Peter Black

June 5, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Anticipation is building as the days count down to the release of the Caisse de dépôt et placement Infra study of Quebec City’s transit needs. The latest information from the Caisse indicates a mid-June date.

According to the Caisse, the study will first be presented to Quebec and municipal government officials before being unveiled to the public. Reports suggest it will be Caisse officials themselves who will unveil the study’s details.

Caisse spokesperson Michelle Lamarche said in a message to Radio-Canada, “We will submit our report to the Quebec government in June, as planned. In the days that follow, we will present this report and inform the public about all of the work and analysis that led to our recommendations.”

Mayor Bruno Marchand said at a media event last week he appreciates the “transparency” of the Caisse making the announcement without the presence of politicians.

Two weeks ago, Transport Minister Genèvieve Guilbault said the Quebec government would analyze whatever the Caisse recommends and “then we’ll see.”

As promised by the Quebec government, the Caisse report will be delivered within the six-month time frame. The government mandated the Caisse’s infrastructure division to study options for public transit in the Quebec City region following the city’s release in November of an updated cost estimate for a tramway system pegged at $8.4 billion. 

The Caisse was asked to include a “third link” component in the report.

Among those eager to see the results of the Caisse study is Nora Loreto, co-founder of Quebec Désire Son Tramway, a group campaigning for the creation of a tramway system for the city.

On June 1, members of the group walked the full 19.3 kilometres of the proposed tramway route, from near the Ikea in Cap-Rouge to the eastern terminus near Ave. D’Estimauville. The march took six hours; more than 60 people started the route and 15 finished, according to Loreto.

“We’re optimistic that the experts at the Caisse will have the same opinion as the experts who have already studied this. All signals are that the question is not ‘yes or no’ but ‘how’ and what it will look like,” Loreto told the QCT while the trekkers stopped for a break near Ave. Cartier, about midway through the walk. 

She said it will be “up to the CAQ [Coalition Avenir Québec] government if they want to play politics with this issue.”

As the group was marching, the CAQ government released the results of a survey indicating 69 per cent of those polled are in favour of a “structured” public transport network. It also found “a strong majority (82 per cent) perceive that the construction of an additional road transport link between the two shores, including public transport, would be the proposal most likely to have positive repercussions.”

Another group lobbying for the tramway made its concerns known last week. Business leader and philanthropist Yvon Charest, head of the J’ai Ma Passe group, told a media conference the tramway project should not be stymied by questions of “social acceptability” and level of public support.

The mayor responded, saying “social responsibility is not a result; it is a process.”

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Trekking for the tram: From left, Nora Loreto, founder of Québec Désire Son Tramway, completed a crosstown trek alongside Aimée Dawson, Tessa Dawson and Della Greener. 

Photo by Peter Black