Quebecers petition for railroad to Nunavik

IQALUIT, Nunavut – Nearly 4,000 Quebecers have signed a petition that calls for a cross-Quebec railroad that would link the province’s Nunavik region to southern Quebec.

The Quebec government and its major financial institutions should support the construction of a "Trans-Quebec Express" railway, which would cross Quebec from the Gaspe to Nunavik, a huge area bordered by Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Ungava Bay and Labrador, says the petition, which was tabled Thursday at the Quebec legislature by MLA Denis Trottier.

The 10,000-kilometre route would take a week to travel and wind around the entire coastline of Nunavik, from Kuujjuaq to Kuujjuaraapik.

"The Kuujjuaq" would include stops at the Pingualuit park in Kangiqsujuaq and other communities on the Ungava and Hudson Bay coasts.

The railway’s inspiration comes from the famed Trans-Siberian railway that runs across Russia, from Moscow across Siberia to the Far East – but a Trans-Quebec Express" would actually be longer than the Russian route, notes the French-language website of the "Fondation TransQuebec Express" at http://www.transquebecexpress.ca.

Jobs, new economic possibilities – such as greenhouses in Nunavik – and more communication between the various regions of Quebec would result from the express, says Michelle L. Dery, the foundation’s president, who has lobbied for this project since 2004.

"Let’s give this mission to our train: the protection and promotion of culture, the creation of regional universities, and the opening of regions, ignored for so long, which have many magnificent sites and a wealth of human, natural and material resources."

The train would also cut down on the production of greenhouse gases, she notes.

"The possibilities are limitless," Dery says on the website. "We just have to act on them."

The express could include a health train with travelling medical teams, a library train, as well as a theatre train, circus train, sports train, science train, and a surprise train, says the website.