Following the Quebec elections, all levels of government will have mandates valid until 2025 and 2026. We can hope that they will be able to work together on projects with horizons that go beyond the short term. This is certainly the case for the fight against the effects of climate change
Posted yesterday at 10:00 a.m.
Elected officials at all levels have set greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets in recent years. From now on, they will have to adopt the means to achieve them. For the Urban Development Institute of Quebec (IDU), there is no doubt that the various governments will have to develop a new collaborative approach. The challenge cannot be met by Ottawa, Quebec or Montreal alone. Citizens, who will be asked to change their lifestyles, will certainly be able, in turn, to demand that decision-makers change their mode of governance. They will have to stop shoveling responsibilities into the backyards of others and instead choose to share common tables in order to agree on concerted and sufficiently funded actions.
Quebec initiative
The Premier of Quebec is the first who can send this signal of intergovernmental cooperation. Armed with a new architecture and regional planning policy, he will soon have to appoint a new council of ministers and then write new mandate letters and an inaugural speech. There will be no shortage of opportunities to invite all public decision-makers to transform traditional governance.
Recognizing the importance of reducing travel needs and increasing sustainable transport capacity, the Prime Minister may want to agree on a new relationship with cities to support urban reconfiguration. Everyone will have to contribute.
Already, it has been repeated for many years, cities do not have the financial and fiscal means to respond to the challenges faced by their citizens.
To this is now added the burden of transforming the urban planning approach of exclusive zoning subject to “everything by car” to instead create local neighborhoods based on functional and social diversity.
As a structural measure, the IDU proposes the creation of a Ministry of Territory – bringing together the Ministry of Transport and that of Municipal Affairs and Housing –, as well as a Council of the Territory – made up of independent experts – which ensure compliance with government guidelines. To do this, they will have to support the municipal authorities in their efforts to meet the new targets in terms of land occupancy, kilometers of service by sustainable transportation and housing to be built.
But targets don’t solve everything. Cities will need financial support. Quebec would be well advised to call on Ottawa to co-finance a municipal transfer program with components in inclusive housing, sustainable transportation, urban planning and land requalification.
In terms of housing, the capitals should agree to adopt complementary and aligned programs. Funding should adapt to diverse tenure realities, be sufficient to meet national and local targets, and be adequate to avoid the counterproductive consequences of royalties. In terms of mobility, Quebec would benefit from achieving parity in the proportions of transport budgets between roads and public transport by 2025, as well as targeting a proportion of 66% in favor of public transport by 2027. The budgets allocated to land requalification should support redevelopment by responding in particular to the challenges of decontamination and heritage protection. Finally, funding for urban development would allow cities, among other things, to plan and carry out infrastructure work to receive new projects.
In return, Quebec should insist that local decision-makers seize every opportunity to create new neighborhoods with a density adapted to different environments and sufficient to justify the supply of local public and private services. These neighborhoods will also have to be planned to offer jobs to their residents close to home. Pointe-Claire’s decision to restrict the number of residents near the REM, in contradiction with national and regional objectives, illustrates the need to ask cities to assume their role, too.
The Quebec legislator should modify property taxation to promote densification along public transit routes and, more generally, support multi-residential rather than encouraging single-family housing.
And there are many other measures to develop and implement…
Together
Governments won’t get anywhere if they quarrel with each other or fail to bring people together in favor of a smooth transition. In this respect, the Prime Minister’s announcement of his willingness to work with the opposition on environmental issues bodes well.
The transformation of our respective lives demanded by the climate emergency must be done with respect for each other. Rural realities are different from urban realities, we must agree and adapt. Car culture has, for decades, shaped our habitats, our shopping habits and our travel aspirations, to name a few aspects. One cannot reasonably shake everything up. Between the world before and the world after, the transition calls for an outstretched hand between governments and between citizens, not a denunciation.
Why not make the next inaugural speech a call for the cooperation of all public decision-makers to launch a real climate mandate?
Mr. Premier of Quebec, the answer is yours.