Infrastructure-Led Growth and Economic Expansion

Infrastructure as productive economic capital

The proposed strategy uses transportation infrastructure to improve productivity, labour mobility, access to employment and housing development. Greater Montréal is a central priority, alongside regional connections, strategic bridges, highways and freight corridors.

Greater Montréal rapid transit

Priorities include reviving the original REM de l’Est economic vision; a Laval and North Shore connection targeting Chomedey via Carrefour Laval; a South Shore connection targeting Longueuil through the Taschereau corridor; and an Orange Line loop between Côte-Vertu and Montmorency. The strategy also supports completing the Blue Line extension to Anjou.

The proposed REM de l’Est revival differs from the official surface-tramway process described in the document. New engineering, cost and ridership studies would be required. Projects would be prioritized by population growth, employment density, ridership, congestion reduction, housing potential and connections to existing transit.

Modernization and delivery

The document proposes métro fleet replacement, platform safety barriers, and upgrades to signalling, power and maintenance. It calls for REM-style delivery, with a single accountable sponsor and design-build procurement, alongside competitive procurement and independent value-for-money assessments.

Road and bridge investment would target rehabilitation, safety, resilience and economic bottlenecks. Environmental assessment, municipal and regional consultation, and public reporting of costs and milestones form part of the implementation framework.

Preliminary investment framework

The document presents a preliminary gross investment envelope of approximately $29–47 billion over 10–15 years. This is a planning range, not a final appropriation or Quebec’s direct fiscal cost. The already-funded Blue Line extension is excluded from that envelope.

The funding approach combines provincial capital, federal transfers, CDPQ investment where appropriate, public-private partnerships, municipal participation, land-value capture and private investment. Provincial contributions and long-term operating obligations would be established separately for each project.

Economic modelling and its limits

The document’s preliminary scenarios estimate $38–64 billion in construction-period GDP activity and $2.5–5 billion in additional annual economic output after major projects become operational. These are policy modelling ranges, not official forecasts or guaranteed returns. The REM benchmarks are not treated as a universal multiplier for future projects.

Full technical policy document

This page summarizes the supplied August 2026 technical policy document. Download the original English PDF for the complete policy, investment breakdown, charts, assumptions and sources.