Agreement and tramway project: Minister Geneviève Guilbault refuses to commit to dates

The Minister of Transport refused to commit on Friday to a date on the signing of the agreement with CDPQi and on a timetable for the start of construction on the Quebec tramway.

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Hot on the heels of the three opposition parties in parliamentary inquiry, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, did not want to bring forward a date for the signing of the agreement with the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Infra (CDPQi), which would launch the project and which is requested by the end of September by the mayor of Quebec.

Nor did she wish to give a guarantee for a start date for the construction.

“At the start of a project like this, it’s crazy to think that today, I can give a start date and an end date for the tramway project. It doesn’t make sense,” replied Ms. Guilbault to the liberal transport critic Monsef Derraji.

Several meetings

She stressed that several meetings and workshops had been held to discuss the project throughout the summer, the last having taken place on September 24. “The project is moving forward,” she repeated, agreeing that the population wants the tram project.

Like the solidarity Etienne Grandmont and the PQ Pascal Paradis, the liberal MP was trying to obtain a commitment from the minister for a timetable for completion. “The conclusion is that it confirms that we do not have an agreement yet signed. It’s precious time we’re wasting. We have no date for the start of construction, no firm commitment. The tram is in the same place as in June, on the eve of a federal election,” insisted Mr. Derraji.

“Two hours of discussion to never obtain this answer which is nevertheless very simple,” added Etienne Grandmont. “The results of the CAQ, after six years in power, are no public transport projects initiated, started, delivered,” he lamented.

Pascal Paradis urged the government to “stop using this capital project for political purposes”.

Federal election

His colleague Joël Arseneau fears that the CAQ is trying to “buy time”, in view of a potential election of Pierre Poilievre, at the federal level, who promised not to put “a cent” into a tram project. “That would be a totally cynical calculation. […] If this calculation is true, it is shameless cynicism and the CAQ should be sanctioned for that.”

“Mr. Legault doesn’t care about the tram project in the national capital,” complained Monsef Derraji. “There is a division in the national capital regarding this project. Is this a political calculation? […] It’s been a government based on polls from the start.”