Quebec confirmed Monday it will invest $6.8 billion in the province’s infrastructure. The money will finance more than a thousand projects in road, marine, rail and airport infrastructure between 2022 and 2024.

“That’s $2 billion more than in 2019,” said Transportation Minister François Bonnardel at a press briefing. “That’s 1,350 projects that will take shape all over the territory starting this summer.”

Of this amount, $2.7 billion will be spent on maintaining structures in good condition, and $1.5 billion will be spent on roadways.

Montreal will receive just over $1 billion of the total. This represents a “colossal” sum for the city, said the minister responsible for the Montreal region, Chantal Rouleau, who attended the press conference.

The announcement will affect many highway infrastructures in the greater Montreal area. Rouleau assured that Mobilité Montréal’s main partners — the government, the cities and the public transit companies — will try to minimize the impact of the work on motorists.

“Obviously, when we talk about construction, we also talk about mitigation measures,” said Rouleau. “Sometimes we’ll talk about a bypass. Sometimes we’ll talk about increasing the bus network.”

Rouleau assured that the REM project would go ahead, while Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) Infra are passing the buck on the delayed project.

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