TRAM TRACKER: Laurier contract bargain, Hamad wants work pause
Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
While mayoral candidate Sam Hamad is calling for work on the tramway to be halted during the municipal election, the city has awarded the second largest contract of the project – which came in well below the estimated cost.
On Sept. 17, the city executive committee approved a contract of $63.2 million, taxes included, to Charles-Auguste Fortier Inc. for, as it’s described in the call for tenders, “the redevelopment of Boul. Laurier, for the transitional state before the installation of the tramway.”
It is the second largest contract awarded so far for the TramCité project, the largest by far being the $1.3- billion deal with transportation giant Alstom for supply and maintenance of the system’s rolling stock. The 34 all- electric “trainsets” would be manufactured at Alstom’s plant in La Pocatière. The maintenance contract is for a 30-year period.
Four companies were bidding for the Laurier project, with the highest being $91.7 million, a figure still lower than the $95 million (before taxes) the city had projected.
The winning bid is more than 40 per cent below that target. Charles-Auguste Fortier Inc. has been in business for more than 50 years, and among the company’s notable endeavours is the excavation for the Vidéotron Centre.
The city is responsible for the majority of the preparatory work for the tramway system. The rest is handled by the Caisse de dépôt et placement Infra division (CDPQ Infra), which the Coalition Avenir Québec government tasked with over- seeing the $7.6-billion first phase of the tramway project.
Boul. Laurier has been undergoing major construction work for the past four years; partly for the tramway and partly for a huge project to rearrange the approaches to the Quebec and Pierre Laporte bridges. The new contract would extend the work on the street for about another four years.
Meanwhile, tramway opponent and mayoral candidate Hamad is asking that work on the project be frozen during the municipal election campaign that officially started Sept. 19.
Hamad, founder of Leadership Québec and a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister, said in a media encounter outside City Hall before the Sept. 16 council meeting, “I’m asking [Mayor] Bruno Marchand to stop all current or future work until the election on Nov. 2.”
Hamad quickly clarified his comment, saying work currently in progress should continue, since stopping would “involve penalties and problems.” He said the city should “stop adding to [the work], because we must let the citizens decide.”
When reporters reminded Hamad that the Quebec government is committed to the tramway project, he said, “It doesn’t matter. The mayor of Quebec City will decide what’s best for Quebec City. The mayor of Quebec City will be elected on November 2. It will be the will of the citizens of Quebec.”
Marchand quickly rejected Hamad’s suggestion. He told reporters, “We won’t stop the tramway. We have an agreement with the ministry of transportation. We have a partner called CDPQ Infra that is doing the work. We have an agreement to do preparatory work ourselves. We will face penalties if we don’t do it on time.”
Newly named Transport Minister Jonatan Julien echoed the mayor’s comments. He told a media scrum before a Sept. 17 cabinet meeting that it was “out of the question” to pause tramway work, warning there would be penalties.
“The tramway, we committed to doing it. Right now, we are doing it with CDPQ Infra, and it is moving forward.”
Hamad is proposing an upgraded bus system as an alternative to the tramway.