Municipalities are asking the government to index the cost of registrations and fuel taxes, to better finance public transport in particular.
This is part of the demands set out by the Union of Municipalities of Quebec (UMQ) on Friday, at the end of its national meeting on the future of public transport, which was held in Drummondville.
Municipalities are faced with recurring deficits from their public transit companies, while sources of funding provided by the government, through the Land Transportation Network Fund, are drying up.
An indexation of registrations and fuel taxes would bring in tens of millions, even hundreds of millions more, it is estimated at the UMQ.
Faced with the CAQ government in difficult negotiations to finance public transportation, the UMQ also asked the federal government on Friday to do more.
Quebec is also asking for money
While the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, is under pressure from mayors to resolve the deficit of transport companies, she too has demanded funds from Ottawa.
Present at the summit, Mme Guilbault deplored that there will be no federal investment program in public transportation between 2023 and 2026. “That’s why we would like an earlier federal program, because we have a gap during which we do not have a federal funding source,” she declared in the press scrum after her speech.
UMQ President Martin Damphousse refused to say who precisely should pay for the recurring deficits of transport companies, in what proportion, and who should pay for the massive investments required in development.
But he suggested that we are not talking about the federal government in the current debate even though we should.
“Honestly, we must not neglect it, the federal government has an important responsibility,” he argued at a press briefing alongside the mayors of major cities in Quebec.
“The federal government must play a leading role in the development of public transportation in Quebec. We will question them, be sure of that.”