While they welcome the Legault government’s improved offer to fund public transit, Greater Montreal’s mayors judge it is “largely insufficient” to maintain and restart services, which puts them in front of “strong choices.”
In a letter sent to the Premier of Quebec on Sunday and that Pres received, the Executive Committee of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) requests a meeting with him to resolve the impasse.
That’s because disagreements lingered over the calculation, part of an improved offer made by Transport Minister Genevieve Guilbault last Thursday if cities said they were satisfied with Quebec’s commitment to fund 70% of their transit companies’ deficits by 2024. scarcity.
According to the Legault government, the vehicle registration tax (TIV), a measure adopted by the CMM, whose revenue will generate 122 million in 2024, should be used to absorb the deficit, which will be 461.3 million. Its offer was upgraded last Thursday from Rs 150 crore to Rs 238 crore, which will cover 70% of the balance.
However, cities want to see TIV revenues used to improve public transit, which CMM presents as “a question of equity between different sectors of Greater Montreal for the revitalization of public transit, particularly in the northern suburbs and in the south.”
“Consequently, income from TIV should not be used in MDMD calculation [ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable] about deficit,” argues the CMM in a letter to the Prime Minister.
“The Painful Choice”
By the time the municipalities finalize their budgets for next year, the CMM is asking the government for an additional effort of 128 million compared to its last offer, leaving a residual deficit of 461.3 million estimated to reach 346 million in 2024, or 75% of the budget.
In recent days, Greater Montreal cities have argued that less than $300 million in aid by 2024 would lead to several service cuts in the metro, which would require it to close after 11 p.m., as well as withdraw buses from roads and drivers. Redundancies.
“For 2024, the latest government proposal submitted to us may force us to make painful choices,” the CMM executive committee reiterated in its Sunday letter.
In October, the first offer of Minister Geneviève Guilbault proposed to absorb only 20% of the deficit of transport companies of Greater Montreal, 502.8 million in aid over five years, 149.5 million in the first year.
With Maxime Bergeron and Henri Ouellette-Vézina, Pres
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