Sam Hamad

TRAM TRACKER

Anti-tram mayor would be ‘catastrophe’: Duclos

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

With the next municipal election still a year away, Jean-Yves Duclos, the MP for the downtown riding of Québec and minister of public services and procurement, is warning that an anti-tramway mayor for Quebec City would be a “catastrophe.”

Speaking with reporters at an event on Nov. 1 in Quebec City, Duclos said, “It would be a disaster for Quebec City to deprive itself of money from the Canadian government.”

Duclos was responding to questions about a recent Le Soleil poll that shows support for Mayor Bruno Marchand and the tramway project slumping. The survey found 40 per cent of the sample of 514 online respondents supported the tramway, a drop of five points since a similar poll in June.

Marchand’s approval rating similarly has dropped to 38 per cent, a decline of seven points.

Duclos, who is also the federal Liberals’ Quebec lieutenant, said, “We’ll see what people want to decide, but I think it would be a disaster for Quebec City to miss its chance. We’re already behind all the other comparable cities in Canada. We have the chance to catch up.”

The federal government has already committed $1.3 billion to the initial tramway project and has promised to chip in more with the added costs of the project as proposed in June by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Infra.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said last week on social media if he becomes prime minister he would not invest in the tramway project but rather the “third link” across the St. Lawrence River the Quebec government is proposing.

Duclos said Poilievre “is misleading the people of Quebec City by making them believe that he could use the tramway money to invest in a third link.”

Marchand and his Québec Forte et Fière party took over the tramway project from the administration of Régis Labeaume when he won the 2021 election. Nineteen of the city’s 21 councillors are from parties that support the tramway, with the two-person Équipe priorité Québec caucus the only outliers. Former Quebec Liberal minister Sam Hamad, who is considering a mayoral bid, has said there are too many questions about the tramway for him to support it.