Jeanschyso

Our dear local asshole, Geneviève Guilbault, minister of transportation, has announced that the provincial government would reduce its investment in Montreal's public transit, forcing the metro to close at 23:00 and reducing the frequency of night time busses.

With all the progress that Montreal has had in the last 10 years, it is appaling to me that the provincial government would try to nip it in the bud. We are SO CLOSE to being such a great place! The Plan Vélo is going well, with only one hiccup in one borough. We have the REM, the REV, the metro has a pretty recent batch of new vehicles, we have a robust monthly card system that took years to get moving as well as it is now.

We were doing well, but the party in power lost one seat in an election recently. They are now in "appeal to our voter base" mode. Our government does not get many seats in Montreal. They are further to the right wing than the typical Montréalais, especially around the city center. They show their hand by building new lanes on regional roads that don't need it, and reducing mass transport service in a city that does need it.

I have potentially devastating news.

The provincial government of Québec announced in April that the "third link", a tunnel to cross the river between Québec City and it's suburbs, would either be car-free, or it would not be built. At the time, a lot of people across the province celebrated. Some car brains were unhappy, but that's fine. They're never happy anyway, whatever is done. Studies showed that current traffic did not require a new automobile bridge, and that it would invite traffic that the city couldn't handle.

Yesterday, there were provincial elections in that region, and the party in power lost a seat. They immediately started playing defense and said "maybe we should consult the local population on whether we should make it automotive after all".

We all know where this is going. They'll make that dumbass bridge for cars. The prime Minister can't walk back on his word a third time and still win his elections in 3 years.

I may not live in the region, but I truly believe these people should have access to rapid transit to Quebec. My taxes shouldn't go towards building an automobile bridge to our beautiful city of Québec. I believe strongly that an automotive bridge would create enough induced demand to gridlock Québec City. This is so wrong and I'm sitting here, powerless.

I don't know what I can do. I don't even live there. It just makes me sad that we can make the REM in Montreal, but then put doubt in the Third link in Québec. We can't have nice things.