Even if the ARTM is ready to advance $25 million, the Legault government is blocking the structuring transport project for eastern Montreal, complains the mayor of Repentigny, who is running out of patience.
“We no longer have the luxury of waiting,” complains the mayor of Repentigny, Nicolas Dufour, who met the Quebec Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, on several occasions “to make her aware of the need to move forward quickly with the ‘pre-project analysis’.
The Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority submitted a report on May 24 to the Quebec government which confirms the route of the future structuring network in the east, a tramway project estimated at $18 billion (see image and box).
ARTM – Eastern Structuring Project
“The report has been on the minister’s desk since this summer. And, since that time, we have never had any sound or image from the Quebec government,” indicates Mayor Dufour. “It’s all the more annoying since road congestion costs six billion dollars per year in greater Montreal. If we do nothing, it will cost 10 billion in 2030. We are too poor not to invest in public transport.”
For the moment, Minister Guilbault is repeating to mayors that the project is “under study”.
$25 million to start
To move on to the next step, a real preliminary study is mandatory in Quebec. It will be used to confirm the exact route, validate the development hypotheses, specify costs and schedules as well as carry out traffic studies.
The sums required for this study are $25 million, as indicated in the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI). According to our information, the government is delaying its decision due to budgetary constraints and issues linked to the PQI.
To resolve the impasse, the ARTM even offered to finance the project, with future reimbursement by the Quebec government, several sources confirmed.
The organization did not want to comment on the information, but reports that the consequences of the delays linked to the preliminary project study would cost $465 million over 12 months.
“According to the decision expected by the Quebec government, we are ready and enthusiastic to take the next step,” says Simon Charbonneau, director of Public Affairs and Communications.
Then, the ARTM maintains that once in operation, the Agence Mobilité Infra Québec will be able to “take charge of carrying out the project when the Government of Quebec deems it appropriate”.
Legault constituency
On September 29, 2023, the Prime Minister of Quebec, who is also the Member of Parliament for L’Assomption, declared in front of elected officials and business people in the region his firm commitment to the structuring transportation project. “It’s true that the service we offer to people in Montreal is not ideal. […] I want to tell you, today, that I guarantee you, it is a non-negotiable condition, that the project that we hope to submit quickly will go to Lanaudière,” François Legault said.
In Repentigny, this structuring network is “capital” for the region’s economy, mentions Mayor Dufour. A major business park with benefits estimated at $6 billion for Repentigny. “It would be a disaster not to move forward,” he says. With the development projects planned in Pointe-aux-Trembles and Montréal-Est, nearly a hundred thousand housing units could see the light of day.
“These people are going to need public transportation if they want to be able to survive, instead of 100,000 new solo cars in a sector that is already congested… We will never get through it otherwise.”
THE STRUCTURING EASTERN PROJECT
ARTM – Eastern Structuring Project
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