QUEBEC CITY – Spring in this province has become synonymous with road construction.
Wednesday, the Marois government unveiled its road plans for the next two years: $5.6 billion to create around 2,000 work sites – with a third of the money is going to Montreal.
This year, the Parti Quebecois will invest $2.8 billion, about a billion less than what the Liberals announced last year. Transport Minister Sylvain Gaudreault is confident he can do more with less.
“It’s a new way to understand and present the projects in transportation,” he said.
Gaudreault noted that Quebec is entering a new era of ethics and transparency. Bill 1, adopted in the fall, now forces companies bidding on major projects to first get approval from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the province’s financial watchdog. Companies convicted of or charged with corruption or collusion will be excluded from the bidding process.
Gaudreault said that the overall objective is to better manage costs and delays.
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“The Dorval Interchange is postponed but it’s not our responsibility, it’s a lack of responsibility from the previous government,” he said.
The Quebec government is expected to announce next week what its plans are for the Dorval Interchange, the West Island train, Notre-Dame Street in the east end of Montreal and Highway 19 in Laval.
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On Monday, the Premier announced that she is delaying the deadline for completion of the Turcot Interchange to 2020.
Gaudreault says the government is taking the time to better plan and prepare projects. He accused the Liberals of having made showy announcements for electoral purposes, without ever costing them in the budget.
An allegation that former Liberal Party interim-leader Jean-Marc Fournier claims is simply not the case.
“It’s very simple, they decide to put less money in the program, that’s the reason why they’re not doing the roads.”
However, Gaudreault alleges that slowing things down will give his engineers at the Transport Ministry more time and flexibility to prepare better tenders.
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