Peter Black

April 3, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative report

peterblack@qctonline.com 

With the report on the Quebec City region’s transit needs expected to be delivered in about two months, proponents of the so-called “third link” are speaking out.

In November, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government, alarmed at the rising cost of Quebec City’s tramway project, asked the Caisse de dêpot et placement infrastructure division to study the overall transit picture, including a crossing of the St. Lawrence River to supplement the Pierre-Laporte and Quebec bridges. 

Last week, according to media reports, Bernard Drainville, education minister and the MNA for Lévis, gave a speech in which he made it clear the CAQ plans to bring back a third link plan, only a year after abandoning its project to build one of the world’s longest automobile tunnels under the river.

Drainville was openly emotional when reacting to the announcement of the tunnel cancellation at the time.

In a March 25 speech to the Chambre de commerce et d’industrie du Grand Lévis, Drainville said, “We have never abandoned the idea of a new link. Even after the announcement, we continued to work internally to tell our government we can’t just abandon a project we’re committed to.”

Drainville added, “The commitment we have from the Caisse is that they will submit a project for a cross-shore link. That’s a given.”

The minister cautioned that whatever project the Caisse proposed “must respond to needs, and they [the Caisse] must also ensure that the project they are going to submit is technically feasible. That is the big challenge.”

Drainville, a former minister in the Parti Québécois government of Pauline Marois, did not go as far in making a nationalist argument for the third link as Lévis Mayor Gilles Lehouillier, a former Liberal MNA for the South Shore region.

Lehouillier, a longtime proponent of a third link, said in a statement issued March 28, “I am sending a signal to all those who want to build a country. If we want a capital that has an international stature, it will take something other than a single link between the two shores. If we want to adequately accommodate our people, so that they are not too stuck in traffic, that requires public transport.”

He said, “There are people from the CAQ who want a country. There are people from the Parti Québécois who want a country. There are people from Québec Solidaire who want a country. I am speaking to those who want a country: let’s give ourselves a national capital with mobility infrastructures that look good.”

The Lévis mayor’s “signal” reached PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who admitted to reporters he is “in reflection” regarding his party’s position on a third link. The party opposed the tunnel project as presented by the CAQ.

St-Pierre Plamondon told reporters at the National Assembly, “There is one part where he [Lehouillier] is absolutely right: Quebec [City] deserves a transport infrastructure commensurate with the importance of this city for us in Quebec and the size of its population.”

He added, “Even more so, when we acquire the status of international capital, when we welcome hundreds of embassies arriving overnight and there is an economic boost, we must have the infrastructure to match that status.”

The PQ leader, who polls say would win a majority if an election were held today, said he would wait to see what the Caisse proposes and the CAQ government supports before taking a firm position on a tunnel or bridge.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party of Quebec has released a poll it commissioned showing strong support for “a third link that includes public transport.”

The Leger poll, issued March 27, found that 70 per cent of respondents “are convinced that a new road link would help improve the flow of traffic between the two shores.”

The poll also found 62 per cent support for the Conservative Party’s proposal to build a bridge that spans Île d’Orléans.

Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime said in a news release, “Our proposal corresponds to what Quebec has always needed and desired. The time is no longer for grand speeches and popular consultations; the time has come for construction of the third link.” 

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The CAQ government abandoned the twin tunnel plan last year. 

Image from Quebec government