The Gouvernement du Québec’s 2018–2028 Québec Infrastructure Plan (QIP) has plans to invest C$100.4 billion ($77.68 billion) over 10 years, the biggest increase since the rollout of the first QIP in 2007.
Public transit, education and the digital strategy top the priority list
The plan places significant emphasis on public transit and innovation. It provides for an unprecedented C$2.3 billion ($1.78 billion) in additional investments to help make citizens more mobile and improve traffic flow, including through several public transit projects across Québec which will support the [seems like it should either be government with l/c g, or Gouvernement] Government’s pending sustainable mobility policy. Education will see C$2.2 billion ($1.7 billion) in investments, more than $1.1 billion ($850 million) of which will go toward renovating schools and adding more classrooms. The Government is also investing C$1.2 billion ($930 million) to bolster Québec’s digital strategy, which will be hugely beneficial for the education and higher education sector, as it will enrich learning practices through the use of digital technology and, in turn, help young people and workers hone their digital skills.
2018–2023 real estate vision
The Government will develop its first real estate vision to steer the development and management of public buildings in the years ahead. Carried out by the Société québécoise des infrastructures, this vision will lay out the broad guidelines the Government intends to follow to improve the management of its real estate inventory. These overarching directions will include strengthening internal real estate expertise, equipping the Government with a long-term vision of its building occupancy and the management of its spaces by planning its real estate needs over a 10-year period and more successfully managing public infrastructure projects, capitalizing on advances in digital technology.
Highlights:
- A total of C$6.3 billion ($4.9 billion) in additional investments in public transit and highway infrastructure, including C$4 billion ($3.1 billion) for major roadwork projects and C$2.3 billion ($1.78 billion) for transformative transit projects. These projects include:
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- the extension of the blue metro line – Montréal
- the transformative “tramway-trambus” project – Québec City
- a project office for a third link – Québec City–Lévis
- the extension of Route 138 – Côte-Nord
- a project office for a bridge between Baie-Sainte-Catherine and Tadoussac – Côte-Nord
- the extension of Autoroute 19 – Laval and Laurentides
- An additional C$2.2 billion ($1.7 billion) for education and higher education, including more than C$1.1 billion ($850 million) to renovate schools and add classrooms in Québec.
- A further C$1.2 billion ($930 million) for healthcare infrastructure improvements, such as the Vaudreuil-Soulanges hospital project in Montérégie.
- A sum of C$1.2 billion ($930 million) to speed up the digital shift Québec-wide.
- A total of C$226 million ($175 million) to build 3,000 social housing units.
