The financial situation of the Train de Charlevoix was first reported Tuesday morning by The Charlevoisian: the tourist attraction has a shortfall of $625,000 for the current fiscal year. If no solution is found, the company will have to close its activities and lay off all its employees from December 20, following a lack of liquidity.
According to Nancy Belley, general director of Train de Charlevoix, the organization’s difficult financial situation has lasted for two years now.
“We had support agreements with the various partners in the region, agreements which ended in 2022. When we wanted to renegotiate these agreements, it was extremely difficult with the region,” maintains Ms. Belley.
While the train is on the verge of derailing following two years without regional support, Ms. Belley emphasizes that “communication is still very difficult” with the different municipalities and the two MRCs.
The only point on which the various partners involved in the project agree is precisely that the negotiations are leading nowhere at the moment. The mayor of La Malbaie, Michel Couturier, admits that “the phone is moving”, but that no meeting is planned for the moment.
“There is the way of how and who will talk to each other, that, I think is very important: how and who,” says Mr. Couturier, in reference to the senior managers of Train de Charlevoix and Le Massif, who are Daniel Gauthier and the Choquette family.
“Ms. Belley is very exposed, but there are people there who have a say and we will have to talk to them,” underlines the mayor of La Malbaie.
A dialogue of the deaf
According to the general director of the train, the Le Massif Group, Germain Hôtels and the Secrétariat de la Capitale-Nationale have promised to advance a sum totaling $275,000 in order to help the tourist attraction.
However, these three partners will move forward with the promised amounts only “if the region gets involved,” says Ms. Belley, who requests $350,000 annually from the cities that benefit from the train, the two MRCs as well as Tourisme Charlevoix , over three years.
The mayor of the City of Baie-Saint-Paul, Michaël Pilote, is categorical: the municipality has already done a lot for the train, with nearly 3 million dollars in financial assistance and various credits since 2011.
“We love the Charlevoix Train, we recognize its importance, and we are open to dialogue, but we are no longer able to finance it as much. There are plenty of other local economic drivers that are not entitled to this kind of amount,” explains Mr. Pilote.
“The organization has been telling us for nine years that it is in recovery, and now they are asking us for $50,000 for the next three years, what will it be after three years? Does that mean that it is not an attraction that is profitable and sustainable?”
— Michaël Pilote, mayor of Baie-Saint-Paul
For her part, Ms. Belley does not deny that the attraction is not profitable and remains just as categorical on her position: if the region does not remit the requested sums, the train will no longer exist in 2025.
“The question that arises: does the region still want the Charlevoix Train? For $350,000, will the region let the train pass?” says the director.
The tone must lower
The general director of Tourisme Charlevoix, Mitchell Dion, deplores the tone that this negotiation has taken and the criticisms that have been addressed to his organization and other regional authorities in several media.
“One thing to make clear from the start, we have to stop saying that we don’t like the Charlevoix Train and that we don’t want it anymore. I believe that we would not have this discussion today and that we would not have supported it as much if we did not believe in this product. We love the train and it is very important to us,” says Mr. Dion.
“We cannot give the amounts requested, it is not our role to support the day-to-day operations of a project. Afterwards, we can discuss it, but everyone around the table must do their part and stop making us bear the brunt of the layoffs,” he adds.
For his part, the mayor of La Malbaie also believes that the “firm and emotional” position of Train de Charlevoix is detrimental to negotiations.
“We love the train, and the proof is that we have injected nearly $215,000 since 2015. The problem is that a municipality cannot support the operations of an organization like that, otherwise we would give to the Rallye de Charlevoix, to the Community Assistance Service of Charlevoix-Est, and so on,” he concludes.
