“Sustainable Mobility Quebec”: the agency project is taking shape

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The agency project of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, was to first expected last fall.

• Alexandre Duval (View profile)Alexandre Duval

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The outlines of the future agency, which should notably make it possible to accelerate the completion of public transport projects in Quebec, are beginning to become clearer. Several dozen people should be hired within this organization which will be called Sustainable Mobility Quebec, Radio-Canada has learned.

According to our information, at least 60 permanent employees could be part of the future agency and this number could be expected to increase.

Not all will come from transfers from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD); the agency plans to make external hires to recruit experts in public transportation or engineers, for example.

Although its name suggests the contrary, Sustainable Mobility Quebec will not only be responsible for public transport projects, but also likely for certain major and complex road projects such as bridges.

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Could the Quebec tramway project, currently on pause, find itself under the responsibility of the future agency?

Sustainable mobility Quebec should operate with project offices, that is to say that each project under its responsibility will have a team which will work directly with the companies involved in carrying out the work.

The bill which will formalize the creation of this agency is not quite finished, according to our information. Some details could still be changed. The office of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, did not wish to comment.

To be truly effective and achieve its objectives of building faster and at lower cost, Sustainable Mobility Quebec will need serious flexibility in the way it manages public transport projects in the province.

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However, Radio-Canada revealed at the end of February that the Treasury Board was resistant to certain requests from Minister Guilbault.

The latter wanted, among other things, that its future agency does not have to respect the Directive on the management of major public infrastructure projects, which governs the way in which projects worth more than $50 million must be carried out in Quebec.

< p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hnvfyV">However, it appears that common ground is about to be found. Earlier this week, La Presse revealed that a vast reform in the area of ​​public contracts will be tabled in the National Assembly.

The goal: that infrastructure projects can be built 20% to 25% faster and at 15% to 20% lower cost.

In particular, it is envisaged that the Directive on the management of major public infrastructure projects will be relaxed to allow projects to be carried out in collaborative mode, that is to say that the client, the designer and the contractor can work together. from the outset and share the financial risks.

The reform should also lead to changes to the Act respecting contracts by public bodies and the Act respecting public infrastructure.

• Alexandre Duval (Consult the profile)Alexandre DuvalFollow