Quebec taxpayers shouldn't have to foot bill for Montreal's public transport deficits, says minister

Deputy Premier and Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility Genevieve Guilbault, speaks about new road safety measures at a press conference in Montreal, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

Quebec as a whole shouldn’t have to assume the cost of public transport deficits in Montreal, the Legault government has decided.

Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault is trying to lower expectations in ongoing negotiations over absorbing shortfalls for public transport companies.

These organizations will show a cumulative deficit of $2.5 billion in five years if nothing changes, calculations show.

Opposition parties and sustainable mobility organizations accused Guilbault on Wednesday of lacking ambition and condemning Quebecers to a reduction in services.

The minister was terse: She said that the projected deficits of Montreal area’s transport companies represent 90 per cent of the missing $2.5 billion.

"I will make an offer again, but I do not believe that it is up to the government of Quebec and the taxpayers of Quebec to pay for 100 per cent of a deficit of more than $2 billion in Greater Montreal," she said. "At some point, we must seek equity, efficiency, collaboration."

She recently proposed a nearly $503-million package to transport companies, or around one-fifth of the deficit expected over five years. She intends to submit a new proposal shortly.

At a morning press conference in the national assembly, the general director of Trajectoire Québec and spokesperson for the Transit Alliance, Sarah Doyon, described the offer currently on the table as "absolutely unacceptable and insufficient" because the government does not provide for any improvement in the service offering for five years.

"The supply is so insufficient that it makes us fear massive service cuts," she said.

Montreal’s transit agency, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), would practically return to the 2006 level of service, "practically prehistoric times," before the implementation of Quebec's public transport policy, she said.

"Minister Geneviève Guilbault is undertaking the largest operation to sabotage public transport in years," said Parti Quebecois transport critic Joel Arseneau. "It's unthinkable. The government lacks ambition, lacks imagination, lacks coherence."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 25, 2023.