Plante’s change of mind torpedoed Caisse’s REM de l’Est involvement: Emond

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Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante changed her mind on the eastern extension of the Réseau express métropolitain in a matter of 10 days and torpedoed the project, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec president Charles Emond said on Tuesday.

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Emond told a legislative committee that a month ago Plante seemed happy with the project, but suddenly changed her mind days later.

Emond made his remarks a day after Plante and Quebec Premier François Legault announced their respective governments were taking control of the controversial REM de l’Est light rail project from the Caisse and heading back to the drawing board.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the reversal, Emond said that during a meeting last month, Plante had determined that his group would deal with the transport component of the project while the city oversaw its development.

“She was delighted with the proposal,” said Emond. “Ten days later, she calls the government to say she wants a new project. The government told me it didn’t think the Caisse would be a part of it. … (They) told me: ‘That’s the end of the REM de l’Est.’ ”

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The Legault government had entrusted the Caisse with the project several years ago, but in light of the controversy and opposition generated by some aspects of it — mainly the elevated portion through downtown Montreal — the government is now going in a different direction.

Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard told the committee Tuesday it’s too soon to say who will be responsible for the new version of the REM extension.

“We’re back to conceptualizing the project; we’re not awarding the contract,” Girard said.

Girard further confirmed that the government would have had to pay a royalty to the Caisse to guarantee its return on the REM de l’Est, as it does for the first phase of the REM, which is still under construction but is expected to begin operating in part this December.

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Girard said it’s likely the new version of the project will be less expensive to complete since it won’t be passing through downtown Montreal anymore.

“Since it was in a higher density area, it was more expensive,” he said.

The REM de l’Est was to include a line from a downtown station to Pointe-aux-Trembles, with a branch running north to CEGEP Marie-Victorin in Montreal North. The downtown portion has now been abandoned.

The project was strongly contested in several eastern neighbourhoods, particularly because it would have been an elevated light-rail train.

Overall, Emond said he doesn’t think the Caisse’s reputation will suffer from the project being abandoned and believes the organization can still present its public transit model to other cities.

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He also confirmed the Legault government will pay the Caisse $100 million in compensation for the expenses incurred in commissioning studies for the project.

Asked how he could explain the money to tax-paying Quebecers, Girard justified the compensation by saying the government will still be able to use some of the studies produced.

But Parti Québécois MNA Martin Ouellet said the compensation amounts to reimbursing “the fact the government made a mistake for four years” by entrusting the mandate to the Caisse.

Liberal MNA André Fortin, for his part, criticized the Coalition Avenir Québec government for promising several public transit projects before the last election, but not carrying them out.

That includes a since-abandoned branch of the REM that would have connected to Chambly on the South Shore, he said.

“We were told the whole world was looking at the REM de l’Est project,” Fortin said, “yet today we’re promised a completely different project.”