One week after federal transportation minister Marc Garneau said Canada was committing to building a railway bypass around Lac-Megantic, it's not clear who is going to pay for it.
Transportation ministers from across the country, including Quebec’s Andre Fortin, met Garneau on Monday in Ottawa.
Among several topics of discussion was the Lac-Megantic bypass.
The federal and provincial governments have agreed to work together to announce the details by the fifth anniversary of the event, on July 6.
Fortin is hoping to see the details sooner.
"I understand their realities and what they want to do as well but at the same time I think there was a good understanding that we need to find a solution quickly. Minister Garneau initially had said he wanted to do this before July which would be the five-year mark since the tragedy. I think we can move a little quicker than that and the people of Lac-Megantic deserve exactly that," said Fortin.
Quebec is hoping the federal government will foot the majority of the bill, because it is federal jurisdiction.
“We believe that because it's a project that is under federal jurisdiction, they should be the majority partner around the table. But at the same time really our main hope is to get this done quickly so that people of Megantic can have a solution in front of them, that the bypass line can be completely quickly, and that the trains don't run through downtown Megantic anymore,” he said.
The estimated cost for the rail line would be $130 million to run about 12 km of track around the town.
On July 6, 2013, a runaway train carrying oil crashed into downtown Lac-Megantic and exploded, killing 47 people.
Earlier this month three men were found not guilty of criminal negligence causing the deaths of those people.
