(Quebec) The controversial highway tunnel project between Quebec and Lévis is still not costed in the latest budget of Finance Minister Eric Girard. Opposition parties are asking François Legault to turn the page, because they are “tired” of commenting on a “phantom project”.
“Do you really want to know my thoughts there?” I’m a little tired of talking about a ghost project. The third link is rubbish,” lamented the interim leader of the Quebec Liberal Party Marc Tanguay at a press briefing on Wednesday.
“We spend so much time, energy, saliva, ink, radio time, TV time on a phantom project that doesn’t even exist in the budget, for which there isn’t even a study and that is not warranted,” he dropped.
Meanwhile, what is the government doing to address “the mobility issue in Quebec?” asks Mr. Tanguay. ” Nothing. […] So, listen, I’m tired of talking about the third link, I’m tired of talking about a ghost, “he cursed.
“I’ll quote you the Minister of the Environment [Benoit Charette]: it’s not tied up. I don’t think it’s getting done, the third link,” he said. He believes that even the “main proponents of the third link” have begun to say that “it will never happen”.
The parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, believes, in an “optimistic” way, that the Coalition avenir Québec will be overtaken by reality, “the environmental reality and the technical reality of a pharaonic project like this “.
“I’m not sure we’ll see that in our lifetime, this famous third link which, moreover, at the start, there, was a simple media-political spin, then which became an electoral obsession of the CAQ” , he said.
His “pessimistic half” thinks that the Legault government is “so stubborn and so ideological” that he could nevertheless stay the course.
For his part, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon mocked the elected Caquists and “congratulates the government for not having quantified the third link again. “.
“It’s a joke, but it’s not, because it’s a political gesture. Obviously, there is no intention. When we are not even able to project in time, in the [Quebec Infrastructure Plan], a project also… which has done as much… which has taken up as much media space as this one, it is that we don’t intend to proceed, which we’ve repeatedly predicted, huh? So I encourage them to continue not budgeting for it,” he said.
During a press briefing, Prime Minister François Legault limited himself in his comments on the third link file. He said his government “will provide an update on the traffic study in the coming weeks.” Is this project something promised, something due, like the tax cut, he was asked? “Look, we’ll look at the ridership study, then we’ll get back to you with data,” he said.
