‘I’m worried’: Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante raises post-budget transit concerns

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante didn’t have many good things to say about the provincial budget tabled by Quebec’s finance minister on Tuesday.

She expressed overall disappointment and genuine concern, especially when it comes to public transit funding.

“I’m worried,” Plante told reporters on Wednesday, mentioning the lack of new investments. “Public transit is crucial for Montreal and Montrealers want to leave their car at home.”

But to do that, the mayor said the government needs to invest more, not only to maintain the existing network, but to offer transit users more options.

“This is not a special request or a favour that I am asking,” she said. “It’s always been that a third is being paid by the (provincial) government, a third by cities  and a third by users.”

But because of the pandemic, ridership is down and without new money, Plante fears transit agencies won’t be able to attract new users and that service cuts might become necessary.

The mayor also wondered how the Quebec government would reach its own goals of reducing gas emissions and densifying urban areas.

“It said in their document they need to lower emissions coming from cars … there’s not tons of solutions to that. It has to come from public transit.”

And the same is true with densification, it has to be planned around transit, she said.

2:01 Quebec public transit advocates call for new funding framework

Francis Garnier, a coordinator with Alliance Transit, agreed with Plante and echoed many of her concerns.

He would have liked see more money for public transit infrastructure projects.

As it stands, $13 billion over 10 years is status quo, according to Garnier.

“It might sound like a lot, but if we compare on a per capita basis with Ontario, it’s only one third of the investment,” he said.

The Coalition Avenir Québec government has defended itself in the past, saying no other government has invested as much in infrastructure projects.

But as Québec Solidaire’s Gabriel Nadeau Dubois pointed out, none of those projects were initiated by the current government.

“Today there has been not one new public transit project funded and launched by the Coalition Avenir Québec. Not one project across all Quebec. It’s unacceptable,” he said.

Nadeau-Dubois made the comment on Wednesday in Quebec City as he reacted to the lack of funding in the budget to help cities adapt to climate change.

“What we need to do is invest massively in public transit,” he said.

Garnier, however, said the problem wasn’t only with the amount of money invested but where it’s going.

“We would like to see, a levelling of the investment in public transit and in the road network to be 50/50 split,” he said.

That means for every government dollar spent, 50 cents would go to the road network and 50 to public transit.

This is another area where, according to Garnier, Quebec lags behind Ontario.

In Ontario the split is 70 per cent for public transit and 30 per cent for the road network.

“We’re seeing exactly the opposite in Quebec,” Garnier said.

2:01 Quebec groups sound alarm over CAQ’s public transit failures

An argument often used to justify investing in the road network is that it benefits public transit as well. But Garnier said it’s a shallow argument.

Investing in and building transit infrastructure is about removing traffic from existing roads, Garnier said.

“You’re really investing into removing congestion and making it easier and faster and smoother for everyone,” he said, adding it also helps those who otherwise might not be able to afford get around by other means.

As for Plante, she’s hoping for a sit down with the government, “sooner rather than later,” to brain storm solutions.

— With files from Global News’ Tim Sargeant