Plante says Quebec needs to step up and bail out public transit agencies

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Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said she’s concerned by the province’s attitude toward funding public transit.

Speaking at the monthly council meeting of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal, Plante said Thursday she was alarmed to hear the province’s transport minister say in the National Assembly Wednesday that funding public transit lies under the responsibility of the local elected officials and managers, “and not the totality of 9 million Quebecers.”

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“It’s clear the words of the minister shed a new light on everything,” Plante said in a speech broadcast on YouTube. “It’s important for me to remind Quebecers and the minister that, yes, public transit is a responsibility of the province.”

She pointed out that the Montreal metropolitan region makes up half the population of the province, so its residents support Quebec’s major industries, such as mining and forestry, through their taxes.

Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault was asked about the funding of transit during Wednesday’s question period because Montreal-area mayors are reportedly considering increasing car registration fees by 280 per cent, which would amount to $228 per car in the region.

The STM and other transit agencies have made cuts in expenses recently. For example, the STM laid off 230 workers and chopped expenses by $35 million. Last week, the STM elected to reduce its fleet of buses by 155, bringing an end to a Plante election promise of 300 additional buses.

Plante said she’s concerned that more cuts will be needed unless there is a major cash boost from the province.

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Draconian cuts have already been floated in a working document that was released to the media. It envisaged, among other things, closing the Montreal métro at 11 p.m. on weeknights and opening only at 9 a.m. on weekends.

For this year, such cuts were avoided, but Guilbault refused a request for $400 million to plug the structural deficits of transit agencies, giving instead $212 million. She then pledged to form a committee with cities and transit agencies to draft a five-year agreement for funding.

Plante said she still has not met with Guilbault, and the only meeting scheduled with her to discuss transit will occur in June, which means no decision will be made before September at the earliest. That doesn’t give the city or the transit agencies enough time to come up with new solutions to balance their budgets.

“That puts us in an impossible position where we can’t make proper decisions and come up with solutions together,” Plante said.

She said the lack of public transit service on the North and South Shores is an “enormous problem,” recalling that the province pledged to improve service there.

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“I invite the minister to come to Montreal to take the métro, and to also visit the outer parts of the region, where buses only come once an hour,” Plante said. “She has to see who the people are who take transit. It’s people in suits and ties and hospital workers in scrubs. It’s students, like my son, who takes the métro to go to Laval for CEGEP.”

She added that the province’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can’t be met without major improvements to public transit, since cars make up the bulk of the region’s carbon emissions.

In question period on Thursday, Guilbault said the CAQ government has invested more in transit than any other government in the history of the province.

She said Quebec continues to bail out transit agencies to make up for a lack of revenue from ridership. However, the province has no say on how most of the money is spent, since it is cities and local transit agencies that make these decisions.

jmagder@postmedia.com

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