Much has been made of the bridge's economic value. I just want to raise the committee's awareness of the fact that building the new bridge is an urgent need.
Consortium BCDE's latest report stated that just the feasibility study on the environmental impact would take two years. This bridge will take some 10 years to build. My riding is located a few kilometres from the bridge. Three bridges connect the Island of Montreal and the South Shore, and they are all aligned. This summer, work was being done on two of those bridges, and it took three hours to get from my riding to downtown Montreal, a distance of 12 km. Walking would have taken less time. We don't want to alarm anyone, but there are still risks involved. If we wait until it's too late and the bridge becomes unusable, the traffic jams will be unbelievable.
We talk a lot about the economy, which is indeed very important. But I'm thinking about the families in my riding. The people who work in downtown Montreal will spend four hours commuting every day and will not get to see their families when they get home in the evening because it will be too late. This is an extremely urgent concern for all Montreal suburbanites, and it must be resolved as quickly as possible because of its impact on their private lives. A number of Canadian cities are struggling with similar traffic jams. I think that if we do not tackle this problem, here or elsewhere, and if we don't encourage public transit or the implementation of infrastructures that could improve the situation, the country's busiest downtown cores will be faced with really hazardous problems.
I think that we absolutely must support this motion as a committee for the benefit of Canadians. I would also be able to go back to my riding very soon and tell my constituents, who have been writing me for a few months, that this situation will be resolved, that the government has agreed to take the right path, to repair this bridge and immediately begin studies to move things forward.