The Quebec tramway entrusted to CDPQ Infra today | Quebec Tram

Everything indicates that the Legault government will confirm this Wednesday that CDPQ Infra, a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, will become project manager of the Quebec City tramway project. However, it will not be the operator, according to the Minister of Transport.

The announcement of the signing of the mandate letter will be made after the council of ministers in the afternoon, according to information from Radio-Canada.

This is a provisional agreement for the design of the project. A final agreement, with more details and clarifications on the roles of the different actors involved, will not be concluded “by Christmas” according to the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand.

CDPQ Infra would take the reins of the project almost four months after presenting its City Plan: a $15 billion mobility plan over 15 years for the Quebec region which notably includes a tramway.

The Legault government had asked the Caisse to look into mobility in the region after removing the project from the hands of the City of Quebec in November 2023.

CDPQ Infra will not be the operator

If the agreement would CDPQ Infra, the project manager of the tramway project, the Minister of Transport Geneviève Guilbault affirms that it is not them who will be the operator of the network once it is in operation.

They are not the ones who will operate the tramwaythe minister clarified Tuesday in a parliamentary committee. Questioned by PQ MP Joël Arseneau, Geneviève Guilbault suggests that the Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC) could be responsible for the operation of the network. We will probably give operation back to the transport company, so the income will go back to it.

CDPQ Infra is the operator of the REM in the greater Montreal area. The profitability of operations is an inseparable element of REM in Montreal for which the CDPQ Infra has, among other things, negotiated territorial exclusivity agreements with the Regional Metropolitan Transport Agency (ARTM).

Plea for the tram

The Quebec mayor’s office is awaiting the formalization of the agreement in the afternoon before commenting further on this new information.

Bruno Marchand was questioned about the tramway Wednesday morning on the sidelines of the Grand Tour of the Quebec Retail Council. He took the opportunity to reiterate the importance of the project in a context where Quebec City will experience strong demographic growth over the coming decades, according to data from the Institute of Statistics of Quebec (ISQ).

I come back to the 227,000 more people who will live in Quebec and the National Capital, by 2051. It is not possible to say that we are going to widen all the streets to accommodate more people.he maintains. Saying “everyone in your car, then I’ll give you the means to move”, that’s not common sense.

Concerns about the process

The head of Transition Québec, Jackie Smith, was also at the Great Retail Tour. She welcomes the fact that it will be the RTC who will operate the tramway, but she has questions about the transfer process between construction and operation.

The fact that it is CDPQ Infra which will carry out the project, then lend the operation to the RTCthere is a gap between the two visions. It needs to be more secureshe emphasizes.

With the collaboration of Louise Boisvert and Pierre-Alexandre Bolduc