The explosion in costs observed in almost all public transport projects in the country shows that these projects are too expensive and that “we have to find a way to be more efficient,” believes Geneviève Guilbault.
• Also read: Structural Transport: Almost all projects in the country have far exceeded their original budget
• Also read: The CAQ’s position on the tram is indefensible
A review carried out by Le Journal of the various public transport structuring projects in the country confirms a trend identified by university experts a few years ago: original budgets are almost always exceeded, as is the case with the Quebec tram.
“I found the article very interesting,” commented the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, noting that the findings found by the experts were consistent with those she made when crossing to the other side of the Atlantic last March.
“I went on a mission to Europe and came back and said, ‘My God, it’s complicated here and expensive compared to Europe,'” Ms. Guilbault said.
“And we see clearly that this is mainly explained by the fact that we do little here [de grands projets de transport collectif]therefore less expertise, less accustomed,” she continued.
For the Deputy Prime Minister, the solution – even if she refrains from clearly naming it – seems to be the establishment of a transport agency. La Presse revealed last August that François Legault almost made this a campaign promise in the last elections.
“You know that I am working on a way to become more efficient and that collective transport projects, among other things, cost less and take less time,” indicated Ms. Guilbault, indirectly referring to the creation of such an agency on Wednesday.
“So I’ll keep working and have something to say to you sometime when I’m ready,” she added.
“We’re speculating,” says Julien
His colleague in charge of infrastructure and the state capital, Jonatan Julien, who was also invited to respond to our report, assured that he is closely following this ongoing overheating in the North American market.
“I’ve been saying for a long time that major infrastructure projects have increased by about 40% in the last five years,” he commented. We’re looking into it. So yes, there is overheating. Yes, there are competition problems. Yes, there are availability issues, so we are aware of that.”
“Will it last over time? We can’t say that,” Mr. Julien said.
Regarding the Quebec City project, “I reiterate that we are in favor of the tram project,” stressed the member for Charlesbourg.
“We are of course waiting for the numbers. At the moment we are speculating,” he noted.
The tram is not an isolated case
“There is a lot of speculation about the tram. As long as we don’t have reliable information, it remains speculation,” said PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in the same spirit.
His colleague and Parti Québécois spokesman for transport, Joël Arseneau, took the opportunity to stress that “almost all the projects implemented by the government” had “proved to be disasters at the financial level.”
He cites senior homes, kindergartens for 4-year-olds and the REM in Montreal as examples. “So why should we only focus on the city of Quebec, its mayor and the tram project? That’s because there’s a reason for it. We would like the CAQ to be more transparent and then strongly support the project and help more,” said Mr Arseneau.