My rusty french and I went looking for some more granular details to explain this strategy. The little I could find....
Quebec has a
2030 Mobility Plan that is mostly aspirational prose but very light on numbers or data to explain how it will be achieved.
There are references to a 2017 Business Case study for the Gaspe railway, but I'm unable to locate it on line.
The government's
web site for the project assures the reader that the project has complied with the Quebec government's
protocol for justifying major infrastructure proposals.
The first two phases of the project are where the freight business exists today, and their investment amounts are less eye catching.
While the amounts for the Gaspe extension are substantial, one wonders what road repairs or expansion might be known to be required. Those road expenditures may be even harder to justify politically, whereas the rail alternative can at least be presented as "green" and not adding trucks to local roads. And with a good share of the money being spent locally on civil works, it's job creation in itself, which might offset what would otherwise be expended in economic support to the region in employment insurance, etc.
My more jaded comment - it explains why Quebec politicians are so vocal about HxR.... if one were working from a priority list, a government that was sick of waiting for Ottawa might spend money to upgrade the Trois Rivieres line themselves. But once that were done, Ottawa might not see the case for investing in the Gaspe. This way, Quebec gets both, eventually. It's a bit like restoring rail service to Owen Sound while waiting for someone to rescue the Toronto-Kitchener-London line. But maybe it's politically astute as a way of extracting the most money from Ottawa.
- Paul
