At the RTC, the residuals of emergency aid dating from the pandemic amounted to 36.2 million.
These sums had been authorized by the Ministry of Transport to compensate for the loss of income of transport companies during the health crisis. However, what remained of the allocated envelope, greater than actual needs, remained blocked until now.
With the end of the emergency program in December 2023, the money remaining unused was in an account, without however being able to be allocated for more than a year.
The result of numerous representations from transport companies, the Ministry of Transport finally agreed to release the remaining funds in a decree signed on December 18. Minister Geneviève Guilbault formalized her permission for the money to be spent, in a letter dated December 20 and including The Sun got a copy.
“This permission to dispose of unused amounts from the Emergency Assistance Program for Collective Passenger Transportation (PAUTCP) confirms a need expressed on your part and the commitment I made at the end of my consultation tour in the spring 2023, or to allow you to use the surplus in the envelope to finance your operating needs,” she signs.
In her letter addressed to the presidents of transport companies, the Deputy Prime Minister of Quebec confirms that in certain territories, ridership is back to pre-pandemic levels. But “changes in users’ mobility habits and the increase in operating costs still exert pressure,” admits Ms. Guilbault.
“Close” the budget
At the Réseau de transport de la Capitale, we confirm having had “several discussions” with the Ministry of Transport regarding the use of surpluses from this aid, “since these sums were dormant”, but without being able to be used.
The use of the residual balance will be staggered from 2025 to 2028.
In its financial plan for the next four years, the RTC had budgeted these sums before obtaining written confirmation from Minister Guilbault. The conversations were said to be “sufficiently advanced.”
“The RTC, as well as other transport companies with emergency aid residuals (excluding Greater Montreal), had verbal confirmation last fall that these sums could be allocated from 2024,” explains spokesperson Raphaëlle Savard.
-However, only $35.9 million appears in the budget, the difference of $300,000 having already been used to “complete” the year 2024, she explains.
For the next few years, the RTC does not specify for what purposes these non-recurring sums will be used. In its “conditions and terms of grant”, the Ministry of Transport orders that they be used for “financing regular and adapted collective transport”.
Among its other sources of income, the RTC will also resort to a higher tax on registration, which will bring it 18.2 million to balance its budget this year.
Elsewhere
In total, the six transport companies outside the greater Montreal region obtained the right to disburse some $77.3 million in surplus emergency aid made available.
The largest, the Capital Transport Network, alone affects almost half of it.
It also brings some $6.1 million into the pockets of the Société de transport de Lévis (STLévis).
In total, the government of Quebec had granted $1.7 billion in emergency aid through the PAUTCP “to ensure the maintenance and relaunch of public transportation services during the pandemic.”
The government assistance granted for the “transition towards balanced budgets” of transport companies announced during the economic update last November, reached 879.6 million for the years 2025 to 2028.
In a performance audit made public in November, the annual and recurring savings potential in “optimization measures” was estimated at 346 million in the ten major transport companies in Quebec.
