte.
Contacted on Thursday, the prefect of Île d’Orléans, Lina Labbé, did not want to make comments and “is waiting to have more developments before responding to the media”, indicated the spokesperson for the MRC.
The idea of a bridge is nothing new. This is what was originally called for as a third link in the 1960s. In 2017, mayoral candidate Jean-François Gosselin campaigned for mayor for a bridge to the east. An idea supported by the Liberal Party of Quebec in 2015, then the CAQ until it took power in 2018.
The latter recommended a new bridge linking Quebec to the island, followed by a tunnel or another bridge linking the island to the south shore of the St. Lawrence River.
Then in June 2019, the Minister of Transport at the time, François Bonnardel, announced that he would instead finance a tunnel to the east in order to protect the historic district of Île d’Orléans. “It will not be necessary to disturb the territory of Île d’Orléans,” he declared.
Six months later, another change of direction: the government reveals that it is working on a new underground route linking the city centers of Quebec and Lévis. It was the Capital Express Network which connected the tunnel to the tramway.