Published January 22, 2024
Tramway

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Although both the “third link” tunnel plan and Quebec City’s tramway project stalled in confusion in the past year, they did provide hilarious fodder for Radio-Canada’s popular year-end shows, Infoman and Bye Bye 2023.

Both sketch comedy shows devoted elaborate segments to the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government’s flip-flopping on the cross-river connection and its decision to freeze the tramway project while the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Quebec’s infrastructure department takes six months to study it.

The Infoman bit, titled “La Re-résurrection du troisième lien,” began with an image from the movie Ice Age, where the resignation of CAQ MNA Joëlle Boutin provoked a catastrophic byelection loss for the government in the Jean-Talon riding and sparked Premier François Legault to revive the plan to build a “third link” abandoned only a few months before by his government.

The segment contained a scene in CAQ MNA Bernard Drainville’s office where he unveiled a model for the link, a bridge seemingly made with a child’s play kit. Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand welcomed host Jean-René Dufort to his office, where stacks of tramway studies were piled high on his desk.

“How will the Caisse go through these in six months when it would take an army of people to read them in that time?” Marchand said.

What followed was a parody of a “bad film,” in the words of interim Liberal Leader Marc Tanguay, the Jesus of Nazareth series from 1977. Using actual scenes from the series, the faces of Quebec politicians and media figures were cleverly inserted, with the premier as a Roman ruler and Marchand nailed to a cross as the Messiah of Limoilou.

Afterwards, Dufort and Marchand wrote on slips of paper who they thought was the “Judas” of the tramway project. The two seemed to agree, and then Dufort ate the pieces of paper to keep the secret.

Bye Bye featured a parody of the TV series Plan B, whereby Legault, played by Claude Legault (no relation), prodded by his wife, played by Guylaine Tremblay, repeatedly goes back in time to change the plan for the “third link.” His final idea is a gondola ride between Quebec and Lévis.

All joking aside, 2024 promises to be a year of decisions on the two key transit projects in the Quebec capital. Ironically, it appears the fate of both the tramway and the “third link” may be determined by the Caisse’s study of the global picture of Quebec City and Lévis’ transit needs.

The clock is ticking on federal financing of the tramway and potentially the cross-river project, with Jean-Yves Duclos, the MP for Québec and powerful minister of public services and procurement, warning Ottawa can’t and won’t wait forever while Quebec dithers on major infrastructure projects.

Duclos will be front and centre on another major regional transportation issue, with a settlement possibly imminent on the decades-long dispute over the Quebec Bridge.

Just prior to the holiday break, Duclos, in year-end interviews, said the federal government’s “final” offer to purchase the 100-year-old span is currently on the desk at Canadian National, the owner of the bridge.

Once the ownership issue is settled, there remains the question of who pays to complete the paint job which began several years ago. The government of Quebec, as a major user of the bridge, will inevitably be asked to contribute.

At the moment, the Quebec transport ministry is undertaking major work at the approaches to the bridges, forcing reduced lane access during the day and nighttime closures.

CN has not made any public statement on the federal offer as of this writing.

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