Quebec City commuters are big winners
QUEBEC The Quebec City region was a stronghold of the Coalition Avenir Québec in the last election, and it seems that city’s commuters were among the biggest winners in Thursday’s budget.
The government is moving ahead with a tramway project that crosses the city and a new road network link between Quebec and the suburb of Lévis.
The CAQ government committed to earmark the province’s contribution to the project, which has been evaluated at $5 billion or more, to build a tunnel under the St. Lawrence River.
The government also placed a tramway project for the Quebec City region into the planning stage of its 10-year infrastructure fund. The $3-billion project would see a 23-kilometre tram line built across the city, roughly from west to east, and complemented by a 17-kilometre “trambus” line and new dedicated bus lanes, all in service of easing traffic congestion, especially to the suburbs and airport.
The Montreal region was not left out, as the government will study a tramway project for the city’s East End — which is the only area of the island that elected a CAQ MNA in last fall’s election.
The CAQ government has also committed to study projects to add reserved bus lanes on Highways 13, 20, 25, 440, 640 and Route 116. If the reserved lanes are implemented, however, they could come too late to be of use for the roughly 18,000 commuters expected to be affected by the construction of the Réseau electrique métropolitain, when the Mount Royal Tunnel closes for two years starting next January. The current plan calls for express buses to use reserved lanes on a multitude of highways, but in the case of Highway 13 and Highway 440, they are planned to run on the shoulder — a less than ideal situation if there is a car that breaks down. A project to extend Highway 13 to Highway 50 — in the planning stages in the 1970s back when Mirabel was destined to be the city’s main airport — has been brought back to life. It is now labelled as “under study.”
For Longueuil residents, an extension of the métro’s Yellow Line, and a public transit project for Taschereau Boulevard have been moved to the study stages.
The government will also study widening Highway 30 between Highway 10 and 20, and the government has committed to having reserved bus lanes in that corridor to service the REM in the South Shore, with buses using the shoulder of the road as a temporary measure.
Opposition party Québec solidaire blasted the budget, calling it a catastrophe for the climate, because it has no new funds to improve public transit.
“The government is just putting more cars on the road,” QS finance critic Vincent Marissal said.
He called the third link between Quebec and Lévis “dangerous,” saying it must be stopped at all costs.
In a statement, the Union des municipalités du Québec said it is disappointed that the government did not earmark more funds for public transit projects for all regions of the province.
The budget continues the program to subsidize the purchase of electric cars at $8,000.
However, the budget lowers the value of cars eligible for that subsidy. Only cars valued at under $60,000 will qualify for the subsidy.
With the $5,000 promised in this week’s federal budget, buyers of electric cars can now get up to $13,000 in government subsidies. The province has also set aside money to fund car chargers at homes and offices.