Tramway de Québec

TRAM TRACKER: TramCité planning moves forward despite Ottawa-Quebec funding feud

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TRAM TRACKER

TramCité planning moves forward despite Ottawa-Quebec funding feud 

 Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Work continues on Quebec City’s tramway project, called TramCité, despite a war of words over which government is paying what and when for the urban transit system.

In what is being likened to a political ping-pong game, the Coalition Avenir Québec government is demanding the federal Liberal government hand over funds promised for the tramway.

The backdrop to the dispute is the prospect of the election of a Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre, who has said he will not give “one cent” to Quebec City’s tramway, but redirect funds promised by the Liberals to the building of a bridge or tunnel across the St. Lawrence River.

Last week, Jonatan Julien, the Quebec minister responsible for infrastructure and minister responsible for the Capitale-Nationale region, wrote to federal Infrastructure Minister Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, demanding Ottawa pay up immediately.

In a letter obtained by local media, Julien asks Ottawa to pay $1.44 billion  “in order to guarantee the financial support of your government and thus, ensure that the completion of the project is not compromised by possible political uncertainties.”

Jean-Yves Duclos, the federal minister of public services and procurement and MP for Québec, had replied earlier to a similar request from Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault, saying the way the funding arrangement works is for Ottawa to reimburse costs as the project proceeds.

On a previous occasion, Duclos has said the money for the tramway project has been put into an account.

Julien also calls on the federal government to meet departing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to pay 40 per cent of the tramway cost, the same share as the Quebec government. “In order to honour your prime minister’s commitment, I am requesting written confirmation from you that the federal shortfall will be covered by another source of funding.”

In the midst of this political dispute, work on the tramway continues under the project manager, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec infrastructure division.

CDPQ Infra spokesperson Claudie Côté-Chabot said in an email to the QCT, “Since the signing of the framework agreements last December, CDPQ Infra has been fully active in planning the construction of TramCité.”

She said an information session “with firms interested in participating in the project will take place in mid-February. We are also moving forward with the launch of various calls for tenders.”

The agreement between the Quebec government, CDPQ Infra and the Ville de Québec provides compensation for the city in the event the tramway project is cancelled.

The current cost estimate for the first phase of the tramway project is $7.6 billion. 

TRAM TRACKER: TramCité planning moves forward despite Ottawa-Quebec funding feud Read More »

La Pocatière mayor “clarifies” tramway stance for Poilievre

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La Pocatière mayor ‘clarifies’ stance on tramway for Poilievre 

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

The mayor of La Pocatière is “clarifying” his town’s stance on Quebec City’s tramway project in the wake of comments made by federal Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre.

During a visit to Rivière-du-Loup on Jan, 22, Poilievre had applauded a resolution adopted a week earlier by the MRC of Kamouraska, which includes La Pocatière, in support of the so-called third link project championed by the Coalition Avenir Québec government.

Poilievre, in the view of La Pocatière town council, had apparently misinterpreted the resolution to suggest the MRC, while supporting the “third link,” opposed Quebec City’s tramway plan.

In a statement sent to the QCT, Mayor Vincent Bérubé said, “We stand in solidarity with our interregional counterparts, but our openness to the third

link is not a rejection of the Quebec [City] tramway project, which would ultimately limit road congestion and reduce the impact on the environment.”

In fact, the mayor noted, La Pocatière would benefit substantially from the tramway project, with the Alstom plant – formerly a Bombardier factory – a major employer in the town of 4,000.

Although the contract with Alstom to build the cars for the tramway, valued at about $569 million, has not been reconfirmed under the most recent version of the project, it’s expected the company, whose largest shareholder is Quebec’s pension fund, the Caisse de dépôt et placement, will get the work. 

Bérubé said it “is obvious that this project has a special resonance given the presence of the Alstom plant in La Pocatière. The economic spinoffs are also felt in the territory of the MRCs of Kamouraska and L’Islet, since many workers live in these regions and several companies that subcontract with Alstom have a presence in the region.”

In his statement, the mayor invited the local Conservative MP, Bernard Généreux (Montmagny–L’Islet–Kamouraska–Rivière-du-Loup), “to facilitate a meeting with Mr. Poilievre, in order to present our regional economic ecosystem and to take the pulse, on the ground, of the importance of companies involved in the rail transportation industry.”

La Pocatière is some 120 kilometres east of Quebec City on the South Shore of the St. Lawrence River.

                     

La Pocatière mayor “clarifies” tramway stance for Poilievre Read More »

TRAM TRACKER: TramCité deal signed; federal funding in election limbo

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TRAM TRACKER: TramCité deal signed; federal funding in election limbo 

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Though a deal is now signed to proceed with Phase 1 of a tramway plan for Quebec City, a dark cloud hangs over the project with a federal election inevitable in 2025.

On Dec. 16, the Quebec government, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec infrastructure division (CDPQ Infra) and the city signed a se- ries of agreements “sealing the partnership for the planning of the tramway component” of the project, henceforth to be known as TramCité.

