IIt is in fact likely that the region will indirectly pay a large part of the costs of the tunnel. Certainly, other regional projects will be delayed, reduced or outright refused by the provincial or federal government on the pretext that the region has already had its share. When you receive a large piece of cake, it is often more difficult to get a second slice.
Residents of the greater Quebec City region must therefore ask themselves whether they are prepared to bear the opportunity cost of the tunnel. To aid in thinking, it is useful to present the costs of the project on a more individual basis by comparing different hypothetical funding mechanisms. This is a summary analysis, but which aims to give orders of magnitude. If we imposed a toll to finance the tunnel or to finance the projects ousted by it, the toll would be $ 9.5 in an optimistic scenario and $ 28 in a more realistic scenario. Alternatively, a gasoline surtax should be imposed in the greater Quebec City area of 14 to 28 cents per liter. Or if we increased property taxes, each dwelling would see its annual taxes increase from $ 373 to $ 761. Finally, with a fixed annual payment, everyone living in the greater region would have to pay between $ 126 and $ 259 annually. And, in any case, these measures would be, for all practical purposes, permanent.
These figures clearly illustrate the magnitude of the cost of the tunnel for residents of the greater Quebec City region. In many jurisdictions, this project would necessarily go through a rigorous cost-benefit analysis process. Do we really have the luxury of doing without such a process?
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