Quebec City, Tuesday, March 12, 2024 - As part of the 2024-2025 pre-budget consultations that took place last January, Vélo Québec submitted to the Quebec Treasury Board its memory Promoting active mobility to meet our collective challenges. Taking current inflation into account, and considering that transportation is the second-largest expense item for Quebec households, the recommendations contained in our brief were aimed at a general theme: the importance of financing mobility in line with current challenges. Vélo Québec had hoped to find in the budget clear directions and resources to contribute to this necessary paradigm shift in mobility. Unfortunately, today's announcements fall far short of our collective mobility challenges.
Vélo Québec is dismayed by this finding: « In times of inflation, relieving pressure on households should involve offering more affordable mobility. Government could and should offer more travel options, and encourage those with the greatest individual and societal benefits. Supporting the adoption of walking, cycling and public transport is not an expense. On the contrary, it's an opportunity to put money back into households' pockets while investing in more sustainable, safe and inclusive mobility. »says Jean-François Rheault, CEO of Vélo Québec.
As a member of the TRANSIT alliance for public transit funding, Vélo Québec is dismayed by the lack of funding for public transit: while the government itself sets a target of 50% for public transit and 50% for the road network in its Plan for a Green Economy, the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI) presented in the 24-25 budget fails to reach, and even moves away from, this target, since barely 29% of the sums invested will be devoted to public transit.
Vélo Québec notes an amount of 250 M$ announced for the maintenance of the local road network. For a rare incursion by the MTMD into an area of jurisdiction (local roads) that falls outside its usual scope of action, it is regrettable that active mobility is not explicitly named in this one-off support. This is a missed opportunity to make a decisive shift towards sustainable mobility.
Finally, Vélo Québec welcomes the announcement of a gradual reduction in subsidies for the acquisition of electric vehicles under the Go Green program, starting in 2025. The sums thus freed up can be devoted to more structuring measures to reduce distances travelled and transfer travel to more sustainable modes, in line with the orientations of the Sustainable Mobility Policy.
Vélo Québec will keep a close eye on announcements to be made in the coming months regarding the allocation of bicycle support programs such as TAPU, Véloce III and the Road Safety Fund.
