It was a Caquist promise: the construction of a 3e link between Quebec and Lévis, a demand that has been germinating for a long time in the region. Elected, the government of François Legault is moving forward. He will build this tunnel.
Financial bill: 10 billion.
Ecological invoice: to be defined.
The 43 words I just wrote in the previous three paragraphs are not controversial. But in Quebec, there are people for whom this is heresy.
Because there are among the defenders and promoters of the 3e link an almost religious zeal to want to excommunicate those who raise doubts about this infrastructure and in particular if the critics come from… Montreal. There is a sort of sacralization of the 3e link and as everyone knows, we can not dispute the sacred. It’s none of your business, they say, it’s a project that affects Quebec and just Quebec, get involved in your onions, in Montreal!
I have only one word to oppose this posture: no.
First and foremost, it is a Quebec project in the broad sense, in the national sense. The Quebec region alone cannot afford a 3e link to 10 billion, unless you build a stump in the form of a cul-de-sac under the river.
All Quebeckers will pay for this infrastructure project – the most expensive of our generation – if it sees the light of day.
Right on that, from Chibougamau to Anjou, we have the right to utter all imaginable flats, in the same way that CH fans can decide to boo whoever they want at the Bell Center.
The reverse is also true. There are people in Gaspé and Limoilou who have opinions on the sidewalk projections, the pink metro line, the REV and the repair of the Olympic Stadium in Montreal: they have the right to do so.
I would also point out that Revenu Québec collected $ 80 billion in the territory in 2019. The Capitale-Nationale region provided $ 8.7 billion of the jackpot. Montreal? 23.5 billion. Montreal therefore provides three times more Dominion dollars to the public treasury than the Capitale-Nationale.1.
Do you see me coming?
We too will pay for that tunnel, the people of Montreal (like those of Chibougamau, by the way). In the end, Montrealers will even fund it three times more than the people of the Capitale-Nationale region.
I therefore think that the citizen of 514 has every right to occupy part of the debate on the 3e link. And if it is absolutely necessary to apply a mathematical logic, Montrealers should have three times as many votes as the people of Quebec …
This is hyperbole, of course: I do not think that Montreal should have a greater weight on the debates taking place in Quebec under the pretext that the weight of Montrealers in the public treasury is greater than that of all the other regions.
I use this formula to show that the 3e the link is not the repair of a sidewalk projection on the Grande Allée. The 3e link is funded by all Quebecers. Right on that, all Quebecers have the right to comment on the 3e link. It includes the right to criticize him.
But the basis of my argument lies elsewhere. Society is a beautiful bug. Sometimes you give; sometimes you receive. No one really keeps a record, no one asks you if you took more than you gave. This is the strength of a company.
And Quebecers still have the legitimacy to express a point of view on their society.
The government of François Legault has therefore promised a 3e link to the Capitale-Nationale region.
But the government has no study to offer Quebecers to scientifically demonstrate the relevance and usefulness of a 3e link between Quebec and Lévis, instead of other solutions. Maybe it will come. At 10 billion, seems to me that is a… minimum.
So far, the government has failed to gain the support of any known expert, the kind of expert who publishes scientific research in the field of mobility. Maybe it will come. In 2021, it seems to me that it is essential to present evidence, if there is any, to support projects, policies and programs. There is no shortage of experts who publish on mobility.
The debate on the 3e link is therefore engaged. For the CAQ, the fact of having promised it seems to take the place of evidence. It’s a bit short.
Example: when Régis Labeaume criticized the 3e link as a last political gesture, with several arguments in support, the tenors Caquistes reproached him for his… bitterness2.
Need I say that’s not an argument?
So, we can love it, this 3e link. We may not like it. We can see the qualities or the defects that we want. But one thing is absolutely certain: all Quebecers absolutely have the right to have a point of view on the 3e link, wherever they live.
1. Read the Radio-Canada article “Which regions pay the most tax to Quebec tax authorities?” “2. Read the Radio-Canada article” La lettre de Labeaume tintée
of “bitterness”, according to the tenors of the CAQ ”