The Legault government is pressuring the City of Quebec to withdraw a shared track from the tramway project and accuses it of not taking sufficient account of the needs of motorists and suburbs.
“The mayor of Quebec says he doesn’t want to wage war on the automobile. Let him prove it. And that he stops polluting the existence of motorists with projects like that, ”said CAQ MP Éric Caire in a press scrum on Wednesday morning.
The CAQ government is opposed to part of René-Lévesque Boulevard being transformed into a shared lane between cars and trams as part of the project. The shared street concept aims to limit the presence of cars to low-speed local traffic and to give more space to bicycles and pedestrians.
This compromise was recently presented by the Marchand administration in order, in particular, to limit the cutting of trees in this sector. These cuts were one of the central issues of the last municipal election campaign.
However, according to a study by the City, made public last week by The Journal of Quebecthe presence of a shared street could in particular double the travel time between Parliament and Laval University in the afternoon on Grande Allée and Laurier Boulevard.
Marchand denounces interference
The City, for its part, criticizes the government for “interfering” in decisions that fall within municipal jurisdiction. The mayor especially regrets that the Council of Ministers is pushing back the signing of decrees necessary for the launch of calls for key proposals in the realization of the project. The Marchand administration hoped that the decrees would be adopted no later than this Wednesday, but the government has let it be known that they would not be approved until April 6.
“It is not the mayor of Quebec who will dictate the agenda of the council of ministers”, declared Wednesday morning the Minister of Transport François Bonnardel.
Even Prime Minister François Legault commented on the file in the morning. “It is his responsibility to have social acceptability,” said Mr. Legault in a press scrum about Mayor Marchand.
One after another, his ministers suggested on Wednesday that the shared path was attracting particularly strong criticism in the municipalities on the outskirts of Quebec. François Bonnardel and Éric Caire both talked about Saint-Apollinaire, which is located in Lotbinière, south of Lévis.
Mayor Bruno Marchand must comment on the file again on Wednesday afternoon.
More details will follow.