Phase 1 is the construction of a 19-kilometre east-west tramway line from Charles- bourg to the Le Gendre sector of Cap-Rouge, comprising 29 stations serving areas such as the shopping strip on Boul. Laurier, Université Laval, Parliament Hill and Saint-Roch. The line will double the frequency of transit service along the corridor.

Construction of the line is not expected to begin until 2027, with completion targeted in 2033. The cost for Phase 1 is pegged at $7.6 billion.

With the deal now signed, CDPQ Infra will “set up a team dedicated to the project and to begin the technical studies and analyses required for its implementation,” according to documentation released at the Dec. 16 news conference.

The tramway project was first announced in March 2018 under the administration of then-mayor Régis Labeaume. It was budgeted at $3.3 billion, with a contribution of $1.2 billion from the federal government. Since then, with the arrival of the Coalition Avenir Québec government the same year, the plan has been delayed and changed repeatedly.

The current version is the one CDPQ Infra presented in June after being mandated by the CAQ government to study overall urban transit needs for the capital region.

Mayor Bruno Marchand, who inherited the tramway project when his Québec Forte et Fière party came to power in 2021, declared the agreement with the two other partners to be an “irreversible milestone in the construction of the tramway, and all citizens of the greater Quebec City region benefit from it.”

Under the deal, the city will contribute some $675 million to the project, amounting to half the costs of the preparatory work. The contribution is to be financed from a cli- mate change fund already established, and from revenues derived from real estate devel- opment, much of which would be stimulated by the tramway project.

Marchand said, “We’re paying cash” for the tramway, as opposed to resorting to tax increases.

The mayor said another important element of the deal is that in the event the tramway project is cancelled, the city will be reimbursed for funds invested.

While the city’s share of the funding is about nine per cent, the Quebec government is demanding the federal government cover 40 per cent, beefing up the $1.2 billion already committed.

In a year-end interview with the QCT, Jean-Yves Duclos, federal minister of public services and procurement and MP for Québec, said additional funding is available from an annual $3-billion fund the Liberal government has created for such urban transit projects.

The fate of any federal funding for the tramway whatsoever, however, looms over the project, with Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre stating unequivocally that he will not commit “one cent” to the project should he become prime minister.

Poilievre’s Quebec lieutenant, Pierre Paul-Hus, has said in recent media comments a Conservative government would put money the Liberals committed to the tramway into the CAQ government’s promised “third link,” presumably a new bridge over the St. Lawrence River.

Under current election timing, neither the tramway nor the third link would be under construction until after the planned Quebec provincial election in October 2026.

TRAM TRACKER: TramCité deal signed; federal funding in election limbo Read More »

TRAM TRACKER: Anti-tram mayor would be ‘catastrophe’: Duclos

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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.

TRAM TRACKER: Anti-tram mayor would be ‘catastrophe’: Duclos Read More »

Targeted by tramway, elm tree ‘Raymond’ falls to disease

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Targeted by tramway, elm tree ‘Raymond’ falls to disease

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

“Raymond,” a tree that became emblematic of the fight against Quebec City’s tramway project, was cut down last week, a victim of Dutch elm disease.

The tree, estimated to be at least 100 years old, stood at the northeast corner of the inter- section of Ave. de Bougainville and Boul. René-Lévesque until a forestry crew took him down, branch by branch.

The elm was named Ray- mond by local resident and tramway opponent Gaetan Nadeau, who in spring 2022 affixed a sign to the tree saying “Sauvons Raymond” as well as another sign saying “Tramway au milieu de René Lévesque? Super! Pourquoi donc me couper, tuer, moi?? 102 ans…” (Tramway in the middle of René-Lévesque? Super! Why cut me, kill me? 102 years…)

Nadeau had also erected on the corner a billboard with a photo of the tramway in Montpellier, France, where trees are allowed to grow less than two metres from the tram tracks.

Quebec City’s tramway plan, however, does call for the removal of a certain number of trees along Boul. René- Lévesque, and Raymond was indeed on the execution list.

City spokesperson Wendy Whittom told the QCT, “Unfortunately, that tree was meant to be cut one way or another.”

Raymond is one of 12 ash and elm trees the city has identified on Boul. René-Lévesque and Chemin des Quatre-Bourgeois to be taken down over the next few weeks. All were terminally afflicted with emerald ash borer infestations or Dutch elm disease. Pruning work is also being done on some ailing maple trees in the city.

Whittom said, “Fortunately, each tree will be replaced by another species that is more resilient in an urban context and more immune to insects and diseases.”

The city plans to plant some 130,000 new trees by 2029.

In announcing the program to cut the diseased trees, the city also notified residents who have trees affected by emerald ash borer infestations or Dutch elm disease “to plan now for the removal of their trees to avoid further decline.”

The city offers a grant of up to $2,000 or about half the cost of removing diseased ash or elm trees and disposing of the wood.

