{"id":422651,"date":"2026-05-11T18:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422651\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T18:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:34:08","slug":"hanes-quebec-has-fallen-way-behind-on-infrastructure-maintenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422651\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanes: Quebec has fallen way behind on infrastructure maintenance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The long-awaited Anse-\u00e0-l\u2019Orme branch of the R\u00e9seau express m\u00e9tropolitain officially enters into service next Monday<\/a>, and will whisk passengers from Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue to downtown \u2014 and all the way to Brossard or Deux-Montagnes if they want to go.<\/p>\n

The new light rail network was 10 years and $9.4 billion in the making \u2014 and the first new major public transit project in Montreal in decades. (The extension of the Blue Line of the m\u00e9tro is finally underway, but it won\u2019t be operational until 2031<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The shiny new REM is a welcome addition to Montreal\u2019s transit landscape, despite some hiccups with reliability<\/a> in the winter. And it stands in sharp contrast to the pitiful state of the existing transportation infrastructure, which has been badly neglected and will continue to degrade unless Quebec finds the funds and the political will to fix it.<\/p>\n

The streets are so potholed in Montreal, Good Samaritans had to come to the rescue, patching them pro bono. Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada redoubled efforts last week to fill the endless craters<\/a>, with Notre-Dame St. E. getting special attention. But it\u2019s still a drop in the bucket.<\/p>\n

Half the city\u2019s m\u00e9tro stations are considered in poor shape. In 2024, three stations on the Blue Line were shuttered for weeks for urgent repairs.<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, below ground, more than 10,000 kilometres of water mains are deteriorating, representing 10 per cent of Quebec\u2019s water and sewer infrastructure.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s not even counting bridges, hospitals and schools that are crumbling.<\/p>\n

Call it a consequence of ribbon-cutting syndrome \u2014 the propensity for politicians to put money in new projects and defer maintenance of existing stock. The spiffy photo ops and the credit they can claim are so much sexier than the flak they get for digging up roads to replace sewers or patching cracks to reinforce m\u00e9tro tunnels.<\/p>\n

But eventually those choices catch up with decision makers and the public purse, as two studies out last week about the ruinous state of infrastructure and astronomical sums to address it clearly demonstrate.<\/p>\n

A report by Alliance Transit<\/a> says that despite record expenditures, Quebec has fallen way behind in financing repairs that are needed to the road network. Since 2018, infrastructure has been degrading twice as fast as the pace of maintenance, despite a doubling of the envelope to cover such work.<\/p>\n

The report evaluates the cost of the backlog at $24.5 billion but found only a third, or $8.4 billion, has been accounted for in the Transport Ministry\u2019s 10-year plan.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s nothing compared to the disastrous state of public transit, particularly the Montreal m\u00e9tro. <\/p>\n

The Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de transport de Montr\u00e9al estimates it needs more than $7\u00a0billion to fix existing infrastructure, requiring investments of $560\u00a0million a year.<\/p>\n

Despite aging assets and growing need, money has only been budgeted for a fifth of the work, leaving 81.6 per cent of repairs the STM deems necessary unfunded.<\/p>\n

Since 2013, budgets for this purpose have declined seven per cent, while inflation has pushed up costs 77 per cent. A total of $3.8\u00a0billion was set aside for repairs between 2018 and 2028. For the coming decade, it\u2019s just $3.5\u00a0billion. Had the financing kept pace with rising costs and need, the amount should be more like $6.4 billion.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not forget that the m\u00e9tro carries a million passengers a day<\/a>. It is the indisputable backbone of the transportation system, never mind the public transit network. For reference, its replacement value would be pegged at $48 billion.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019s going to get any love from the government of Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette. When asked about the m\u00e9tro \u201cfalling to pieces\u201d by Qu\u00e9bec solidaire MNA \u00c9tienne Grandmont in the National Assembly last week, Transport Minister Benoit Charette was scornful.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not only Montreal in Quebec \u2014 there\u2019s also the regions,\u201d he scoffed. Sounds like Charette is reading from the playbook of one of his predecessors, Genevi\u00e8ve Guilbault, who was notorious<\/a> when it came to starving public transit of operational funding because the regions shouldn\u2019t have to subsidize Montreal. But that\u2019s another matter.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t look to Montreal or other municipalities in the metropolitan region to come up with the cash to fix the aging m\u00e9tro system, though.<\/p>\n

A report by the Union des municipalit\u00e9s du Qu\u00e9bec<\/a> says that despite sound financial management, towns and cities are struggling to keep up with rising costs and growing responsibilities.<\/p>\n

With the lion\u2019s share of their funds coming from property taxes, their ability to address their infrastructure needs (including $19\u00a0billion for sewers, water mains and treatment plants) is limited.<\/p>\n

And the UMQ estimates municipalities could face collective operating shortfalls of at least $9 billion by 2035, in the best-case scenario, if not many times that.<\/p>\n

Yet, in her inaugural speech last week, Fr\u00e9chette said her government intends to revive the plans for a third road link between Quebec City and L\u00e9vis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The \u201ctroisi\u00e8me lien\u201d project to put a tunnel or bridge across the St. Lawrence River could cost as much as $11 billion and save motorists only two minutes and 18 seconds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It would be ludicrous to invest that much for such minimal benefit when the neglect of existing infrastructure risks becoming a crisis to manage and even more expensive to repair. Quebec ought to have learned this by now, be it from crumbling bridges<\/a>, collapsing overpasses<\/a>, tumbling paralumes<\/a> or massive geysers spouting from broken water mains<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alas, ribbon-cutting syndrome is hard to shake.<\/p>\n

ahanes@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t\t\tI started at The Montreal Gazette in 2000 as an intern. Since then I have covered the National Assembly and courts, worked on the assignment desk and written editorials, before debuting as city columnist in 2017.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The long-awaited Anse-\u00e0-l\u2019Orme branch of the R\u00e9seau express m\u00e9tropolitain officially enters into service next Monday, and will whisk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-422651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}