Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press The president of the UMQ, Martin Damphousse, refused to say who should pay for the deficits of the transport companies, but he suggested that we are not talking about the federal government when we should. We see him here alongside Mayor Valérie Plante and Mayors Bruno Marchand and Daniel Cote.
Patrice Bergeron – The Canadian Press in Drummondville
Posted at 4:02 p.m.
- Quebec
Municipalities are asking the government to index the cost of registrations and fuel taxes, to better finance public transport in particular.
This is part of the demands set out by the Union of Municipalities of Quebec (UMQ) on Friday, at the end of its National Meeting on the Future of Public Transport, which was held in Drummondville.
Municipalities are faced with recurring deficits from their public transit companies, while sources of funding provided by the government, through the Land Transportation Network Fund, dry up.
An indexation of registrations and fuel taxes would bring in tens of millions, even hundreds of millions more, it is estimated at the UMQ.
< p>Faced with the CAQ government in difficult negotiations to finance public transportation, the UMQ also asked the federal government on Friday to do more.
Quebec is also asking for money
While the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, is under pressure from mayors to resolve the deficit of transportation companies transport, it also demanded funds from Ottawa.
Present at the summit, Ms. Guilbault deplored the fact that there will be no federal investment program in public transportation between 2023 and 2026. “That's why we would like an earlier federal program, because we would has a gap during which we have no federal funding source,” she declared in the press scrum after her speech.
Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press The Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, was at the UMQ summit on Friday on the future of public transportation.
UMQ President Martin Damphousse refused to say who precisely should pay for the recurring deficits of transport companies, in what proportion, and who should pay for the massive investments required in development.
But he suggested that we are not talking about the federal government in the current debate even though we should.
« Honestly, we must not neglect it, the federal government has an important responsibility,” he argued at a press briefing alongside the mayors of Quebec’s big cities.
< p>“The federal government must play a leading role in the development of public transportation in Quebec. We will question them, be sure of that.”