Minister Guilbault wants to reopen the agreement on tramway financing

The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, asks Ottawa to review the terms of the integrated bilateral agreement on the financing of infrastructure projects, without which Quebec risks missing the amounts promised by the federal government to finance the tramway in the event of the election of Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.

The agreement, signed in 2018, excludes several categories of expenses related to the planning of main construction sites. In the case of the tramway project, this means in particular that federal money cannot be used to finance preparatory work and land acquisitions along the route.

Ottawa has committed to investing $1.44 billion in the Quebec structuring transportation network project. So far, nearly 92 million have been allocated by the federal government. The bulk of the sums can only be disbursed once the construction work on the structuring network itself has been launched.

Contribution at risk

This means that in the event that federal elections were held in the spring and they brought the Conservative Party of Canada (PCC) to power, Quebec would risk being deprived of the sums promised by Ottawa.

The head of PCCPierre Poilievre, has been insisting for months that he will not inject a penny into the tramway. He prefers instead to allocate the $1.44 billion to the third link project.You have to choose in life. We cannot give money to all projects. We have enough money for a big project. I choose the third linkdeclared the Conservative leader Tuesday on the sidelines of a visit to the Quebec region.

This is one of the reasons why Geneviève Guilbault is asking the Trudeau government to guarantee the sums it has reserved for the tramway. Until now, the minister had limited herself to pleading in favor of a flexible interpretation of the terms of the bilateral agreement. On Tuesday, she went further by requesting their review.

We want […] guarantee these sums by reviewing the terms of the integrated bilateral agreement, which is the program from which the sum of 1.44 billion to which they committed camedeclared Ms. Guilbault on the sidelines of the Coalition Avenir Québec caucus meeting in Saint-Sauveur.

Lack of time

Since Ottawa’s money is only allocated upon presentation of invoices related to construction work, the Quebec government may not be able to submit reimbursement before the next federal election.

We would like, yes, that this money [soit dans nos coffres] because currently, it’s on reimbursement. We won’t have time to complete the entire tramway before the federal election, probably acknowledged Mrs. Guilbault.

What we would like is for this money to be guaranteed and to be able to use it when the time comes as the project progresses, regardless of the result of the election.she added.

The minister said she was continuing her discussions with the MP for Quebec and minister in the Trudeau government, Jean-Yves Duclos, with the aim of preserving the budget allocated to the tramway.

In addition to reviewing the terms of the bilateral agreement, she wants the federal government to respect its commitment to finance 40% of the tramway construction costs.

The amount of 1.44 billion supposed to be assumed by Ottawa corresponds to 40% of the initial costs of the project, which amounted to just over 3 billion. The bill now reaches 7.6 billion.

A drunken promise

Asked to react to the Conservatives’ promise not to finance the tramway and instead to invest in the construction of the third link, the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, did not seem very concerned.

According to him, the commitments of Pierre Poilievre’s party must be taken with a grain of salt. He recalled that at a certain time, the Conservatives had committed to financing the construction of a new amphitheater in Quebec. When the federal contribution was requested, these same conservatives were not there, underlined the mayor.

It’s easy to say: “We won’t be there for the tramway, but we will be there for the third link”, because it’s something that will inevitably come later. It’s just a question of timing. It’s easy to say, “We’ll be there at the next step.” [C’est comme dire :] “I promise I’ll stop drinking, but tomorrow.” It’s a drunkard’s promisemocked Bruno Marchand.

He argued that the Conservatives could finance the tramway while participating in the third link project, if they liked it. Support for one project must not, however, be to the detriment of the other, argued the mayor.

If they want to finance the third link, they have the right and we will see the project and that will perhaps be very good news. But it’s not one or the other, it’s bothhe insisted.

With the collaboration of Olivier Lemieux