{"id":632847,"date":"2026-04-27T22:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/632847\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T22:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:51:08","slug":"half-of-quebecers-support-tolls-if-it-means-better-maintained-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/632847\/","title":{"rendered":"Half of Quebecers support tolls if it means better-maintained roads"},"content":{"rendered":"

About one in two Quebecers would support the use of tolls on certain roads if it meant better financing to maintain them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to a recent L\u00e9ger poll for the Journal de Montr\u00e9al<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember back in the day when there were tolls here on the 40, close to Anjou right here. So yeah, I support it. And if the money goes in the right place,\u201d Montreal\u2019s Marie-Jos\u00e9e C\u00f4t\u00e9 told CityNews.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, because firstly, there is a high risk that the money will be misappropriated, and secondly, we already pay enough taxes in Quebec for it to do the job properly,\u201d countered Anjou resident Jean-Pierre Rioux.<\/p>\n

The survey comes as a significant number of potholes can be seen throughout the city, creating stress for drivers as they must avoid the obstacles that can damage their vehicles.<\/p>\n

To combat the increasing pothole problem, which city officials are calling \u201cexceptional,\u201d the City of Montreal announced in March $6 million to create two specialized teams focused on road maintenance and the purchase of two new automated road repair machines expected to be put into service next year.<\/p>\n

In February, the city awarded 10 privately negotiated contracts<\/a> \u2014 valued at roughly half a million dollars \u2014 for pothole repairs. Officials say those agreements allowed crews to patch nearly 15,000 potholes.<\/p>\n

From Jan. 1st to April 26, Montreal says it received 13,667 requests to the 311 phone line and mobile app related to potholes. This represents two-and-a-half times more requests compared to the same period last year when there were 5,308 requests. There were even fewer requests \u2014 3,938 \u2014 during the same period in 2024.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, CAA-Qu\u00e9bec is reporting it\u2019s provided just under 2,000 blown tire services since the start of April, many because of potholes, in the Montreal region alone \u2013 a 50 per cent increase from last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been advocating at CAA-Qu\u00e9bec for better roads for many years,\u201d said the organization\u2019s public affairs director Nicolas Ryan. \u201cWhen we look at the whole province, the asset maintenance deficit sits at $24.5 billion. That\u2019s the amount of money needed today just to put our roads to an OK state, not even a good state.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we do believe at CAA-Qu\u00e9bec it\u2019s time that we have a greater conversation in the whole province. How do we want to do these works? Can we have innovation? Can we do better solutions out there?\u201d<\/p>\n

The pothole situation has left Montrealers scratching their heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big problem in Montreal. I don\u2019t know how they\u2019re going to fix it.,\u201d Marie told CityNews.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the worst situation we have ever seen,\u201d said Bob.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s worse\u2026 I never seen that before. It\u2019s everywhere in the city,\u201d added Simone Mercier.<\/p>\n

Pavage Montreal, a paving company that was working Monday to repair potholes in a parking lot in Saint-Leonard, says it would like to be part of the solution to repair city roads impacted by potholes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is doing the best that they could. They can only fill one hole at a time. There\u2019s a lot of damage everywhere,\u201d said director of operations Joey De Michele.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re well equipped and we\u2019re at the service of the city as well if they would need us to help them with the work or as far as equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tA pothole on Notre-Dame and Dickson on April 27, 2026. (Gareth Madoc-Jones, CityNews) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About one in two Quebecers would support the use of tolls on certain roads if it meant better…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-632847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}