The mayor of Quebec believes that Pierre Poilievre will discover the benefits of the tramway project for the Quebec economy and will agree to finance it, contrary to what he has been saying for months.
Monday, during his back-to-school press briefing, Mayor Bruno Marchand said he was optimistic regarding federal funding for the project, which is more uncertain than ever with the resignation of Justin Trudeau and the potential election of Pierre Poilievre, who assures that he will not spend “a penny” in the tram.
“We will see what Mr. Poilievre and the Conservatives will say during the campaign, if they are elected,” Bruno Marchand said on Monday. “It still remains that tramway or not, it is money that is important for our economy to obtain the benefits it has been waiting for for a long time. Mr. Poilievre, I think, will consider it.” He recalls that the Conservative Party of Canada wants to revive the economy.
Project in motion
It is up to the Quebec government to secure the required sums in Ottawa, underlines the mayor, who ensures that the work is underway. “We are no longer in the preparatory work, we are launched, we are gone.”
Mr. Marchand intends to emphasize the positive impacts on the economy, which he compares to a “mini-James Bay”, with its billions of dollars in public and private investments to come. “We will continue to present the arguments and demonstrate the enormous economic leverage that this represents. This is a government that will be very focused on the economy, that’s what Mr. Poilievre himself says. Necessarily, he will be sensitive to these economic arguments.
“It’s Quebec’s turn” to receive money for its transportation, he argues.
The leader of the opposition, Claude Villeneuve, does not believe that the conservative leader will have an “epiphany”. “I don’t see why the first commitment he would back down on would be that of not putting a cent in the tram,” he argued. He believes that the mayor is “jovial” for thinking so.
It’s up to the CAQ government to compensate
According to him, it would be up to the Quebec government to compensate for the loss of federal funding. For the moment, $1.44 billion in federal funding has been confirmed for the project, which totals $7.6 billion.
The leader of the second opposition, Patrick Paquet, maintains that the mayor “lives in a world of unicorns”. Équipe Priorité Québec believes that “without Ottawa, it is impossible to carry out the tramway project”.
For her part, the head of Transition Quebec, Jackie Smith, blames the government of François Legault, and particularly the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, for the numerous “pitfalls” imposed on the project. “Either she is incompetent or in bad faith and I don’t know which is better.”
The CAQ “pretends to realize without ever realizing it,” she decided. “According to my interpretation, the CAQ will never build the tramway. “She’s always going to find a way not to.”
Do you have any information to share with us about this story?
Write to us at or call us directly at 1 800-63SCOOP.
