Reform will increase accountability for public transit

Under the proposed new governance model, citizens will know where to turn for help, Mayor Denis Coderre says.

Our partnership with the Quebec government will facilitate the creation of a unified vision of Greater Montreal.

After months of work, Transport Minister Robert Poëti met with the executive committee of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) last Friday, April 24, to present his plans to change the governance of Greater Montreal’s public transit system.

The Quebec government’s concept, based on a new partnership with the CMM, responds to historic demands from Greater Montreal’s elected officials. I applaud the leadership and vision displayed by the minister.

Under the plan, the Quebec government will assign public transit planning to a regional transport authority (ART) consisting of six members appointed by the CMM and seven by the Quebec government (including an independent chair). A metropolitan transit system (RTM), headed by a board of elected officials designated by the CMM — as is the case with other existing transportation agencies — will run the commuter trains, suburban buses, reserved lanes, parking lots and terminuses.

Public transit must be coordinated throughout the metropolis, as it is true in many of the world’s urban hubs. Currently, municipalities run their own public transit systems and oversee most of their funding. Several transit operators under municipal authority have demonstrated excellent management skills.

Only commuter trains, parking lots, reserved lanes and metropolitan terminuses are now run by the Agence métropolitaine de transport, which is administered primarily by experts. But the commuter train system established by the AMT came into existence because of support from the municipalities, which pay 40 per cent of its operating budget.

The governance model proposed by Quebec responds to the principle that local elected leaders, who understand their residents’ needs, are best equipped to provide them with public transit services. Under this new model, citizens will know where to turn for help. This is called “accountability.”

Our partnership with the Quebec government will facilitate the creation of a unified vision of Greater Montreal. With the adoption of the metropolitan land use and development plan (PMAD), CMM officials have decided that public transit and land use are now part and parcel of the same package.

Since the 2013 election, CMM’s elected officials have exercised new leadership, expressed particularly through the adoption of an ash borer control strategy and a close oversight of pipeline projects.

In the public transit sector, the CMM has adopted a new financial framework for public transit that will become part of the new reform. The CMM has also released proceeds of the fuel tax that have been locked away in the AMT’s coffers for three years.

We are delighted to embark on this new partnership and will work closely with the Quebec government to deploy this visionary, far-reaching and essential reform — including long-term financing. This is a lengthy and broad-based process dedicated to serving the needs of Greater Montreal’s residents.

We now refer to the municipal sector as the local level of government. It is time for some to realize this — and for us to shoulder our new responsibilities.