An open letter to François Bonnardel

You recently came to Sherbrooke, on October 9, to visit our mayor following the new grants announced at the end of September, to inform the City of the amount it was going to receive: “Sherbrooke will receive $ 16.1 million which it can allocate to the deficit of the Société de transport de Sherbrooke (STS), which had to offer its services throughout the pandemic. Public security expenses are also covered by this financial assistance,” we learned in a La Tribune article following the visit.

We are very worried about our taxi company in Sherbrooke, which has so far received none of the first $ 400 million in the MTQ’S announcements, nor from those of September 26, despite having been declared “essential services” by the government at the start of the pandemic. The company has had to assume its own expenses to improve the safety of its drivers and customers, such as separators. Taxis from Montreal and Quebec were able to receive funds to pay their separators, from their respective city and other municipal authorities (Bureau du taxi in Mtl and RTC in Quebec).

In a recent report published on TVA Nouvelles and in the Journal de Montréal on October 28, we learn that many drivers are struggling to barely make 60 per cent of their income, as transport needs have decreased considerably. We know that the number of drivers is likely to decrease, due to COVID-19 and the consequences of the implementation of the new law concerning the remunerated transport of people by automobile.

However, taxis normally serve nearly 60 per cent of transport by taxis for adapted transport with the STS. While the recent decision of the STS to place two people per taxi in the back seat despite the INSPQ strongly recommending a single person in the rear “to respect as much as possible the minimum distance of two meters between customers ”, may save money for the STS, it does not benefit taxis for whom paratransit is a priority. Grants from the two governments are clearly identified as having to cover expenses from COVID-19 to prevent the spread of the virus, and the virus is expected to come again in 2021.

You announced on September 26, Minister, that the subsidies should also cover paratransit. For the protection of the more vulnerable paratransit clientele, we ask if it is possible for you to label part of the subsidies for taxi drivers (making paratransit a priority (Bill 17)) and part for the STS so that it complies again with the INSPQ directive to have its customers travel only one person by taxi during the pandemic, we know this entails additional costs. We ask you to ensure, through your transport subsidies for 2021, that health security is guaranteed as best as possible to adapted transport users.