Targeted by tramway, elm tree ‘Raymond’ falls to disease Read More »

Opposition attacks CAQ for more tramway delays

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TRAM TRACKER

Opposition attacks CAQ for more tramway delays

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Four months after the Coalition Avenir Québec government announced its approval of the first phase of Quebec City’s tramway project, a deal is yet to be signed to restart construction.

The prolonged delay has the Quebec Liberal Party transport critic and MNA for Nelligan Monsef Derraji wondering whether the CAQ government is stalling in the hopes a Conservative federal government under Pierre Poilievre will kill the project if it comes to power in the coming months.

Derraji and other opposition members grilled Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault for two hours in the National Assembly on Sept. 27 on the tramway project.

In an interview with the QCT, Derraji said the problem for the CAQ government is “they have no money.” He said the government has been cutting programs and now Guilbault “said she’s waiting for money to come in from the federal government” for the tramway project.

He said Premier François Legault had called on the Bloc Québécois to support a Conservative non-confidence motion to defeat Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government. The premier “wants as soon as possible an election on the federal level.”

Poilievre has said on several occasions “he would give nothing to the tramway project,” Derraji said. The way he sees it, Legault and Guilbault “are waiting for a federal election, and after that they will say we don’t have the money for this project.”

Derraji said Guilbault had promised in June to give a mandate to the Caisse de dépôt et placement infrastructure division (CDPQ Infra) to restart work on the first phase of the $5.1-billion project.

“Why is she waiting? Next year we’ll have Pierre Poilievre.” Derraji noted that while Poilievre opposes the tramway, he has said a Conservative federal government would help finance the CAQ’s plan for a “third link” bridge across the St. Lawrence River.

Besides Derraji, opposition MNAs Étienne Grandmont of Québec Solidaire — whose riding would be home to several tramway stations if the project goes ahead — and Joël Arseneau of the Parti Québécois questioned Guilbault.

For her part, Guilbault said sending a mandate letter to CDPQ Infra is not a simple matter. “They [the opposition] just talk about the letter, but I don’t know if they understand how it works, the preparation and design of a major project. There are several things happening at the same time.”

She said meetings have been taking place between government officials and CDPQ Infra since June, when the agency submitted a report the CAQ government had requested that recommended a sweep- ing urban transit project for Quebec City and Lévis, to be called Circuit intégré de transport express or Cité.

Guilbauilt said the project transition committee last met on Sept. 24. “It’s important for people to know that the project is moving forward,” the minister told the opposition members at the National Assembly session.

As for federal funding, Guilbault said there are “certain people in the current fed- eral Liberal government who claimed in the newspapers that they were on target. That’s their usual claim: ‘We’re on target.’ But what does that mean in real life? For me, a target is money … I negotiate with them, I make my requests and I wait for the cheque, and the cheque doesn’t arrive.”

Jean-Yves Duclos, the federal minister of public services and procurement and MP for Québec, denied Guilbault’s claim (see separate story).  

Opposition attacks CAQ for more tramway delays Read More »

Duclos to Guilbault: Tram money is ‘in the bank’

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Duclos to Guilbault: Tram money is ‘in the bank’

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Federal minister and Liberal Quebec lieutenant Jean-Yves Duclos has sharply refuted Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault’s claim Ottawa has yet to “send a cheque” to help finance Quebec City’s tramway project.

Duclos responded to Guilbault’s comments at a media scrum on Oct. 4 following a Quebec City announcement about loans for small busi- nesses. The minister had taken the swipe at the federal govern- ment a week earlier in front of a National Assembly session focused on the tramway project. “I wait for the cheque and the cheque doesn’t arrive,” Guilbault said, in the context of answering questions from opposition MNAs about the CAQ government’s delay in mandating the resumption of construction of the first phase of the tramway project, as promised in June.

Duclos told reporters the federal government has put “$1.5 billion and more in a bank account for the Quebec [City] region for the tramway.”

As for Guilbault’s comments, “I say this with respect, but sometimes I need to say things more clearly … I explained to her again last week what she should have understood a long time ago. I told her several times. I don’t know why it’s not getting through.”

Duclos, who recently took over as Liberal lieutenant for Quebec in the wake of Pablo Rodriguez’s decision to seek the Quebec Liberal Party leadership, said, “To claim that there is no money from the Canadian government is false, and I think everyone should admit that, including Ms. Guilbault. We have to stop diverting attention and going back over old issues that have been clarified for a long time.”

Duclos said when Guilbault sends the bill for the tramway, “we’ll send her a cheque.”

As for the threat of a future Conservative government under Pierre Poilievre, who has said he would not fund the tramway project, Duclos said the Conservative leader “wants to steal money from the tramway bank account of people in the Quebec City region. We can’t imagine that he would want to do that, but knowing Pierre Poilievre, it’s pure Pierre Poilievre.”

Duclos to Guilbault: Tram money is ‘in the bank’ Read More »

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