In the shadow of Montreal and Quebec, municipal elected officials in Bas-Saint-Laurent continue to fight to obtain public transportation worthy of the name for their fellow citizens. In their eyes, this involves an increase in the gas tax.
Gathered within the Regional Table of Municipal Elected Officials of Bas-Saint-Laurent (TREMBSL), the eight prefects of the Bas-Saint-Laurent MRCs and the 10 mayors of regional cities or central municipalities recently learned “bad news” of the government of Quebec.
The Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, officially closed the door to a surcharge on gasoline (two cents per liter). Angry, they wrote to Prime Minister Legault to express their “surprise” and their “deep disappointment.”
In the name of the “principle of interregional equity” and the “collective interest of the region”, they recalled that barely 5% of the sums currently collected by the gasoline tax are collected by rural areas.
“Huge delay”
“Our citizens who consume gasoline are aware that the 2¢ more per liter will finance public transportation used by their teenagers for their leisure activities, their students who will not have to move for their studies and their older parents who no longer drive,” estimated Bruno Paradis, president of TREMBSL and prefect of the MRC of La Mitis, in an interview with The Journal.
Affirming that the region “has a huge delay in public transport”, the latter recalled several elements which, in his eyes, militate for improving the service: the transporter Kéolis continually reduces its offer, the population is aging, the housing crisis is hitting Rimouski in full force and the recently arrived foreign workforce is too captive to the car.
“We did our homework by creating the Régie de transport du Bas-Saint-Laurent as the government asked us. There, we end up with nothing,” he lamented.
Not a first
The president of the Regional Table recalled that an increase in the gas tax would not be a first in Quebec, since the Montreal and Gaspésie regions have benefited from it for years.
According to him, adding 2 cents per liter to the gas tax would generate recurring $5.2 million per year. This would help to better connect the MRCs among themselves and with the Société de transport de Rimouski using 8 minibuses which will serve 11 regional circuits.
A recent Segma Research survey shows that 60% of the region’s population opts for an increase in the fuel tax compared to 26% who choose the addition of $60 to the registration tax. According to Mr. Paradis, an increase in the registration tax would be an “inadequate” measure which would not meet the specific needs of the region. This not to mention that it would be more complicated to put in place at the administrative level, he insisted.
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