The leader of the municipal opposition, Claude Villeneuve, denounced the “arrogance” of the managers of the Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC) who continue to post executive positions to be filled, while the City of Quebec has practically frozen its hiring until December 31. These criticisms were quickly rejected out of hand by Mayor Marchand.
“We live as if there was no tomorrow at RTC […] When in doubt, gas to the limit,” Mr. Villeneuve was indignant on Tuesday afternoon, revealing that four executive positions are posted on the RTC website.
The latter recalled that the manager/employee ratio at RTC was recently criticized in an audit report on the finances of transport companies. The mayor himself had not ruled out cleaning up in this area.
A few minutes after this outing, Mayor Marchand responded by affirming that “the first objective is to deliver services. Three of these four positions are foreman positions […] If we are not able to deliver the service because we do not have the right people in the right places, we are no further ahead. […] There’s no scandal there.”
War of numbers
On the other hand, a war of numbers pitted the mayor of Quebec against his opponents from Quebec First and Transition Quebec (TQ).
In a decision-making summary devoted to the finances of the RTC, we read that the registration tax (which will increase from $30 to $90 from 1is January) will allow the carrier to raise $77 million in four years. This made Claude Villeneuve and Jackie Smith (head of TQ) say that most of the sums coming from the tax will be used to absorb the anticipated RTC deficit over the coming years.
Here again, Bruno Marchand issued a firm denial. According to the mayor of Quebec, “more than 50%” of the amounts resulting from this tax, over four years, will make it possible to add new public transport services.
That said, the latter was not able, on Tuesday, to provide the exact proportions of the sums which will go to finance new services and those which will make it possible to fill the deficit.
On the other hand, the mayor confirmed Tuesday that Quebec City will be compensated for its shortfall to the tune of $1.3 million per year, over four years, by the Legault government. This loss was due to the fact that the City of Lévis recovered, last month, the entire registration tax paid by its citizens.
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