credit: saviezvousque.net (AI image) Imagine you are planning your family budget, and overnight, you are told that your income will drop dramatically, without warning. That’s exactly what Quebec municipalities are going through right now. The Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ) sounded the alarm after discovering a massive $200 million cut to the Public Transit Development Assistance Program (PADTC). This program is the lifeblood of bus service, especially outside major urban centers. In concrete terms, what is the problem? The previous budget (2022-2025) was $1.2 billion. A similar renewal was expected. Last November, the figure of $1.013 billion was circulating, but surprise: organizations recently realized that the actual amount had melted away to $998 million. Guillaume Tremblay, president of the UMQ and mayor of Mascouche, does not hide his concern: for him, it is direct services to the population that are threatened.
In the regions, the bill is steep
credit: saviezvousque.net (IA image)
While Quebec City cites « budgetary constraints » to justify these spending cuts, on the ground, it hurts. It hurts a lot. Take the Gaspé Peninsula and the Magdalen Islands, for example. The Régie intermunicipale (RÉGÎM) is forecasting a net loss of $300,000 per year, retroactive to 2025. Daniel Côté, the mayor of Gaspé, illustrates this strikingly: that $300,000 is equivalent to all the money collected from ticket sales in an entire year.
The situation is the same almost everywhere. The Pierre-de-Sorel RCM expects to lose $402,000 in 2025, while the Montmagny RCM estimates the hole in its budget at $120,000. In the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, some RCMs even fear that their financial assistance will be cut by 21% compared to 2024. The problem? Demand is not falling. On the contrary, citizens are calling for more buses, but elected officials are finding themselves forced to cut back on service.
Inflation, the other surprise guest
credit: saviezvousque.net (AI image) Beyond the gross cuts, there is the value of money that poses a problem. The UMQ points to a detail that is not insignificant: subsidies have not been indexed since 2019. Do the math: a $100,000 subsidy paid six years ago is now worth only $70,000 in real purchasing power. It’s simple math, and it seriously complicates the task for cities that have had to advance costs for a year while the government delayed renewing the program. For its part, the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility is playing down the issue. It explains that the previous budget was calculated for the post-pandemic recovery, at a time when buses were less full. According to Quebec, the new 2025-2029 budget will be sufficient to pay the planned subsidies. It remains to be seen whether this argument will be enough to reassure municipalities, which, through Guillaume Tremblay, are calling for the outright restoration of the amounts cut.
According to the source: ici.radio-canada.ca Created by humans, assisted by AI.
