By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
Bromont’s public transit projects are getting a new lease on life thanks to the city’s inclusion in a Canadian Federation of Municipalities (CFM) mobility-as-a-service pilot project.
Bromont is one of a dozen Quebec municipalities included in the CFM’s Green Municipal Fund initiative, coordinated by YHC Mobility. The CFM will pay half of the estimated $265,000 needed to put in place a car-sharing system in Bromont.
Bromont Mayor Louis Villeneuve told the BCN that the funding would allow the city to acquire at least one electric vehicle and make it available for car-sharing using a mobile app, similar to the Communauto car-sharing service available in major cities in Quebec but on a much smaller scale. There will also be tools within the app to book ride-shares and allow citizens to make their own cars available for car-sharing, “kind of like an on-demand, Bromontois Uber,” Villeneuve said. The app, he added, is already being used by the regional public transport service in the Gaspé.
Villeneuve was unsure when the first rides would be made available for citizens. “We need to do a needs assessment, create the tools and prepare the cars,” he said, adding that the full cost, schedules and insurance implications still need to be worked out in the coming weeks and months.
In 2021, Bromont rolled out MOBI, a summer shuttle bus pilot project. The city initially planned to make a form of MOBI permanent on weekends, launch an on-demand taxi service on weekdays and set up a city-run car-sharing platform by 2024. That project ran into a roadblock after three calls for tenders failed to turn up any workable bids. Earlier this year, Amélie Casaubon, communications and citizen services co-ordinator at the Ville de Bromont, told the BCN the city was “working on a sustainable mobility plan, but it’s still at a very early stage.”
“We were very disappointed that MOBI was stopped – we still believe in it,” Villeneuve said. “With MOBI, we were a bit left to ourselves – we had to pay for everything and run three calls for tenders to get a single bid which we weren’t able to accept. We can move forward with the [Green Municipal Fund] project because it’s a pan-Canadian fund subsidized by an organization.”
“Eventually, we’d like to be able to take some cars off the road, to have transit for tourists who have just gotten off the bus, for young people, for elderly people, for people who have had a few drinks,” Villeneuve said. “It’s important to have public transit. It’s a no-brainer.”
No one from the CFM was available to comment at press time.