Will the spring of 2023 be that of a shift in land use planning? If there are dozens of us today, from all areas of expertise and from civil society, signing this text to urge the government to act up to the challenge, it is because certain signals are not reassuring. . Although most of the principles of sustainable land use planning can be found in the strategic vision of the policy adopted last June, we expect to see them permeate into government discourse and especially into its actions.
The challenges of our time are almost all related to the organization of our living environments. Heavy energy balance, housing shortage, biodiversity crisis, destruction of heritage and trivialization of landscapes, vulnerability to climatic risks, pressure on agricultural land, deterioration in the physical condition of children: all this is partly due to an organization territorial very far from being optimal.
Curbing urban sprawl, betting on land sobriety, proximity and greening, increasing the architectural and landscape quality of the built environment, consolidating town centers and village cores are effective and necessary strategies for protecting the environment and improving population health, promote equity and sustain prosperity.
Whatever the problem, land use planning is part of the solution.
If the government has fully grasped the magnitude of the challenge and the urgency to act, it must present a policy implementation plan that supports, integrates and generalizes the necessary shift in public policies.
Sustain
In both planning and construction, exemplary projects must be propelled throughout Quebec. Because if it will allow, in the long term, substantial savings, the transformation of practices also implies investments. For example, to decontaminate strategically located land, transform buildings, redevelop streets and develop public and active transportation.
To see the multiplication of eco-neighbourhoods and flourishing main streets, and thus respond to the housing crisis and the climate crisis at the same time by creating complete living environments, we must massively fund projects that contribute directly to the objective of policy: more sustainable land use planning. The absence of such incentives, widely demanded, would constitute a real rebuff.
To integrate
All departments and agencies make decisions that will be firmly rooted in the territory. A real exemplarity of the State and the development of a reflex of territorial coherence, in all sectors and at all scales, are essential to the success of the policy.
Let us think of the location of the future hospital in Gatineau, where local mobilization made it possible to avoid what promised to be a monumental error, by reminding the government of the importance of a central location accessible by public transport.
Moreover, among the keys to success, it is necessary to increase the integrated planning of two concepts that have in the past been too often treated in silos, namely land use planning and transportation.
Generalize
Strong government leadership is needed: the issues are too collective to rely solely on the sense of responsibility in each of Quebec’s communities. In addition, as several municipal players have pointed out, municipalities are in competition to attract new families, new jobs, businesses, etc.
Those who immediately take the turn of a more sustainable urban planning should be welcomed. But to ensure equity and ensure that the exception becomes the norm, the state must change the rules for all. Otherwise, the urban sprawl contained in one place is very likely to spill over to another place.
Accelerate
With the implementation plan of the national policy, it will be necessary to act quickly, effectively and everywhere. Revise the Planning and Town Planning Act is, in this respect, a relevant avenue. But to bear fruit, this legislative revision cannot and must not be limited to a simple refreshment of procedures. The new law will have to make real changes in practice mandatory. The same goes for government orientations in land use planning.
Hurry up. Each month of delay amounts to getting bogged down more deeply in an energy-intensive mode of development, consumer of resources and territory and harmful to health. All that we are still building according to the old model increases our environmental and social deficit and adds to the sum of the problems that we will have to solve later.
Over the past 24 months, thousands of us have been “talking territory”, with the confidence that the government would have the courage to act. Now is not the time to lower the bar. The mountain cannot give birth to a mouse.
* Co-signatories: Béatrice Alain, Director General of the Social Economy Workshop; Thomas Bastien, Director General of the Association for Public Health of Quebec; Gérard Beaudet, urban planner emeritus, full professor at the School of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Montreal; Aline Berthe, Managing Director of Voyagez Futé and CGDEML, representative of the Metropolitan Travel Management Centers; Dinu Bumbaru, Director of Policy at Heritage Montreal; Karl Blackburn, President and CEO of the Conseil du patronat du Québec; Sandrine Cabana-Degani, Executive Director of Piétons Québec; Éric Cimon, Executive Director of the Association of Technical Resource Groups of Quebec; Geneviève Cloutier, professor at the Graduate School of Land Use Planning and Regional Development – ÉSAD, Director of the Planning and Development Research Center – CRAD, Université Laval; Leila Copti, President of COPTICOM – Strategies and Public Relations; Pierre Corriveau, president of the Order of Architects of Quebec; Gabrielle Desbiens, co-president of the Network of Regional Cultural Councils of Quebec; Jérôme Dupras, Associate Professor and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Ecological Economics at the Université du Québec en Outaouais; Johanne Elsener, president of Santé Urbanité; Catherine Fernet, President of the Association of Landscape Architects of Quebec; Jean-Marc Fournier, President and CEO of the Urban Development Institute; Sylvain Gariépy, President of the Order of Urban Planners of Quebec; Michel Gariépy, professor and urban planner emeritus at the Faculty of Planning at the University of Montreal; Renée Genest, Executive Director of Action Patrimoine; Catherine Hallmich, Head of Science Projects at the David Suzuki Foundation; Louise Harel, former Minister of Municipal Affairs and Greater Montréal, former President of the National Assembly of Quebec and elected municipal official; Florence Junca-Adenot, associate professor of urban studies at UQAM; Mélanie Lelièvre, Executive Director of Appalachian Corridor; Laurent Levesque, General Manager of the Work Unit for the Implementation of Student Housing (UTILE); Philippe Lupien, architect, landscape architect and professor, Environmental Design, UQAM; Jean-Philippe Meloche, professor and director of the School of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Montreal; Léa Méthé, Executive Director of Écobâtiment; Charlotte Montfils-Ratelle, general coordinator of Arpent; Geneviève Morin, President and CEO of Fondaction; Sylvain Paquette, holder of the chair in landscape and environment and full professor at the Faculty of Planning of the University of Montreal; Pierre-Olivier Pineau, holder of the energy sector management chair at HEC Montréal; Ron Rayside, associate architect at Rayside Labossière; Jean-François Rheault, President and CEO of Vélo Québec; Maxime Rodrigue, President and CEO of the Association of Construction and Housing Professionals of Quebec; Christian Savard, Managing Director of Vivre en Ville; Colleen Thorpe, Executive Director of Équiterre; Juan Torres, Ph.D., urban planner, full professor at the School of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Montreal; Marie-Odile Trépanier, Emeritus Urban Planner, Honorary Professor, School of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture, University of Montreal; Martin Vaillancourt, Director General of the National Grouping of Regional Environmental Councils; Sarah V. Doyon, Executive Director of Trajectory Quebec