The mayor of Quebec repeats that he will do everything to prevent Old Quebec from becoming fossilized, from becoming a “cardboard Walt Disney”. The latest census figures indicate that Bruno Marchand’s challenge will be daunting.
The population of Old Quebec fell again in the 2021 census. The drop is much less marked than 10 years ago, when the historic district lost 492 residents in the census. But it continues tirelessly, despite the efforts of elected officials and the City to reverse the trend.
The sectors of Old Quebec – intramural, Place-Royale, Vieux-Port and Cap-Blanc – had 80 fewer inhabitants in the 2021 census compared to 2016. According to the latest figures, there are now 4,609 inhabitants in these sectors, far from 5278 in 2006.
The old town, so popular with tourists, continues to lose residents, while Quebec City as a whole gains.
“We see that this decline continues from year to year and from poll to poll,” laments Michel Masse, president of the Citizens’ Committee of Old Quebec.
We see in the Marchand administration a real desire to reverse things and to work in collaboration with the citizens. But it won’t be easy. It’s like changing the direction of a big ocean liner.
Michel Masse, President of the Citizens’ Committee of Old Quebec
The issue of demographic decline in Old Quebec is not new. A particularly marked drop between the 2006 and 2011 censuses made it a municipal issue.
Too many events, tourists? Not enough families, affordable housing? We had to find answers and solutions.
Mayor Régis Labeaume had made it a hobby horse, promising to bring 500 permanent residents back to Old Quebec. It never happened.
New administration, same goal
The new administration has dropped the quantified target of 500 new residents. But it kept the same objective as the old one: to stop the demographic decline of the first urban district in the country.
PHOTO PATRICE LAROCHE, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVES
The Labeaume and Marchand administrations each tried to repopulate the district, without really succeeding.
The Cap-aux-Diamants district councilor and member of the executive committee, Mélissa Coulombe-Leduc, inherited the file. The City uses different figures to calculate the total population of Old Quebec, including Parliament Hill in the calculation. According to these figures, the population has increased very slightly.
“Small increase or small decrease, it does not change the situation. Basically, the goal is to bring people back to Old Quebec,” says Ms.me Coulombe-Leduc.
She notes that the previous administration relied heavily on the construction of new housing. The Marchand administration intends to focus on improving residents’ quality of life.
If there is a quality of life, current residents will be less inclined to leave. It must be made into a lively and inhabited district designed according to those who live there.
Mélissa Coulombe-Leduc, municipal councilor for the Cap-aux-Diamants district
If the City manages to stop the demographic decline of the district, to make it livelier, then she thinks that tourists will be happy to visit it. “No tourist likes to visit a denatured, empty, inanimate neighborhood,” she believes. Putting the citizen at the heart of our thinking is what will ensure that people who come to visit us will find it the fun. »
No grocery store or public school
The solution is not simple. Accommodation offered for short-term Airbnb-type rental does not explain everything. In fact, according to Statistics Canada, the total number of “private dwellings occupied by usual residents” increased slightly in Old Quebec from 2011 to 2021.
The Marchand administration recently announced a pedestrianization pilot project in Old Quebec next summer. It is also looking for a way to encourage owners of vacant housing – for example above the businesses on rue Saint-Jean – to put them back on the rental market.
The Hôtel-Dieu also has a large building stock in Old Quebec. Several activities are intended to be transferred to the megahospital of the Child Jesus. “Can we create a housing co-op, social housing? These are questions that we will have to ask ourselves, ”raises Mme Coulombe-Leduc.
Then there is the question of services. Old Quebec no longer has a grocery store or a public school.
Geography teacher Étienne Berthold raised three children in Old Quebec. “It’s very minority,” he said.
According to him, the neighborhood has a retention problem. “Quebec is a suburban agglomeration and I think that Old Quebec plays a transitional role in the beginning of adult life, for students for example, who will not necessarily establish their future or family life in the neighborhood,” says the associate professor in the geography department of Laval University.
The next census will coincide with the end of Bruno Marchand’s first term. The new figures will be crucial to know if the new mayor has managed to move the demographic “liner” of Old Quebec.
* We use intramural data for this table because this geographical unit has the advantage of having remained the same since 1951.