Public transit central to QS plans

Party claims move will boost economy, create employment

A Quebec solidaire government would invest massively in public transit infrastructure and offer rebates to encourage a progressive transition to electric vehicles, gradually building to a ban on gaspowered vehicles on Quebec roads by 2050.

QS spokesperson Manon Masse said her party would inject a total of $13.3 billion into public transit over the next four years, a move the party claims would not only stimulate the economy and create jobs, it would allow Quebec to meet its ambitious climate change targets.

“Climate change is the biggest challenge of the 21st century,” said party spokesperson Manon Massé at a news conference in Parc Lafontaine. “Our great-greatgrandchildren will blame us if we don’t act now, and they will thank us if we do. At Québec solidaire, we want to be on the right side of history.”

The party has already announced that if elected, it would cut public transit fares in half. Massé said QS would also invest $7.6 billion in new money into public transit infrastructure across the province (for a total of $13.3 billion), bring in radical rebate programs to encourage transition to electric vehicles and stop licensing gas-powered private vehicles by 2050.

The $13.3 billion in public transit investments by 2022 is a key element of an economic transition plan that Massé claims will create more than 300,000 jobs across Quebec. Those jobs would not only stimulate the economy, she said, the plan would allow Quebec to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95 per cent from 1990 levels by 2050.

Our plan will also create the biggest work site across Quebec since the Quiet Revolution.

“It’s not even 11 a.m. and it’s already 31 degrees,” she said Tuesday. “These heat waves we’ve been experiencing this summer are only the trailer for the film that’s coming. … With our transition plan, Quebec will become a world leader in the fight against climate change. Our plan will also create the biggest work site across Quebec since the Quiet Revolution.”

Dismissing criticism that the plan to half transit fares and invest billions more into infrastructure is not financially viable, Massé said the money would be borrowed from banks, as any government does when financing capital investments. A QS government would halt all investment in new road projects, except those necessary to improve public safety, she said.

“The debt to gross domestic product ratio is around 49.3 per cent. At the end of a QS mandate it would be around 49.5 per cent,” Massé said.

“When I say we will create 300,000 jobs by 2030, I am stimulating the economy, injecting money into all the regions of Quebec, and stimulating the GDP, so we keep that ratio low.”

To encourage the purchase of hybrid or electric cars, a QS government would offer different levels of rebates to Quebecers depending on their situation. Those with low incomes, with children, and those living in areas with poor public transit service will qualify for higher rebates.

QS would also revive a former program called Faites de l’air that offered incentives to encourage owners of older, polluting vehicles to take them off the road.