Capitale-Nationale voters can count on the Liberal government and its experienced team to support the development of their community. Mobility in the region has always been one of our government’s priorities. And it still is today.
When it tabled its last budget in March 2017, our government gave its full support to improving the mobility of Capitale-Nationale region residents by endorsing a structuring public transit project and establishing a project office to build a third road link between Québec City and Lévis.
The Quebec Liberal Party has a vision, while the Coalition Avenir Québec is working toward division and asking us to make a choice to the detriment of our collective development.
For our government, there has never been question of pitting different projects against each other or forcing people to choose between them, as the Coalition Avenir Québec has been doing for years now.
This way of operating would divide us at the very time when opportunities for many structuring projects are surfacing. We can work to build a structuring public transit network while preparing for the construction of a third link.
Doing what the CAQ is proposing would mean abandoning critical development for the Capitale-Nationale region. The CAQ’s proposal means denying the status of a capital city that deserves modern and intermodal infrastructure so that it can continue its economic and social development.
Two complementary structuring projects
Our province’s capital city and its residents must have access to a modern, reliable and fast public transit network. Depending on their travels, residents will be able to choose the transportation that best suits their needs.
This is the mobility development vision that our government has been proposing to Capitale-Nationale region residents for many months now.
U-turn
The CAQ’s traditional and firmly rooted position on transport is well known. No question of giving a thought to public transit with the CAQ. Instead they promise that they will build a third link within four years, without knowing where or how to do so.
Having heard that the government is working on an ambitious project with Québec City, François Legault made quite an about-face last week. He alone knows why, but he is now saying that he is open to the structuring project proposed by the Mayor of Québec City, and alleging that it is not necessarily in opposition with the third link project.
His new position is astonishing, and fully in line with the traditional CAQ way of doing things, where improvisation takes precedence over true vision.
Yet, we all recall that MNA Éric Caire has said for years that the people of Québec City do not want public transit. He even said last December: “We need to stop pushing unwanted projects down people’s throats: I refuse to play in a remake of the BRT or tramway debacle.” His message was quite clear. For François Legault and the CAQ, mobility in Québec City stops at the third link.
Our message to the residents of Québec City is very clear and consistent. Unlike the CAQ, our government believes that the region can take on two major projects without their being mutually opposed. The big winners will be the residents who want to spend more time at home and less time in traffic jams.
Sébastien Proulx
Member for Jean-Talon, Minister responsible for the Capitale-Nationale region, Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports
