While the mayor of Quebec is waiting for the green light to take the tramway project to the next stage, the CAQ Minister Geneviève Guilbault returns the ball to the federal government, which is slow, according to her, to formally commit to the financing of the cost overruns .
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Since the beginning of the week, Mayor Bruno Marchand has publicly increased the pressure on the Legault government to adopt, by the end of March, the decrees necessary to launch calls for proposals concerning the rolling stock and infrastructure of the future tramway. .
But there is a bone: that of the revision of the sharing of the cost overruns of the project, which totaled approximately half a billion $ according to the last evaluation.
“We have to do things in order,” said the minister responsible for the Capitale-Nationale region on Thursday, recalling that the Trudeau government has still not officially committed to paying 40% of the total bill for the project, rather than a third party, as provided for in the agreement reached before the cost explosion.
Budgetary discipline
Although federal Minister Jean-Yves Duclos has advanced “verbally on more than one occasion in the media”, Quebec “has not yet succeeded in properly or officially attaching” the thing in writing, explained Mr.me Guilbault.
“It is important for us to be able to resolve the issue of sharing cost overruns. You will understand that this is an element of budgetary and monetary rigor, so we are on it, ”dropped the MP for Louis-Hébert.
“We are waiting for a formalization of a federal commitment,” she summarized, before transferring a little heat to Ottawa.
“Discussions are continuing between the City of Quebec and the Ministry of Transport and we hope a little more vigorously with the federal government,” said Ms.me Guilbault.
However, on the Ottawa side, our sources indicate that to date, no official request for an additional monetary contribution has been transmitted by the Government of Quebec.
This is what the federal Minister of Infrastructure, Dominic LeBlanc, recently recalled in response to a request for a meeting on this subject made by the Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel. The Trudeau government, which has always supported the tramway project, would also like it to be carried out as soon as possible, assured a federal source well versed in the matter.
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Reference-www.journaldequebec.com