A little too much for a project which primarily concerns the government of Quebec, the Caisse de dépôt through its subsidiary CDPQ Infra and the City of Quebec.
It must be said that the context had everything to occupy minds with the resounding departure of Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. Less than two hours before the famous press conference announcing the final tramway agreements, she slammed the door in the middle of the economic update day.
Monday’s crazy day confirmed what happened next: the Trudeau government is on fire.
In the industry, we call it a media eclipse.
On Monday, I found that Minister Geneviève Guilbault seemed particularly worried about federal funding for the tramway, now estimated at $7.6 billion for 2033.
No representative of the Trudeau government was at the table during the press conference which was also attended by Minister Jonatan Julien, the Mayor of Quebec Bruno Marchand and the President and CEO of CDPQ Infra, Jean- Marc Arbaud.
Ottawa must contribute 40% of major public transportation infrastructure projects.
However, for the moment nothing is sufficiently complete in the eyes of Geneviève Guilbault who has not held back to say it.
“We have a theoretical amount of 1.44 billion from the federal government. But we had official confirmation of 1.2 billion,” she insisted. “We want to confirm so that this amount is as irreversible as possible and place it safe.”
Minister Duclos reiterates that the Trudeau government has an envelope of $1.5 billion for the tramway. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press Archives)
Pierre Poilievre straight ahead
“Safe” means safe from a change of government in Ottawa. Pierre Poilievre said it: he will not put “a penny” into the tram.
However, the potential election of the Conservative leader is coming as quickly as a TGV if we are to believe the polls and the collapse of the Trudeau government that we are witnessing.
Geneviève Guilbault also wrote to Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Sean Fraser on Sunday.
The letter was initially also addressed to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. It goes without saying that the Quebec government “changed the heading this morning,” said Ms. Guilbault.
In the letter, she requests written confirmation that the Trudeau government will ensure that the sums are available to Quebec, “until each of the projects is completed notwithstanding the government in place.”
This request is far from new. We can no longer count the public ping-pong exchanges between Geneviève Guilbault and federal minister Jean-Yves Duclos.
At Mr. Duclos’ office, I was told the same thing again in a written communication on Monday. “Minister Duclos was very clear regarding funding. We have an envelope of 1.5 billion dollars which is there for the Quebec tramway project. This money is for the people of Quebec and the tramway.”
On Monday, I lost count of the number of times Minister Guilbault called on the federal government. The political crisis raging in the Commons has just increased the uncertainty by a tick.
Unless, as the most cynical of skeptics think, such pressure aims to place the blame for a possible failure of the tramway on the back of Ottawa.
Others, like Québec solidaire elected officials Étienne Grandmont and Sol Zanetti and PQ leader Pascal Paradis, see a better solution to avoid worrying about Ottawa’s money.
“All of this demonstrates once again the importance of independence,” responded Pascal Paradis. This is the problem when we have one government too many and we are forced to go begging.”
Independence as a solution? That too might not happen before 2033.
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