The six-month period for Caisse Infra to study the Quebec City traffic structuring project has not yet begun. Minister Geneviève Guilbault threw the ball back to the city, saying it was still waiting for the studies it needed to submit.
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“Six months have passed since the studies were sent to the Caisse de dépôt. The ministry’s studies have all been submitted, I checked them again this morning. We are waiting for studies from the city of Quebec, but of course we are in discussions. [Il y a] a lot of openness from the city of Quebec. We have problems with the confidentiality agreement. […] I want to reassure Mr. Marchand: from the moment we have the studies in the city of Quebec, they will run for six months,” explained the Minister of Transport today in the corridors of the National Assembly.
Earlier in the day, Quebec Mayor Bruno Marchand said he was “very concerned” about possible new delays in the creation of Quebec’s structural transportation network.
Mr. Marchand responded on Tuesday to an article published in Le Journal.
Public consultations
We learned that expanded public consultations would take place after the six-month period during which CDPQ Infra must consider the best network for Quebec. The formula and exact duration of the next consultations are unknown. It could also depend on whether CDPQ Infra will be the main contractor for a future project or not.
“If that is the case, it is very worrying because it means that we are in a horizon that we can no longer control in terms of time. I think the government should reassure us and tell us what the horizon is,” the mayor said on the sidelines of a press conference.
The latter also admitted that we are in a certain indeterminacy. “What consultations are we talking about? That is also important. Is a consultation a survey that is carried out very quickly on the Internet? he asked himself.
A situation that no longer applies
The day after his November 8 summit with Prime Minister Legault and the rejection of his Plan B for the tram, Mayor Marchand laid out five conditions. The first of these was the speed of execution after the six-month cooling-off period.
“If this is the case, this condition no longer applies. It’s still important to us […] It’s up to them to sort out the schedule. “I don’t know him,” said the mayor, visibly annoyed.
The latter again mentioned May 9 as the deadline for submitting the result of CDPQ Infra’s comprehensive deliberations. For its part, the Legault government regularly refers to this deadline as June.
QS fears delay
The whole thing is tantamount to a “delay in the tram project”, says the Solidarity MP for Taschenreau, Etienne Grandmont, who recalls that consultations have already taken place. According to him, Minister Geneviève Guilbault was busy “foiling the project and doing everything to slow it down”. “New consultations on trams are ridiculous.”
Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault did not specifically address possible consultations for the tram, but instead addressed the consultations on mobility in the region and the third link, saying that these would be carried out “in parallel” and would not delay anything.
— In collaboration with Stéphanie Martin and Nicolas Lachance
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