Latest news with #GenevièveGuilbault
Montreal Gazette
3 days ago
- Montreal Gazette
ARTM stops running shuttles during REM operating hours
Effective Monday, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain and CDPQ Infra ended the shuttle bus services operating along the REM route during the hours the light-rail network is running. In a statement issued on Saturday, the ARTM said the move follows a recent period of stability and reliable performance by the REM, which has been able to meet user needs effectively. The bus lines, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal and the Réseau de transport de Longueuil, which previously ran along the Samuel-De Champlain Bridge corridor, will no longer be in service during the day on weekdays. Low ridership levels on these shuttles were cited as the primary reason for their discontinuation during the day. The following bus routes will continue operating during hours when the REM is currently closed but would normally operate, from 8:20 p.m. to 1 a.m. on weekdays and 5:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekends: 568, between Gare Centrale and Île-des-Soeurs 720, between Île-des-Soeurs, Panama, Du Quartier and Brossard 721, between Gare Centrale, Du Quartier and Brossard 722, between Gare Centrale and Panama 'In recent weeks, the REM has regained a level of stability and reliability, allowing it to provide the predictability users expect,' CDPQ Infra president and CEO Jean-Marc Arbaud said in the statement. The REM shuttles started after disruptions were caused by record snowfalls in February. Further disruptions after service resumed prompted Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault to demand the shuttles keep running even when the REM was in service. The REM will continue operating weekdays only until 8 p.m. until July 4, when the system will shut down entirely for six weeks as part of network-wide testing to prepare for the launch of the Deux-Montagnes and Anse-à-l'Orme branches, scheduled for October. An exception will be made for Grand Prix weekend, June 13 to 15, when the REM will run all day and evening. On Tuesday, REM service was interrupted again for more than 30 minutes during the morning rush hour. A 'technical issue' was cited as the reason. Shuttle buses were deployed. This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 4:18 PM.
CTV News
3 days ago
- Automotive
- CTV News
Opposition parties in National Assembly outraged by SAAQ idea
The Official Opposition in Quebec City is outraged that the Quebec auto insurance board (SAAQ) has considered dipping into the victims' compensation fund to pay off its deficits. This revelation was made on Tuesday by the SAAQ's former director of internal audit, Daniel Pelletier, when he testified before the Gallant commission investigating the failings of SAAQclic. On Wednesday, Liberal MNA Monsef Derraji tabled a motion in the Salon Rouge, pointing out that the fund intended for road accident victims should not be used 'pay off deficits resulting from the poor management of IT projects.' The motion was passed unanimously. Earlier, at a news scrum, Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault said that 'taking money away from road accident victims to pay for SAAQclic' was out of the question. 'How the money in this fund is used is prescribed by legislation. So we can't do whatever we want with that money,' she explained. 'The government can use the surpluses to reduce the cost of driving licences or to finance road safety activities.' In a news release distributed to journalists on Wednesday morning, the SAAQ confirmed that it was analyzing a scenario in which it would redirect sums to road safety. This 'review of the allocation of road safety prevention activities' would have 'no connection' with SAAQclic, and 'the fund (...) cannot be used to make up the SAAQ's deficit,' the government corporation acknowledged. Moreover, additional investment in road safety would not compromise the fund's 'sound financial health,' and therefore would not affect its 'ability to compensate road accident victims,' it added. This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 28, 2025.
CBC
05-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Quebec greenlights tramway project in eastern Montreal
Quebec's Transport Minister says the government is going ahead with a tramway to replace the contentious REM de l'Est project, broadening public transit options for commuters from the eastern tip of the island of Montreal. Geneviève Guilbault made the announcement at a news conference at the Repentigny, Que., city hall this morning. The projected route would bring riders through the east end of the city into Montréal Est and Repentigny, Que., a suburb east of the city. It would also connect to the STM's Blue and Green Metro lines and to the Mascouche line of the Exo commuter train. The tram will be developed by Quebec's new transport agency Mobilité Infra Québec, becoming its first project. It's expected to cost more than $18 billion. Repentigny Mayor Nicolas Dufour, who joined Guilbault at the news conference, said his residents have been waiting for real public transit options for nearly 40 years. "My citizens lose about an hour, an hour-and-a-half to go to Montreal to work every morning — same for the students. So, for the first time we're going to have a real and true alternative to single-occupancy vehicles," Dufour said on CBC Montreal's Daybreak earlier Wednesday morning. Dufour said he'd like to see more bus lines, in the meantime, but that they get stuck in traffic like every other vehicle when going to Montreal. "There's nothing much we can do because we only have one way to go to Montreal and it's stuck every morning. So it's truly necessary that the project moves fast and we construct the tramway the fastest that we can," he said.
