Pressed to invest in public transit to bring back better service, Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault instead announced a consultation tour that will begin in March.
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The Minister made the trip to Montreal on Monday to speak with organizations campaigning for public transit. A few days earlier, they demanded an increase in the service offer and the adoption of a new financing plan.
Ms. Guilbault did not want to commit financially to the file, but instead promised a consultation to meet with municipalities and transport companies.
“We’re going to see exactly what role everyone should play because we all already put a lot of money into public transit,” she said during a press scrum.
In addition to establishing the various sources of funding, the minister wants to see if there is a way to rationalize spending in this sector.
At the end of these consultations, it intends to reach an agreement over five years for the financing of public transit.
“I want us to be able to get out of financial aid a little piecemeal, urgently, at the last minute, which is difficult to predict for both the municipal and provincial levels,” she added.
According to the minister, the Legault government has increased public transit funding by 88% since coming to power in 2018.
However, the Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) announced cuts last month. In particular, it ended its bus service every 10 minutes during rush hour.
A first step
Present at the event organized by Trajectoire Québec, the chairman of the board of directors of the STM welcomed this announcement, but wishes to have money quickly on the table.
“The challenge is this year. There, the pandemic is over, people are taking the bus, people are taking the car, so we must seize the opportunity now to increase funding for public transit, ”said Éric Alan Caldwell.
“We must have stable funding for public transit,” he said as the STM declared a budget deficit of $78 million for this year.
The executive director of Trajectoire Québec, Sarah Doyon, hopes that these consultations will lead to concrete results and new sources of funding.
“For us, it’s good news to see that she is tackling this issue quickly. What we want is for it not to remain just a consultation, ”she said after the minister’s speech.