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.