CBC
26-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
As P.E.I. faces funding drop, road builders urge Ottawa to keep the cash flowing
Social Sharing Road builders on Prince Edward Island are urging the federal government to keep infrastructure cash flowing into the province, with a deal to fund major road projects approaching its end date. P.E.I.'s latest funding agreement with Ottawa includes roughly $200 million over a 10-year period from the federal government's Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program and New Building Canada Fund. That funding is set to end in the next two to three years, and no replacement fund has been set up yet to give reassurance to long-term planners. Mike Annear, with Kings County Construction and the P.E.I. Road Builders Association, says that's startling to workers in the industry — given that the money is being used to meet the province's growing demand for major road projects. The province needs those federal dollars. — Mike Annear "It can be devastating to our industry, and actually to the Island. We'd like to see the budget increase. It's starting to increase in some of the other provinces; we need it to increase to catch up with the growth," he said. "If you start adding all these housing [projects] and these people, we need to increase the amount of money that's going back into our infrastructure. So the province needs those federal dollars." P.E.I. must secure long-term funding, minister says Last week, transportation ministers from across the country met in Quebec with many topics on the agenda — including federal funding. "My provincial and territorial colleagues and I were able to share our concerns with the federal government with regard to transportation infrastructure funding, notably roads," Québec's minister of transport, Geneviève Guilbault, said in a release. P.E.I.'s minister of transportation, Ernie Hudson, echoed that point in a provincial news release Monday, calling on Ottawa to put a new funding model into place. "We must secure stable, long-term federal investment to maintain and improve our system," he was quoted as saying in the news release. The provincial news release noted that when the transportation ministers met, the federal minister pledged to take their funding concerns to the Liberal cabinet. In the province's fall 2024 capital budget, the P.E.I. government estimated it would spend more than $67 million on paving, roads, bridges and more in the next fiscal year. Annear says federal funding is critical to keeping Island roads cared for and creating new roads as P.E.I.'s population grows. Without that commitment, he said it's hard for businesses to plan for the future. "Everything that's going on today, it makes me uneasy," he said.
CBC
25-02-2025
- Automotive
- CBC
Quebec transport minister launches internal investigation into SAAQclic
Quebec is opening new investigations into what went wrong during the creation and deployment of the auto insurance board's online platform SAAQclic, following a scathing report on the shortfalls of the site. Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault asked her own department to launch an independent investigation Monday, in a letter obtained by Radio-Canada. In another letter addressed to Quebec's anti-corruption unit, known as UPAC, Guilbault says she heard through media reports that the agency is already analyzing the report and that she hopes it will take appropriate action according to its findings. Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel posted on social media that she has also asked the head of the AMP, the agency that oversees public contracts, to look into the process of granting and executing contracts. Last week, Quebec's auditor general issued a report into the creation of SAAQclic, including $500 million in projected cost overruns, and problems with transparency about the issues facing the new system. Guilbault called the findings "outrageous" in her letters, adding "that they must be the subject of attention commensurate with their seriousness." Opposition parties have expressed skepticism at Guilbault's moves, with a spokesperson for the Parti Québécois saying there should be an independent commission of inquiry leading the charge. The leader of the Quebec Liberals, Monsef Derraji, said on X that the "government has completely lost control of the SAAQ file." SAAQclic is supposed to be a one-stop shop for most auto insurance board services, but stumbled out of the gate in 2023, leading to driver frustration and long line-ups at SAAQ branches.
