Quebec Solidaire urges CAQ to invest in the Montreal metro

Opposition party Quebec Solidaire wants the CAQ government to use federal funds to fix the crumbling Montreal metros.

Montreal metro users see the dilapidated state of the network with their own eyes every day.

Quebec Solidaire (QS) is urging the CAQ government to remedy the situation by claiming the province’s share of the new Canada Public Transit Fund (CPTF), which came into effect on April 1.

“I am calling on Premier Christine Fréchette to go and claim the $5 billion – the money belonging to Quebecers that is still sitting in Ottawa’s coffers for public transport. That money belongs to us. While all the other provinces have had their share of the pie, here the CAQ government has dithered and caused us to lose precious time,” said spokesperson Ruba Ghazal on Thursday during a news briefing outside De l’Église station, one of the five most run-down stations on the network, located in the Verdun borough.

As Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada put it two weeks ago at the Montreal Climate Summit, Ghazal is “fed up with waiting for Quebec and Ottawa to agree on investments in public transport.”

“While cities elsewhere in the world are developing their metro systems while maintaining them, here we are forced to beg for money; we wait, and wait, and then we tread water. This is not in keeping with who we are or what public transport should be in 2026. It is not normal for our metro to fall into disrepair.“

The QS spokesperson believes that “the metro is not just any transport infrastructure; it is the backbone of Montreal.”

Sixty years after it came into service, “this backbone is ageing and needs a major overhaul.”

For Ghazal, it is out of the question that the bill should be passed on to taxpayers.

“What we are experiencing today is no accident; it is the result of chronic underinvestment by the current government, but also by previous governments over the last 10 to 20 years. We want to ensure that people who use the metro are not forced to make up for this underinvestment. It is not up to Montreal metro users to pay, because public transport is not a luxury, it is an essential need,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 30, 2026.