Quebec Bridge Purchase: Agreement between Ottawa and CN

After years of procrastination and negotiations, an agreement has been reached between the federal government and Canadian National (CN) to move the Quebec Bridge to Ottawa.

The information, first revealed Thursday morning by Cogeco Media radio host Jonathan Trudeau, was confirmed to the Journal by a source close to the matter who did not wish to be named. No details of the deal have been disclosed at this time.

In a statement, Quebec’s federal Liberal MP and Minister of Public Services and Procurement Jean-Yves Duclos said this morning: “After much hard work, the Canadian government has indeed reached a historic agreement with CN to purchase the Quebec Bridge. Details will follow in the coming days. , but this is great news for the people of Quebec »

Last October, Union Liberal Minister Pablo Roderickza confirmed “We are going to invest heavily in the Quebec bridge. Announcements will be made soon.”

In recent years, the federal government has confirmed its intention to buy the bridge (it has been owned by CN since 1993), but negotiations with CN have dragged on.

$784 million over 25 years

In the fall of 2020, the Journal revealed the contents of a report by federal negotiator Yvonne Charest, a federal negotiator on the matter. At the time, the latter estimated that it would cost to paint and maintain the infrastructure $784 million over 25 years.

Two years later, in the middle of a provincial election campaign in the fall of 2022, Mr. Charest warned and made a remarkable publication. Risk of demolition A rusty bridge over a century old.

During the 2015 election campaign, the federal Liberals promised to resolve the Quebec bridge issue by June 30, 2016.

reaction

In the first reaction, Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative MP for Charlesbourg-Haute-Saint-Charles, wrote: “It takes 2870 days to finalize a deal. It’s been over eight years! », he was surprised.

According to him, “The Conservative Party of Canada, under Stephen Harper, succeeded in uniting stakeholders on the file and the proposal was on the table. By wanting to elbow their way in during the 2015 election campaign and promising a June 30, 2016 deadline, the Liberals would have finally taken eight years. Quebec Liberal results for the region: More rust on the bridge and a bigger bill.” “Until the work starts, these are empty promises,” he said.

In the National Assembly, “I [le gouvernement du Québec]I’m not an owner, we’re tenants, the rest,” Jonathan Julian, minister responsible for Capital-National, commented succinctly.

“The important thing, in the end, is stability, and then we can improve the Quebec bridge,” he added.

– Parliamentary Office, in collaboration with Marc-André Gagnon