Greater Montreal’s public transit companies are making purchases that are raising eyebrows among critics, despite a deficit that is leading to employee layoffs and hefty tax increases for motorists.
$300 party per attendee, $10,000 to hire Instagram influencers, nearly $100,000 on bottled water: these expenses represent a tiny portion of their budget, but raise questions about their efforts to tightening.
They could attract the attention of experts who are currently combing through the accounts of transport companies, at the request of Minister Geneviève Guilbault. These performance audits aim “precisely [to] optimize each dollar invested in public transportation in Quebec,” reacted its communications director, Maxime Roy. “It appears necessary to improve the efficiency of our transport companies. »
“This type of decision is the exclusive responsibility of transport companies, and therefore municipalities,” also indicated Mr. Roy.
The same organization last year awarded a $121,000 contract to develop the “new visual identity of the RTL” and issued a request for proposals to purchase tens of thousands of dollars in furniture for its new administrative center.
In an email, the organization defended the decision to make these three expenses. “Despite the current funding issue, it is essential for us to attract and maintain the best talents in the field of public transportation in Quebec,” indicated public affairs advisor Maxime Laliberté, about the party in $46,000. “The event in question aimed to thank employees who have accumulated 25 years of service and others who retired in 2023.”
As for the furniture and the change of visual identity, these expenses were adequate, he added. The furniture was “very outdated,” many even dating “from the 1980s, so it was past time to replace it.”
On the side of exo, the carrier of the northern and southern crowns, we called on influencers to boost the popularity of the services. In 2022, the organization paid nearly $10,000 to an agency specializing in this matter.
The organization continues to pay influencers in 2024, but these expenses have not yet been made public.
These costs include “all taxes and adaptation costs (beacons, storage, mesh partition, fire extinguisher, etc.),” exo said. This model “allows us to cover our bus and train network as well as our construction sites in all conditions”. Mitsubishi was the only bidder to offer vehicles to exo.
As for the promotional campaign with influencers, “it gave excellent results,” assures exo.
“It is difficult to imagine how spending on marketing for influencers or purchasing hybrid vehicles can help improve the quality of services for public transport users. The priorities are not in the right place,” reacted Nicolas Gagnon, of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, to all of these expenses.
Operators “have a duty to clean up their expenses before passing the bill on to taxpayers,” he added. Mr. Gagnon is referring to the increase in the registration tax from $59 to $148 for each vehicle in Greater Montreal, a decision voted on at the end of May by a majority of the region’s mayors.
Public transport companies are going through extremely difficult years with a drop in ridership (and therefore revenue) caused by the increase in teleworking. Quebec agreed to compensate for these deficits until 2022, but has adopted a much firmer stance since then.
In 2023 and 2024, the companies therefore had to make significant cuts to allow the system to balance its budget. Some, such as the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) and the Société de transport de Laval (STL), even cut jobs. “The situation is serious,” Valérie Plante said last fall.
The purchase of 18 Ford Mustang Mach-Es by the STM for around $65,000 each made headlines last week.
But La Presse also found that the organization has spent nearly $100,000 on metal water bottles since 2021, including $32,000 last year.
In addition, the STM revealed last month, on the public tender platform, that it had paid approximately $75,000 in 2022 to have bus passes delivered by plane, for fear of running out.
“We are the eighth company in Quebec, we make a million trips per day and we ensure we manage public funds well,” reacted Marie-Claude Léonard, big boss of the STM, in a telephone interview. “This year, in the 2024 budget, we sought 85 million in spending reductions. We’re looking for another 10 million. » Last February, the STM announced the abolition of 230 positions.
Ms. Leonard argued that the Ford Mustang Mach-Es were not luxury vehicles and that their purchase price of $65,000 corresponds to the average price of an electric car in Quebec. She added that these vehicles are intended for bus network supervisors, for whom they constitute real “offices” on wheels.
As for the bottles, “we had to go and bring water when a heatwave was noticed to our bus drivers,” she reported, indicating that it was a rule of health and work safety. The STM had chosen to invest in the manufacturing of reusable bottles to replace the tens of thousands of disposable bottles it purchased in previous years.
“We would have expected that some of this spending would not be authorized,” responded opposition MP Christine Black, transport spokesperson. “On the one hand, the president of the Metropolitan Community of Montreal, Valérie Plante, is drastically increasing the tax on vehicle registration to absorb the deficit of the transportation companies of Greater Montreal, but on the other, we wonder if this increase is not the result of poor governance that persists over time. »
