Critics slam Hamad’s transit plan as obsolete
Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
Leadership Québec mayoral candidate Sam Hamad denies the coming election will be a referendum on the choice of transit system for the city.
Yet, given his vow to kill the current tramway system and replace it with one based on rapid bus service (SRB), transit is bound to be the central issue of the campaign.
A recent Segma poll showed Mayor Bruno Marchand leading Hamad by six points (38 per cent to 32 per cent) before Hamad released his transit plan last week. The poll also found nearly 30 per cent undecided, so the race for City Hall likely will be a battle to convince voters who has the better plan.
Hence, a day after Hamad unveiled his plan, Marchand delivered a harsh rebuke at a City Hall news conference. Marchand said Hamad’s proposal is “purely a political game. There are no facts, no science, no data to demonstrate that his project – without integration with a major axis – is relevant.”
Calling it a plan drawn up by “volunteers,” Marchand said it would do nothing to reduce the congestion problem in the most heavily populated corridor of the city, along Boul. René-Lévesque.
“We’re talking about Mr. Hamad’s feelings versus 20 years of studies, consultations, science and facts,” the mayor said.
“Do we want another election in Quebec City driven by nostalgia, a return to the past, the dream of 2015? I think the people of Quebec City are fed up,” Marchand said.
Opposition and Québec d’Abord Leader Claude Ville- neuve told reporters, “Who re- ally believes that Sam Hamad can deliver a mobility project? How many mobility projects have progressed in Quebec while Sam Hamad was minister of transport? How many in Quebec City? You know the answer: zero.”
Transition Québec Leader and Limoilou Coun. Jackie Smith said she “feels like [she’s] watching a bad comedy” with Hamad’s transit announcement.
“I don’t think what people want is to resume the debate where it was more than 10 years ago, when the idea Mr. Hamad is bringing back was rejected. The [CDPQ Infra] plan already includes the passage of an SRB on Boul. Charest; Mr. Hamad simply wants to start the plan backwards. The heart of the network congestion problem is on Parliament Hill and that’s what we’re tackling first with the deployment of the first phase of the tramway.”
Nora Loreto, co-founder and spokesperson for the pro- tramway citizens group Québec Désire Son Tramway, told the QCT Hamad’s proposal “shows that he’s got no clue about the growth of the city and the planned growth over the next 20 years. Seeing that he wants to push all the traffic onto Charest and leave the status quo in Upper Town is just not an option because at the end of the day the blockage for the traffic [stays] in Upper Town.”
Loreto said, “There’s a reason why all of the experts have not recommended this plan, and we think that it would be very prudent for Mr. Hamad, in an area where he is clearly lacking some knowledge and expertise, to listen to the experts on this one.”
Hamad’s plan did garner the support of Stevens Melançon, leader of Équipe Priorité Québec, who is reported to be considering joining Hamad’s team. He told Le Soleil, “I defend the citizen; I defend a project that respects the citizens’ ability to pay and that will serve my citizens.”
As for Marchand’s dismissal of Hamad’s plan, Melançon said, “I find it hard to understand why the mayor, whose project is not socially acceptable, is lecturing people.”