Financing the Quebec tramway at the heart of the debates

Despite the signing of two framework agreements on the Quebec City tramway on December 16, the $7.6 billion megaproject remained, again this week, at the center of political debates because of the uncertainties that still hover over its financing.

A meeting requested

Wednesday evening, the federal Liberal Minister, Jean-Yves Duclos, took up his pen to invite the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, to a “working meeting” on TramCité. This meeting, to which the mayor of Quebec was also invited, would take place over the next two weeks. Its goal would be to arrive at “a common position to demand a commitment from the main federal political parties that the federal funds of almost 1.5 billion dollars currently reserved for the Quebec City tramway project are not allocated to it. confiscated by the end of the work planned for 2033,” wrote Mr. Duclos.

The famous agreement of 2018

Earlier this week, Minister Guilbault formally asked Ottawa to reopen the 2018 Integrated Bilateral Agreement (EBI) to guarantee that the $1.44 billion from the federal government is paid for the Quebec City tramway. This amount is far from guaranteed in the event of the arrival of a conservative government in power. In his letter on Wednesday, Mr. Duclos has already closed the door to such a renegotiation. He stated that “the EBI framework governs the financing terms of hundreds of public transport projects in Quebec and everywhere else in Canada. For this reason, it would be unproductive to try to modify them.

The devil is in the details

According to the EBI, the money from the federal government must essentially finance the construction work of the tramway (which excludes the pre-work in progress). “Eligible” expenses must be invoiced by the Quebec government and subsequently reimbursed by Ottawa. Multiple delays in the megaproject now mean that work will not begin until 2027. Until now, Ottawa has disbursed a meager $91.7 million of the promised $1.44 billion. The imminence of federal elections and the position expressed by the Conservatives (“not a penny for the tram,” repeats Mr. Poilievre) explain this race against time.

The discretion of the Caisse de dépôt

While the debate rages among municipal, provincial and federal political decision-makers, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Infra (CDPQ Infra), which is now the project manager of the tramway, did not want to add its grain of salt. “Since the signing of the framework agreements [le 16 décembre]CDPQ Infra is fully in action to plan the construction of the TramCité. The project team has already been mobilized, the market notice has been launched and a meeting with the firms wishing to participate in the project will take place in mid-February. We are also moving forward with the launch of various calls for tenders,” said spokesperson Claudie Côté-Chabot.

And Marchand in all this?

On Tuesday, the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, said he was willing to speak with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre – who was passing through the region – or with his lieutenant for Quebec, Pierre Paul-Hus. A sign that relations are not in good shape, the mayor pointed out that nothing is stopping the conservatives from calling him. Bruno Marchand reiterated that it would be “unfair” for the Capitale-Nationale to be deprived of federal funding for the tramway. He also called the Conservatives’ intention to inject funds into a hypothetical third link rather than the tramway a “drunken promise”.