The Minister of Transport and sustainable mobility Geneviève Guilbault revealed this on Tuesday evening during a parliamentary committee on her mobility agency project.
Questioned by PQ MP Joël Arseneau on the business model of a possible tramway in Quebec, Geneviève Guilbault closed the door to copying the Montreal model.
“For the REM, the Caisse does the operation, which will not be the case in the tramway,” she quickly decided. The minister added that her new agency will not be responsible for management in Quebec either.
In Montreal, the new Réseau express métropolitain was built and is operated by the Infra subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.
The organization, which has profitability obligations, collects a share of each ticket sold in addition to receiving royalties from the municipalities it serves to finance its operations.
Several cities subject to it have often complained about it, deploring that the CDPQ is forcing them to withdraw certain public transport lines connecting them to the metropolis due to an exclusivity agreement.
But this should not be the case in Quebec. “Currently, that’s not what’s being looked at.”
“It is a model which was developed for the REM, but which will not be reproduced [à Québec].»
— Geneviève Guilbault, Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility
The RTC in charge
Minister Guilbault indicated in her response that the management and operation of a possible tramway would instead be entrusted to the Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC).
“We are going to give the operation back to the transport company, probably, so the revenues will come back to it and it will manage the operation.”
Geneviève Guilbault indicated that she preferred this avenue since the CDPQ has obligations via its depositors, and therefore “does not have the same public service mission” as Quebec or the municipalities.
The management and operation of a possible tramway would be entrusted to the Capital Transport Network (RTC). Here, the Paris tramway. (Shutterstock/Archives Le Soleil)
“So to systematically depend on them, I don’t think it’s realistic in the long term in Quebec,” concluded the minister.
The details of the governance of the tramway project remain to be finalized, however, specified Ms. Guilbault. The Legault government and the Caisse should also sign a mandate letter shortly. According to information from Soleilthis could take place on Wednesday.
“But it will not be them who will operate the tramway,” repeated the minister once and for all.
