“Everything is not perfect” at the RTC, agrees Mayor Marchand, who sees areas for improvement in performance audits. But for him, certain findings “compare apples with oranges”, and it would be “unfair” if the financing of the transport company suffered.
• Also read: Financial performance: RTC ranks penultimate
The mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, took stock on Friday of the performance audit of transport companies ordered by the Legault government and unveiled the day before.
“It’s not true that I’m going to say: “Everything is beautiful.” […] We have to be better,” he agrees. But he emphasizes that efforts are underway, notably cuts of $11 million which have already been made.
Meeting requested
He requested a meeting with the firm that produced the report, Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, to “have answers to certain questions.” The Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, agreed and also offered all mayors this possibility.
The mayor emphasizes, however, that in the report, “there are things that compare less well.” The table, in particular, which places the Capital Transport Network (RTC) at 9e rank out of 10, while Lévis is at 3e rank, comparing only three criteria. Remember that the firm itself has put some caveats on the comparison: “the notion of performance of transport companies can be subject to various interpretations”.
For Mr. Marchand, “comparing Quebec and Lévis in public transport is comparing apples to oranges.” He emphasizes that the territory, the level of service and the population are not the same. In addition, the RTC welcomes some of Lévis’ users on its own network.
Funding
He affirms that he does not feel in his discussions with the CAQ government that this performance will affect the sums which will be allocated to finance public transport in the capital.
“We have no idea that this classification with three criteria will result in us being evaluated negatively, not at all. It would be unfair if that were the case.”
Mr. Marchand returned to the number of executives which increased, but he does not believe that there was an explosion. The average salary for drivers is $87,000, below the average for other companies, at $96,000, he points out, rejecting criticism that drivers earn too much. As for subcontracting, he affirms that “there are not always gains” in choosing this option.
He rejected criticism from the opposition, who said the day before that he should have waited for the results of the audits before raising the registration tax. This tax, he insisted, will be used to offer additional services and better serve the suburbs.
The leaders of Québec d’abord and Équipe priority Québec both reacted by saying that the mayor is trying to “drown the fish.” “The mayor is arrogant, he is not eager to implement the solutions that are proposed. He’s a bad manager,” commented Claude Villeneuve. He deplores that the mayor only seeks to “better fund the service without seeking to obtain more with the resources we have.”
Patrick Paquet believes that frames should be cut and all courses reviewed.
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