573 M$ for Quebec to sleep in Ottawa

File Photo, Charlotte A. Castilloux
The provinces do not yet have all pocketed federal funds pledged for their transit projects.

Boris Proulx

Monday, 12 march, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Monday, 12 march, 2018 01:00

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OTTAWA | Unlike all the other provinces, Quebec has received only a fraction of the money promised by Ottawa in public transit because it is dragging her feet to choose her projects.

More than $ 573 million are sleeping in the coffers of Ottawa instead of serving to extend the blue line of the Montreal metro or any other public transport project in the province, devastating the experts of the issue.

Approval process is endless from the quebec government delays the projects by several months, confessed to the minister of Transport of Quebec, contributing every day to the traffic congestion.

“There is a lack of vision of Quebec compared to the urban move, so that for the first time there was a plan in Ottawa “, reacts to Philippe Cousineau Morin, director of Path Quebec.

Quebec late

A little more than one-third (37 %) of the federal money provided for by public transport has been announced for a project in Quebec.

This is a decrease in the percentage total of the amounts promised in infrastructure since the federal budget in 2016 and actually expended for the province, which stands at 55 %.

For Ottawa, this is due to the fact that the province is dragging her feet to present her projects.

“Each province is responsible for prioritizing the infrastructure projects they wish to present, therefore to a province to another it can vary,” says Kate Monfette, press attaché to the minister for federal Infrastructure, Amarjeet Sohi.

Photo courtesy

Amarjeet Sohi, federal minister of Infrastructure

The change in the idea of Québec on certain projects is discussed to explain these delays.

In the last federal budget, no money for the bus rapid (BRT) in Québec-Lévis had for example, been criticized, as the project was abandoned the same year.

The minister of Transport of Québec, André Fortin, has acknowledged that his government is very slow in giving the green light to the projects, in front of business people on February 5.

File Photo, Didier Debusschère

André Fortin, provincial minister of Transport

His office has confirmed that the process would be reviewed and accelerated, without being able to explain why the records are moving faster in all other provinces.Both the federal and the provincial were reassuring.

The half-billion dollars missing would be spent as intended, and important records should be made available in the coming months.

Consequences

“Meanwhile, congestion increases, road traffic is propagated, and greenhouse gas emissions are rising,” says Florence Junca-Adenot, ex-CEO of the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT).

It is believed that construction sites can be threatened, due to lack of being able to predict their phases of construction in time.

The $ 3.4 billion provided to the country by the Funds for the transit infrastructure (FITC) pay half of the bill for transit projects submitted by the province prior to march 31 of this year, in just six weeks.

Units of the funds pledged approved

Provinces
Amounts federal have already been announced
Total of the amounts promised by Ottawa
Percentage

British Columbia
$ 403 Million
460 M$
88 %

Alberta
$ 342 Million
$ 347 Million
99 %

Saskatchewan
$ 28.7 Million
$ 28.7 Million
100 %

Manitoba
$ 66 Million
$ 82 Million
81 %

Ontario
$ 1 billion
$ 1.5 billion
67 %

Quebec
$ 340 Million
914$ M
37 %

Île-du-Prince-Édouard
0.65 M$
0.65 M$
100 %

New Brunswick
$ 9 Million
$ 9 Million
100 %

Nova Scotia
$ 31 Million
$ 32 Million
97 %

Source : Funds for the transit infrastructure (FITC) – Infrastructure Canada