Leadership of the PLQ | Another Pro-Third Link Aspiring Leader

(Quebec) CAQ elected officials are no longer the only ones in favor of a third link to the National Assembly. A third candidate for leadership of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) promises to study the project if he takes power.

Frédéric Beauchemin now says he is in favor of a new highway link between Quebec and Lévis. “I am for a third link to the East,” bluntly announced the Liberal MP for Marguerite-Bourgeoys in a press release Thursday morning. He would like to carry out the work in a public-private partnership (PPP) “while respecting public financial resources”.

Mr. Beauchemin is the third aspiring leader of the PLQ to be in favor of this project which has been making headlines for half a century in the capital. Former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre said he was in favor of a new inter-river highway.

Charles Milliard takes a more timid approach, calling for reflection on the project. “There is a political dimension, an economic dimension and a scientific dimension to this issue,” he said recently.

These three positions contrast with those adopted by the Liberal Party in recent years. After launching an analysis of the project under the Couillard government, the PLQ finally turned its back on the third link under Dominique Anglade. The party said it was “resolutely opposed” to the first version of the project presented by the government of François Legault, namely a tunnel estimated at ten billion dollars.

Recently, interim leader Marc Tanguay affirmed that the third link project “is not justified”. “We just have to read the CDPQ Infra report which says that it would have no impact,” said Mr. Tanguay, nevertheless specifying that there is a mobility problem in the National Capital.

With Fanny Lévesque and Vincent Larin, The Press