Press release
First meeting of the emergency committee on road work:
expectations run high
Montréal, June 22, 2011 – The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal welcomes the mobilization of an emergency committee to plan and coordinate mitigation measures for work on the city’s roads.
“The formation of the Emergency Transportation Committee is a first appropriate response to a problem that is starting to threaten the city’s economic vitality and affect morale among businesses and residents,” Michel Leblanc said. “The spike in traffic congestion in the city, in part caused by the increase in roadwork, is compromising the movement of people and merchandise and slowing our economic productivity. According to a study by the Board of Trade, the economic cost of traffic congestion in Montréal was $1.4 billion in 2003. Today this cost is undoubtedly much higher. In short, urgent action is needed, something the committee members recognize.”
“We expect concrete, fast action,” Mr. Leblanc said. “For the moment, we have to facilitate coordinating the launch of worksites and reassure the public that everything possible is being done to maintain traffic flow. Communication is another priority: the city’s businesses, workers and residents have to be able to plan their movements, and to do this, they need advance warning of routes to avoid. Most importantly, this exercise must lay the groundwork for ongoing coordination between the parties involved, because similar situations will be arising over the coming years.”
“We are paying the price for decades of infrastructure neglect,” Michel Leblanc said. “This is why there is more and more roadwork. Now that we are faced with this need, we have to ensure better coordination in planning work and mitigation measures. This situation also points to the critical importance of maintaining the road network’s capacity, while investing massively in deploying a comprehensive public transit network. It’s a priority for the city’s business community.”
The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal has some 7,000 members. Its primary mission is to represent the interests of the business community of Greater Montréal and to provide individuals, merchants, and businesses of all sizes with a variety of specialized services to help them achieve their full potential in terms of innovation, productivity and competitiveness. The Board of Trade is Quebec’s leading private economic development organization.
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Source:
Sylvie Paquette
Advisor, Media Relations
Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal
Tel.: 514 871-4000, ext. 4015
sylvie.paquette@ccmm.qc.ca