Quebec to decide next fall amount of aid to provide for greater Montreal transit agencies’ deficits

Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault met with mayors of the greater Montreal region Monday to discuss how to tackle the more than half a billion dollar deficit of transit companies in Montreal, Laval and Longueuil, and the exo commuter trains.

LaPresse reported Monday that the Quebec government would absorb around 70 per cent of the 2025 deficit providing around $200 million in aid, but Guilbault’s office said Monday afternoon that the official amount will only be decided on in the fall.

“It’s something that the people of Montreal and Quebec need and it supports the economy in all kinds of different ways and I think it’s a very important public investment,” says Montreal public transit user, Katherine Rubinyi.

Minister Guilbault has called for an independent audit of the performance of transit authorities, to find ways to help them solve their financial problems. The results of this audit are expected in September.

In a statement from Guilbault’s office on Monday afternoon, they say, “the Minister wanted to meet with all elected officials and transport companies to take stock of the issues related to the deficits of transport companies. To find solutions to financing issues, we must make sure that we work on common and rigorous numerical bases, because this is about taxpayers’ money.

“We also reiterated our desire to ensure predictability, by deciding this autumn on the amounts for the next few years, once we have received the audits. Elected officials agreed on the need to settle the issue of the 2025 deficits by the summer.”

“It’s already a good start that they’re making the moves now, compared to what happened last year when it was done really all at the last minute when the municipal budgets were up to be adopted,” said Lancelot Rodrigue, Graduate researcher specializing in public transit financing at McGill University.

The ARTM, which includes the transit companies of Montreal, Laval, Longueuil and exo commuter trains, currently has a total operating deficit of $561 million. The ARTM reportedly sent a letter Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard, asking for $421 million in aid from Quebec.

Quebec has said it wants to offer assistance only for the deficit related to the pandemic, where there was a drop in ridership, which led to a drop in revenues.

Because of COVID, revenues went down, so now they’re dealing with reduced revenues and they don’t have necessarily the means to be able to have a diverse portfolio of revenues,” said Rodrigue.

“I’m also aware that the government needs to do something help, but not all the amount at the end of the day,” said public transit user, Ahmed Makhlouk. “Half a billion dollars is a lot of money, so we need it elsewhere.

“Here in the STM, for example, or EXO for the suburbs, maybe they need to do more efforts on their side to lower the budgets.”

The ARTM is looking at different scenarios including increasing fares and more to reduce the deficit, as well as asking for government help. A reduction of services is also being considered.

Last year, the province made the same deal and agreed to cover 70 per cent of the deficits for 2024, when it had originally proposed to cover 20 per cent of the residual deficit of public transit companies for the period 2024-2028.

Montreal’s official opposition Ensemble Montréal on Monday said they want more help from the province. “But at the same time we want to wait for the audit that the government do for all the transportation in Quebec, and it will be important to see what is the conclusion of this exercise,” said Christine Black, borough mayor of Montréal-Nord.

The ARTM told CityNews in a statement that they’re “optimistic” that discussions are progressing in May rather than in the fall and will continue to support elected officials so they can reach an agreement by the summer.

The STM says in their own statement: “These negotiations do not eliminate the need to provide a clear financial framework over five years which would make it possible to address structural issues, while the current negotiations only concern cyclical issues linked to tariff revenues.

“[…] The STM has made several efforts in recent months to optimize its expenses, while maintaining the same level of service. However, as mentioned before, it will not be possible to repeat this exercise of budget reductions on such a large scale in 2025.”

Guilbault’s office said they will meet again in the coming weeks.

“We need to get people out of their cars and onto public transit,” said Rubinyi. “So to reduce services at this point is completely counterproductive and going the opposite way for the well-being and the health of our city and the province.”