CITÉ and tramway plan: Minister Guilbault opens the door to the SRB and the Estimauville branch

Minister Guilbault opened the door to the construction by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Infra (CDPQi) of the tramway antenna to D’Estimauville and a rapid bus service on Charest Boulevard, in addition to the backbone of the tram.

As part of the study of Bill 61 on the creation of the Mobilité Infra Québec agency, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, included an amendment that would allow CDPQi to get involved in two other segments proposed in the CITÉ plan.

Predict the future

The government is committed to building, with the City of Quebec and CDPQi, the backbone of the tramway, i.e. 19 km from Le Gendre to Charlesbourg. But in her bill, the minister wanted to foresee the future and include in the law the possibility that CDPQi would also be involved in the creation of a possible tramway branch towards D’Estimauville and an SRB route or of “minibus” on Charest Boulevard.

“If we wanted the Caisse, with the City, to possibly include this in their project, it would be made possible by the way we write the article,” argued M^me Guilbault Tuesday evening in parliamentary committee. Thus, there would be no need to “reopen the law.”

QS satisfied

An amendment that pleased the MP for Taschereau and transport critic, Etienne Grandmont, who said he was “happy” and who “thanked” the minister. “The matter is ketchup,” reacted the president of the commission, Liberal MP Jennifer Maccarone.

The bill therefore also amended the Act concerning the structuring public transportation network of the City of Quebec. The amendment to article 1 of this law was adopted unanimously. It now states that the law allows the construction of phase one of the tramway “including an antenna towards the Estimauville sector and a rapid service by bus and minibus”.