The mayor of Quebec dreams of revolution. For him, the “kinglets” who run their city as if it were fiefdoms at war with others must lose their crown. Faced with the climate emergency, it intends to unite the municipal world around a common development model worthy of the century and its environmental challenges.
If the Quebec government thought it was going to calm down Bruno Marchand by giving the green light to the tramway, it was wrong. Decrees in hand and calls for proposals launched, the mayor left his capital for Montreal on Tuesday with the objective of promoting a program too vast to fit within the ramparts that surround his city: a reinvented urban planning model that places sharing and autonomy at the heart of municipal action.
Right now, he says, cities are growing in isolation — and going straight into the wall, competing with each other. “We can no longer think of our municipalities in the same way: we have to share,” he said in an editorial interview with the To have to. You have to be able to say that in a given region, we only need three industrial parks. We’re not going to open six: we’re going to open three and we’re going to share the revenue. »
The time when cities prospered everywhere by imposing their concrete on nature must belong to the past, and quickly, according to the mayor – and according to the IPCC, he specifies.
“Nature does not care about our territorial limits. Everyone can tell themselves that their responsibilities stop at the end of their territory, but faced with the challenges we are experiencing, we are in no position to stop there in our consultation work. »
Revenues from cities
His proposal calls for the diversification of the sources of wealth from which cities can draw, a claim defended for ages by the Union of Quebec Municipalities.
For the moment, localities are too dependent on land revenue, according to Mayor Marchand. Consequence: each city rolls out asphalt to pave the way for new taxes, and trees give way to construction.
“We must have a new tax system,” says the elected representative of Quebec. He mentions an equalization system inspired by certain American cities and which entitles the members of an agglomeration to compensation proportional to their contribution.
“Afterwards, he admits, the devil is in the details. That’s why we need a partner, which is the Government of Quebec. »
There is nothing simple about what the mayor is planning, and he knows it. “It requires the government to tell municipalities that, for environmental and other reasons, including social ones, it is going to include them in a group that imposes constraints on them. »
Bruno Marchand believes that the common challenges facing cities require common solutions. And he’s not the only one to think so, he says.
Montreal tour
The metropolis had opened its doors and its studios in style, Wednesday, for the visit of the mayor of Quebec. RDI and Patrick Masbourian, TVA then Paul Arcand, then The Press and The duty : the mayor had a message to convey. He asked all the stands, or almost, to make it resonate.
He also took advantage of his Montreal tour to meet his counterpart from the metropolis. “Valerie, she is all in “, assures Mr. Marchand about the proposals he intends to negotiate as part of the renewal of the tax pact which expires in 2024. He wanted a photo of Mr.me Plante et lui circulates: a picture is worth a thousand words, as surely as an alliance between the two largest cities in Quebec is worth its weight in gold in an election year.
The mayor believes that the municipal landscape is changing, driven by a “momentum” where environmental and social issues are gaining importance. The elections of Catherine Fournier, in Longueuil, of Stéphane Boyer, in Laval — and of Bruno Marchand, in Quebec City — are, according to him, part of this movement.
However, the wave has not yet wet the feet of other levels of government, he said. As proof: the federal approval of Bay du Nord, off the coast of Newfoundland, an oil project that should emit 580,000 tonnes of GHGs per year. “It can’t be the right solution,” repeats Mayor Marchand. The Canadian government cannot make the right choice. »
The mayor of Quebec sees it as an anachronism that more and more voices must denounce. “There are times when we can no longer be silent. All people who want there to be a transformation must take the pilgrim’s staff to the height of what they are capable of doing. It cannot be done without Valérie Plante, without the big cities, without an alliance of municipalities, without government ministers. »
The third link
The third two-tunnel link promises to reduce travel time between Lévis and Québec, without pollution or urban sprawl. Mayor Marchand saw Tuesday the new version of the project that the government must unveil Thursday afternoon: he remains skeptical.
“He would have liked me to support the third link, that’s for sure,” said the mayor of Quebec. Bring me the evidence. It takes a convincing demonstration, with facts. »
Until now, the government has failed to come up with studies to back up its claims about the Quebec-Lévis tunnel. Mayor Marchand, he claims not to have bargained “his” tramway against “their” third link.
“The day when I, I will have to say […] that I don’t think it’s a good project, if it is, I’ll say so. I have no problem with that. »
Rather, it was the coalition he managed to form regarding municipal supremacy that allowed him to get the green light needed to launch the calls for proposals, despite the thinly veiled opposition of certain ministers.
“The government didn’t expect me to play it like that, to play it determined. This is the advantage of doing politics not for a jobbut out of conviction,” reiterates Mr. Marchand.
The minister responsible for the Capitale-Nationale region, Geneviève Guilbault, who has sometimes refused to even publicly pronounce the word “tramway”, did she hear the message?
“I think, soberly advances the mayor, that she understood who she was dealing with. »
Not all Quebecers are docile, like the mayors of their capital. Bruno Marchand can also see red — especially when the stakes are green.