Quebec is asking motorists to contribute to financing its public transport

Photo: Renaud Philippe Le Devoir Quebec City residents will pay $60 more when renewing their vehicle registration, bringing their public transit contribution to $90.

Sébastien Tanguay in Quebec

Published at 9:38 a.m.

• Quebec City

At a time when the Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC) is starving, Quebec City is calling on motorists to help replenish its coffers. They will pay $60 more when they next renew their registration, which will bring their public transit contribution to $90.

The measure, which will affect 300,000 drivers as of January 1, 2025, will bring $18.4 million to the RTC budget — an amount that alleviates, but does not resolve, the $40 million shortfall projected by the RTC in 2024.

The new tax marks the end of a status quo that has been in place for more than three decades. The levy on registration fees for public transit in the capital had remained at $30 since 1992 — a “blunder,” according to the mayor of Quebec City, who immediately announced that the new tax would fluctuate with indexation.

“It’s a blunder not to index things,” said Bruno Marchand. The $30, if it had been indexed, would be $55 today.”

The difference, according to him, could have met current municipal ambitions in terms of public transport, at a time when companies are struggling with structural deficits and cities are uniting to demand reform of a financing model that they consider outdated.

“The funding challenge is a recurring issue that shouldn’t be,” lamented RTC President Maude Mercier Larouche. Since the pandemic, she illustrates, the annual budget closing has become a “waking nightmare” and developing a long-term vision has become “impossible.”

“It’s not a spending problem,” said the councillor, recalling that the RTC had “optimized” its operations to the tune of $11 million last year. It’s a revenue problem.”

In this context, the City had no choice but to increase registration fees, according to Mayor Bruno Marchand. “We’re not happy to announce this and we’re not doing it lightly,” he said. But if we do nothing, the status quo is harmful to everyone.”

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A plan like “smoke and mirrors”

The City of Quebec had never hidden its intention to use its new taxing power to finance the maintenance and development of public transit in its territory. The mayor has long mentioned the minimum amount of $10 and, in recent days, he stated in a press scrum that the increase would not exceed this amount if the RTC did not provide him with certainty that a higher tax would improve services in the suburbs.

On Wednesday, RTC Director General Nicolas Girard presented the “enhancement sequence” that should, by 2028, extend the services of àVélo, Flexibus on demand and high-frequency buses to the outskirts. At the end of the plan, the director stressed, the service every 10 minutes will serve 60% of Quebec City residents. “Currently, it serves 40% of citizens,” he specified.

The mayor did not provide a cost estimate for his development plan on Wednesday. This missing data proves, according to the official opposition, that the City’s ambitions are turning out to be “smoke and mirrors.”

“The current tax does not even cover the entire deficit projected for 2024,” laments the leader of Québec d’abord, Claude Villeneuve. If the mayor wants to carry out his plan, it is obvious that he will have to increase the tax beyond the indexation.”

“We don’t have any more money”

In the corridors of the National Assembly, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, did not want to respond to the cities that accuse the government of backing them into a corner by not adequately funding public transit.

“I have no business getting involved,” said the minister. Public transit is on municipal territory, and municipalities have a role to play in funding public transit. I don't think our citizens think that the government should pay 100% of public transit.”

Québec solidaire, for its part, accuses the government of “shirking its role” in funding public transit. “That's it: the Guilbault tax is in effect,” joked the Taschereau MP, Étienne Grandmont.

The Conservatives, for their part, believe that it is “disgusting to continue to dip into the wallets of the Quebec taxpayer.” “The last thing motorists need” in a context of inflation, denounced their leader, Éric Duhaime, “is for their taxes to be tripled.”

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