Mayors from the North Shore joined forces with opposition parties to demand better funding for public transit from Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault and to warn the government about the upcoming byelection in Terrebonne.
“Rest assured that public transportation will be at the heart of the issues in the next byelection campaign in Terrebonne,” said Les Moulins MRC representative Robert Morin, who is also a municipal councillor in Terrebonne, at a press briefing at the National Assembly on Wednesday.
The North Shore riding – left vacant by the departure of Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon – is a former PQ stronghold. According to current poll projections, the PQ could take back this riding from the Coalition Avenir Québec.
Deux-Montagnes Mayor Denis Martin said that he and his colleagues have had several meetings with their local elected officials – who are all CAQ MNAs.
“We’ve had a lot of discussions about public transport, but we’ve had a lot of rejections, so we have to take the debate to a different level,” he explained. “For too long, our citizens and businesses have suffered the direct consequences of the lack of investment in public transit in the North Shore. Every morning, thousands of families lose precious hours stuck in traffic, young people are forced to turn down job opportunities or give up enrolling in certain establishments in the metropolis due to the lack of public transit. Our seniors remain isolated,” added Denis Martin.
‘We have no more money’
MNAs from the three opposition parties in Quebec met with the North Shore mayors.
Liberal MNA Monsef Derraji pointed out that this is a “region where there are only CAQ elected officials.”
“What’s the point of having a CAQ MNA if he doesn’t stand up to demand public transportation for his region?” he asked.
Guilbault maintains that her government has invested the most in public transport and believes that the private sector can compensate for the lack of public transport in certain places.
“We don’t have any more money. We have a deficit in the last budget of $11 billion. We have to pay for schools, hospitals, roads. So, we can’t put an infinite amount of money into public transportation,” she said in a press scrum Wednesday morning at the National Assembly.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews