Quebec ready to roll on the métro’s Blue Line
$3.9B métro extension listed as priority; $94M in electric-car purchase incentives
QUEBEC After years of talk but little digging, Quebec confirmed it is ready to roll with the longpromised extension of Montreal’s Blue Line, for the first time putting a price tag on the project in its annual budget.
The government estimates that extending the métro line for 5.8 kilometres and five stops into the east-end boroughs of St-Léonard and Anjou will cost $3.9 billion. Of that amount, Quebec is hoping to pay 40 per cent, with another 50 per cent coming from the federal government and 10 per cent from the city, Transport Minister André Fortin said Tuesday. He noted, however, that the sharing of costs is still in the negotiation phase. Treasury Board president Pierre Arcand said Tuesday the government is moving toward expropriating properties, which indicates the project is well advanced.
The métro extension was among the three priorities listed by Finance Minister Carlos Leitão in his 2018-2019 budget, along with the $6.3-billion Réseau express métropolitain (REM) light-rail train line for Montreal slated to start construction next month and a $3.3-billion tramway system announced for Quebec City earlier in March. In total, $13 billion in funding is going toward the projects. The electric-powered transit lines fall into the government’s theme of improving Quebecers’ quality of life through improved transit.
“We are seeing a very clear investment in sustainable mobility,” Fortin said. “These are projects that will have a real impact on the daily lives of Montrealers that we are putting forth in this budget. We are making our financial commitment very clear for the Blue Line.”
The government will announce its sustainable mobility plan for the province in the coming months. It plans to invest $3.5 billion in the initiatives by 2023.
In total, the government estimates the additional transit funding will lead to a 25 per cent increase in services offered over the next five years, and a hike of 12.5 per cent in ridership.
Philippe Cousineau Morin, director of transportation advocacy group Trajectoire Québec called the government initiatives a welcome, widespread vision that attempted to meet a large swath of the province’s needs, as opposed to the more narrow targets of the past.
Other investments in transport and infrastructure include:
$65 million over five years to ■ bolster active transportation like cycling and walking;
$27 million over five years to ■ encourage “new mobilities” like carpooling, taxibuses and selfservice cars;
$94 million over two years to ■ support the Drive Electric program giving incentives to buyers of electric vehicles, up to roughly $8,000 per vehicle, and a pilot project to encourage people to buy electric vehicles. (The government’s target was to have 100,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2020. As of Jan. 31, 2018, there were 22,620 on Quebec roads.);
$2.2 billion in the education sec■ tor, including $1.2 billion to renovate schools and add classrooms;
$1.2 billion for the province’s ■
“digital strategy,” much of which will go to schools to provide teaching tools and to youth to learn digital skills;
$226 million to build 3,000 social ■ housing units.
In terms of infrastructure investments, Leitao said the government has pledged to spend $100 billion over the next 10 years, a record amount for the province.
Among the main projects cited were the extension of the Blue Line, the building of a new hospital in Vaudreuil- Soulanges and the extension of Highway 19 through Laval and the Laurentians.
There was no mention in the budget of the Pink Line proposal from Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante.