Metro, tram, REM… The government plans to include all forms of public transport in its tunnel project between Quebec and Lévis, Transport Minister Genevieve Guilbault underlines.
The “beauty” of the new version of the plan is that “we will not be limited” to buses when it comes to public transport, he pointed out during a review of his ministry’s budget allocation on Tuesday. “We currently have an empty tunnel, unlike the double tube, which can only accommodate buses,” he said.
“Everything that exists in the coming decades is theoretically possible,” said the MNA for Louis-Hebert after recalling his youth when these possibilities were limited to paper letters on the capital’s buses.
However, there is no question of providing an estimate for a new project. Étienne Grandmont, a Solidarity MP, managed to get him to say that the rejected highway would cost less than what was included (around $10 billion).
During the discussions in the Blue Room, Deputy Grandmont, Ms.me Guilbault and François Legault decided to bet the same way on April 5 “without information about the cost”. The MP said this was particularly surprising as the Prime Minister often reminds us that he is an accountant and “loves numbers”.
Minister Guilbault said he was aware of the estimated costs for the new project, which appeared in a study by the ministry, but they had been revised. “For big projects, generally, we give the costs when we present the business case to the Cabinet,” he said in his defence.
“Fixing costs is not a cover-up, it’s not a conspiracy, it’s not a sham,” he said. It’s because it’s not responsible at this point. […] This has an impact on tender calls. »
