Public transit: Girard doesn't want to see any more last-minute negotiations

Finance Minister Eric Girard is convinced that it will be possible to reduce the costs of public transit systems, but he doesn't want to see any more of the last-minute negotiations seen this year.

Barely a few weeks before the presentation of municipal budgets, Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault finally agreed last week to absorb 70 per cent of the transit companies' deficits with a $265 million payment.

In front of several hundred guests gathered at the invitation of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal on Friday, Girard made it clear: "We can no longer do what we just did, where we negotiate until the last minute."

According to the finance minister, "the Quebec government could assume the drop in ridership," but he points out that by absorbing 70 per cent of the deficits, "we're taking more than the drop in ridership."

In a press scrum following his speech, Girard pointed out that the emergency aid paid to the transit companies was intended to compensate for the absence of passengers.

"This year, it's as if, for the transit companies, we're still in an emergency. They would have liked us to pick up 100 per cent of the deficit. But the federal government is no longer contributing because it considers the pandemic to be over," he explained.

But Quebec, he says, can't provide all the aid on its own, "and that's why we're stopping at 70 per cent."

Transit companies, for their part, argue that although the pandemic may be over, ridership has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, due in part to strong growth in telecommuting.

He points out that his colleague at the Ministry of Transport is working on a five-year funding plan with revenue and expenditure projections and that, "this is the last year we'll be doing [funding] one year at a time."

He then fully agreed with the idea of auditing their finances, saying he's sure they'll find expenses to cut.

"I think it's obvious. Are any of us convinced that there are no cost issues in public transit companies?" he said in response to a question from Michel Leblanc, President of the Chamber of Commerce.

Going further in the press scrum, he countered Société de transport de Montréal (STM) executives' claim that 85 per cent of operating expenses are salaries, and therefore incompressible, asserting that if a high percentage of expenses are payroll, "we have to contain the growth of payroll, administrative expenses, executive salaries, and all that."

He also says that transit companies must learn to deal with declining ridership.

"If there's a drop in ridership, then there are routes that are used less. We have to have the courage to redeploy services to roads that are more heavily used. There are fewer users, so we can't stay stuck with a service offer that's constant with fewer users," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 10, 2023.