Tramway: CDPQi and the CAQ are hopeful of reaching an agreement before December 15

Discussions on the Quebec City tramway are going well and CDPQi and the CAQ are hopeful of reaching a final agreement on this project before the deadline of December 15.

• Also read: Green light for the Quebec tramway: CDPQ Infra at the helm and as financial partner

• Also read: Abandoned real estate project along the tramway: the IDU points out “the procrastination” of the CAQ

This is what both partners responded to Journalin written communications.

The spokesperson for the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Infra (CDPQi), Michelle Lamarche, was not very talkative about the details of the negotiations, but she stressed that: “It is going well and we are confident of having a agreement before December 15.”

Same story from the office of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault. “Discussions are progressing well and we maintain the objective of concluding an agreement in the coming weeks.”

Crucial step

This step is crucial for the rest of the project. It will make it possible to specify the financing, the schedule and the roles of each partner: the ministry, CDPQi, the City of Quebec and the Réseau de transport de la Capitale, which will act in “participatory governance”.

We already know that CDPQi will be at the helm and will swallow up the Quebec City Project Office. It will participate financially to the tune of 20 to 30%, but we do not know how the nest egg of Quebecers will obtain its return on the investment.

Deadline

It remains that everything must be enshrined in a final agreement concluded before December 15, a date that the government has set and after which it would be deemed not to move forward with CDPQI’s CITÉ plan. The CAQ is committed to completing phase 1 of the tramway, estimated at $5.27 billion.

On Tuesday, Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand expressed confidence that the project will move forward. He has been repeating for several weeks that discussions are going well with the various partners involved. “I’m not at all worried,” he said, in connection with a $12.5 million contract awarded to a consulting engineering firm, a few weeks before the deadline.

For their part, the opposition at city hall said they were less reassured to know that the City is awarding this contract without having the guarantee that the agreement will indeed be ratified before mid-December.