(Quebec) The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) must demonstrate its independence by recommending a structuring project for the national capital focused on public transportation, according to Québec solidaire (QS).
The long-awaited CDPQ report, which, at the request of the Legault government, must propose solutions to improve mobility in Quebec, will be presented to the general public, probably this week.
In an interview, QS transport spokesperson Etienne Grandmont said he had the CDPQ “keeping an eye on it”. If it proposes a third Quebec-Lévis motorway link, we will know that it is responding to a “political order”, according to him.
“The cornerstone of the CDPQ proposal must revolve around public transportation. This is the only way to increase mobility in the greater Quebec region and reduce congestion,” he argued on Monday.
He hopes that the CDPQ will rely on science and propose a transportation project that will be efficient, accessible, structuring and complementary to what already exists in the territory.
Asked about this, Brigitte Milord, research associate at the Mobility Chair at Polytechnique Montréal, said she expected in particular a collective transport proposal that “plans for the very, very long term.”
“This is often what has been missing in the history of Quebec. We are setting up, for example, the Montreal metro […] and we do not have a very clear plan of what we are going to do for the second stage,” she emphasized in an interview.
For his part, Jérôme Laviolette, doctoral student in transportation engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, believes that the CDPQ must present a project that will reduce greenhouse gases.
“It is absolutely essential that a city like Quebec has a structuring public transport project which […] is seen as a lever for transforming land use planning,” he added.
“I would be surprised if the Fund came to fundamentally different conclusions. I have the impression that we are going to have a tramway which will be the backbone of this project,” he told The Canadian Press.
Will the CDPQ report be the right one? Will it mark a turning point for the greater National Capital Region?
The government, which has been “dragging its feet”, must now “let go of the polls” and “stick to the facts”, underlines Jean Dubé, professor at the University’s Higher School of Regional Planning. Laval.
We have been trying for decades to respond to the concerns of people in the greater Quebec region related to transportation and mobility.
Last year, the Legault government made a clean slate: it axed the project for a third Quebec-Lévis highway link that it itself had promised and stopped the tram project of the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand.
He asked the CDPQ to reassess needs and present a report on ways to “improve mobility and fluidity in the metropolitan community of Quebec, particularly between the two shores.”
The issue of mobility is particularly sensitive in Quebec, where the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) created expectations, then sowed discontent, which may have contributed to the rise of the Parti Québécois (PQ) in the region.
