Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press This international market survey for the third link project is “a very concrete step,” says Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault, likely to reassure skeptics.
Sébastien Tanguay in Quebec City
Published at 10:55 a.m. Updated at 3:01 p.m.
- Quebec City
After six years of “tribulations” surrounding the third link, the government has decided to step on the accelerator and is committed to completing as many steps as possible by the next election — to the point of making its completion “practically irreversible,” regardless of which party takes the lead after the 2026 election.
Between now and the next election, the government will have a lot to do to get the seeds to the river. Under consideration since 2018 and the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) came to power, the flagship promise now seems to be back to square one at a time when the government is reopening the field of possibilities.
The third link, in this umpteenth version, could be a bridge as well as a tunnel. It could appear anywhere between the current bridges and the tip of Île d’Orléans. It could accommodate only road transport or make room for public transport of the size of a tramway, if the data justifies it.
“We must not lock potential interested candidates into something too specific,” argued Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault. “The only requirements identified by her department, after spending $34 million on studies, are that this link must improve the flow between the two shores and allow truck traffic in the name of the “economic security of eastern Quebec.”
The timetable is becoming clearer. On Friday, the government launched a line in international waters to attract potential partners in the design and construction of the third link. A 30-day stage that is “hyper concrete,” in the eyes of the Transport Minister, and which must lay the first stone with a view to signing a first contract in 2027, the day after the next election.
“Strangely, the calendar proposed by the minister today is based on the electoral calendar,” quipped the PQ MNA for Jean-Talon, Pascal Paradis. “They are preparing the 2026 electoral promise for us.”
Nothing electoralist, assures the CAQ
The announcement, made without fanfare or guests, comes as a week-long parliamentary recess approaches.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000The party in power denies wanting to run another election campaign around the third link, assured Minister Guilbault during a conference where she reminded us, twice rather than once, that her party was the only one that wanted to achieve it.
“We cannot subordinate the necessary rigour, in this type of project, to electoral considerations,” said Geneviève Guilbault, dismissing in the same breath the improvisation that characterized, in retrospect, the Réseau express de la capitale, the twin-tube, the ratio of bridges per million inhabitants and the resurrection of the third highway link in the aftermath of the electoral defeat in Jean-Talon.
Within two years, according to the Deputy Premier, the CAQ will have advanced this project so much that the other parties' hands will be tied.
“We will have penalties if we put an end to this, because serious consortiums will have formed, teams will have put together files, candidates will have made proposals and will have qualified. […] It’s starting to be a little irresponsible to say that you’re going to put the axe to it and that you’re not going to do the project overnight.”
The minister herself delivered this axe blow in the spring of 2023 during a press conference based on binders of studies and documents. “We have credibility to rebuild with respect to this project,” acknowledged Ms. Guilbault, “because of all the tribulations it has undergone. We have a demonstration to make that we are resolutely committed to achieving it once and for all, the third link.”
The Deputy Prime Minister, however, refuses to commit her seat to this issue. “I will be certain to be able to deliver it,” maintained Geneviève Guilbault on Friday, at a time when the price attached to this possible third link remains unknown.
“What a waste of time”
Even among early supporters, skepticism remains high regarding this new commitment made by a government that has flouted a few along the way.
“I don't understand why we're back to square one today,” lamented Marie-Josée Morency, general director of the Lévis Chamber of Commerce. It's a good thing to surround yourself with experts, but [the government] should have done that in 2018, in my opinion. I don't feel at all that we got our money's worth: in my eyes, it's $34 million [in studies] that were completely useless and that could have met other needs in Quebec. »
« What a waste of time, added the mayor of Lévis, Gilles Lehouillier, one of the most ardent defenders of the link that must take root in his city. It brings us back to the same point as the 2018 election campaign. »
“Maurice Duplessis said: 'with a bridge, we have three elections,'” declared the Solidarity MNA for Taschereau, Étienne Grandmont. The CAQ, for its part, has refined this concept: three elections with no shovels of earth or ribbons to cut. It's a major back-to-the-future operation because in 2018, that's exactly what was announced.” According to him, the third link boils down to an “electoral rattle” that the CAQ is waving in the nose of the greater Quebec City region.
Premier François Legault pledged his word to build a third link last June, a few days after the submission of CDPQ Infra’s Plan CITÉ, which mentioned the futility of building one in the name of fluidity. According to the Caisse, a new link would save an average of five minutes and would have the disadvantage of increasing congestion on the North Shore highway network.
“For these reasons,” the Caisse concluded, “CDPQ Infra does not recommend building a new inter-shore road link. »
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