The demographic decline predicted in Lévis by the Quebec Institute of Statistics (ISQ) in no way shakes Éric Duhaime’s attachment to the third link. The project, he says, is justified by past population growth.
“We’ve been talking about the bridge to the east for 70 years. Demography has changed a lot and the population of the South Shore has increased considerably during those decades,” argued the Conservative leader on Tuesday morning.
Mr. Duhaime was reacting to recent data from the ISQ showing that, contrary to what the promoters of the third link plead, the population of Lévis will have decreased in ten years, at the approximate time of its commissioning in 2031.
The population of working-age adults would then be down by 600 in the Lévis metropolitan area, according to statistics released by Radio-Canada on Tuesday.
Ten years later, the ISQ expects a slight increase of 1,700 so-called “active” adults, while the population of retirees will increase more significantly.
Mr. Duhaime also supports his position on the production by the Quebec government of numerous studies on the subject of a third link since the 1960s.
More details will follow.
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