The CAQ government will not provide new data on the third Quebec-Lévis link by the next election date. However, everything will come in time to those who can wait, promises the Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel: the population will have all the information available during the next annual update, in the spring of 2023.
Presented on April 14, the “bitube”, the most recent version of the third link promised by the CAQ during the election campaign, is the subject of a “new modelling” the results of which will not be known to the public for a year.
It is therefore on the basis of the 10-page document that accompanied the unveiling of the two tunnels planned by the CAQ that Quebecers will have to decide on October 3. A technical feasibility study dating from 2016 also appears on the page dedicated to the Réseau express de la Capitale: its author, Bruno Massicotte, however, considers that it is no longer up to date.
“We will not have data, we will not have figures, we will have nothing between now and the election,” lamented the Liberal MP for Pontiac, André Fortin, during the study of the budgetary appropriations allocated to Transportation.
For the government, the relevance of the project is beyond doubt, with or without a supporting study. The dilapidated state of the Quebec Bridge, more than a century old, the saturation of the Pierre-Laporte Bridge at rush hour and the need to “close the loop” of public transit to make it more attractive are enough to justify a third link under the St. Lawrence. and its bill fluctuating between 6 and 7 billion dollars.
“No one can deny the fact that there is an infrastructure deficit between the two shores,” repeated the Minister of Transport, citing a federal comparative analysis showing that Quebec does poorly in terms of inter-shore links compared to other other North American cities.
The PQ MNA for Matane-Matapédia, Pascal Bérubé, asked in vain to see the opportunity file, a dense document that usually precedes the development of major public infrastructure projects and which makes it possible to assess their relevance and to recommend the best long-term option to meet the expressed need.
“There is no opportunity file,” Minister Bonnardel confirmed on Tuesday. The government preferred to speed up the process by invoking article 32 of the Directive on the management of major public infrastructure projects, which makes it possible to circumvent the “normal” route with the authorization of the Council of Ministers.
“It’s a bit crazy,” said André Fortin. We arrive with a solution and after that, we will give the needs. It seems to me that we measure the needs before coming up with the solution. »
Densification, “a trend”
Minister Bonnardel insisted on the importance of increasing the attractiveness of public transit by reducing travel times to reach downtown Lévis and Quebec City. “For us, it was undeniable that the attractiveness of public transit was important,” said the Minister. However, he did not specify the reasons that led his government to sacrifice the permanent lanes reserved for public transit in the most recent version of the third link.
Opponents enjoyed recalling earlier assertions made by colleagues of the transport minister. Pascal Bérubé pointed out that the member for La Peltrie, Éric Caire, had said a few years ago that a third link whose cost would exceed four billion dollars would be a “catastrophic scenario”.
More recently, the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, argued that the tunnel envisaged by the CAQ was “a great way” to curb urban sprawl.
François Bonnardel, on Tuesday, decided: the “bitube” at 6.5 billion dollars does not represent a “catastrophe” and his ministry does not claim either that the tunnels will stem the sprawl. “A few years ago, when I arrived, we were talking about occupying the territory. Today, it’s spreading, said the Minister of Transport. I mentioned it: the trend among architects and urban planners is to densify. »
He accused the supportive MP for Taschereau, Catherine Dorion, of “assuming” that the third link was going to fuel real estate development at its mouths. “Nobody, nobody in the government said that overnight, we were going to bulldoze agricultural land,” insisted Mr. Bonnardel, specifying that rules exist in the country. [ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation] to protect them.
However, the minister never admitted that the “rebalancing” of development desired by his government to the east, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, constituted urban sprawl. “We will not have an answer, lamented Mme Dorion after a sometimes tense exchange between her and the minister. It’s like when we do ghost on the Internet, she concluded. No answer, it’s an answer. »