Public transport companies cannot offer their services free to seniors or increase the salaries of their executives and wait for the state to then absorb their deficits, says Minister Geneviève Guilbault.
• Also read: Tram: Guilbault questions government funding of cost overruns
“It cannot go on like this, we have to use public funds sparingly,” emphasized the Transport Minister when presenting her “final offer” of 265 million US dollars in order to jointly offset the expected deficits of the transport companies.
Even if cities accepted this proposal, the fundamental problem would not be solved, argued Ms. Guilbault, deploring the fact that transport companies ask the government every year for help to balance their budgets.
Test
For this reason, the Minister intends to commission an external company to carry out independent audits of the ten transport companies and the Regional Metropolitan Transport Agency in order to find ways to reduce their expenses or increase their revenues.
Ms. Guilbault recalled that it is not the government, but municipalities and transport companies themselves that have control over their spending. “They make their decisions,” she said, citing examples that she said warrant “introspection” by these organizations.
“If we increase salaries, executive salaries during the pandemic, when no one is on public transportation anymore and we need money to fill our budget gaps… Things like that exist,” she said.
The minister also cited the decision to make public transport free for seniors in Montreal as an example. “In an ideal world it would be free for everyone, but it comes with a cost. And then we turn to the Quebec government and ask: “Fund this for us,” she lamented.
arm wrestling
Meanwhile, Quebec’s offer of $265 million falls short of the $400 million the cities are asking for. The two parties also do not agree on the size of the transport companies’ deficits; the Legault government estimates them at 376 million and the municipalities at 532 million.
To justify this difference in calculation, Minister Guilbault confirmed that her government had found $72 million to cut the ARTM, for which she was responsible.
And to municipalities that warned last week that there was a risk of benefit cuts if Qubéec’s contribution was not there, Ms Guilbault responded on Friday that there were other ways to work than “scare people”.
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