“It fits well with the community we want to build”

If you find that things are going too fast, your happiness may be in Lac-Mégantic, the only Quebec city certified Cittaslow.

Citta what? Cittaslow, an international movement founded in Italy in 1999 in the wake of Slow Food – which advocates healthy and sustainable food, in opposition to fast food – who claims slowness in everyday life.

The concept has nothing to do with “being slowmo”, warns Mayor Julie Morin who, rather than “slowness”, prefers to talk about “good living”: a city where people take the time to exchange, contemplate and do things well.

The Cittaslow designation is not obtained with the snap of a finger. The charter includes 72 recommendations and obligations, classified under seven themes. Among them, the protection of the environment, the establishment of local businesses, the creation of public squares, the support of local products and artisans, the participation of residents in municipal life and the protection of the starry sky.

So many good practices that Lac-Mégantic already had as objectives before obtaining its certification in 2018.

“It’s something that’s dear to us, first because it’s distinctive, but we think it fits well with the community we want to build,” explains Stéphane Lavallée, who headed the Reconstruction Office in the aftermath of the July 6, 2013, train accident that killed 47 Méganticois. “I’m not saying we’re 100% on all aspects of Cittaslow, but there are 72 criteria and we work hard to stand out in a majority.”

A better world

The idea to join Cittaslow came from a group of citizens who love their city – “especially Claude and Jean,” says the 41-year-old mayor in her office at the city hall, which overlooks the lake and the mountains in the distance – during the reconstruction project, launched in 2013.

Cittaslow, which is based on the philosophy that a better world begins in one’s own community, fit this new identity. The city council asked the Reconstruction Office to work with citizens to fill out the registration form: drinking water consumption, bicycle paths, waste management, protection of children, disabled people, culture, hospital capacity, etc.

“It was still a lot of work,” emphasizes the mayor, who has been in charge of the city since 2017. The document, translated into Italian, was sent to Cittaslow International in November of that same year.

Six months later, the city joined the network, which now includes 297 “slow cities” in 33 countries, including 4 in Canada: Lac-Mégantic, Cowichan Bay and Naramata, in British Columbia, and Wolfville, in Nova Scotia.

View of the lake

One of the first measures of the Cittaslow era was the creation of “green corridors” in the city centre: visual openings towards the lake. “Before, you could go through the city centre without even seeing the lake. Now, that was planned. These are improvements that we were able to make because of the tragedy,” says Julie Morin.

The city, through whose heart the train still runs, has also added bike lanes, wider sidewalks and solar panels on the roofs of new buildings downtown.

Lac-Mégantic convinced Hydro-Québec to come and install the first electrical microgrid in a city centre in Quebec.

“That too is a strong signature,” assures Mr. Lavallée, who worked for a long time in the written media, notably in The Press. It becomes, at the same time, a human laboratory. That is to say that the transition, we often see that on the technological level, whereas here, it is a human project, because we are integrating new collaborative technologies around energy management in a new HLM under construction. It is difficult to see that on the sidewalk, because there is no poster that says that, but when you put all that together, then the spirit of the city, the free shows in the park, then lots of other things, it makes Mégantic a city that stands out.

A backbone

For Mayor Julie Morin, Cittaslow has become the “backbone” of the city.

Originally from Granby, M^me Morin also fell in love with this town of 5,800 people, where she settled in 2011 with her partner to start a family and slow down the pace. “It’s a jewel of the Eastern Townships that is still not so well-known,” she says. “We’re at the centre of everything. We’re three hours from Montreal and two hours from Quebec City. We like going out, but for our daily lives, we chose happiness.”

Does she find that life is going too fast?

“Well yes, sometimes we find that our life is crazy here too! But instead of spending two hours in traffic in Montreal, in five minutes, I’m home.”

The speed of clocks

“Taking time is a predisposition that we must first adopt, because there is no one who comes to slow down the clocks at home! It runs at the same speed as everyone else,” adds Stéphane Lavallée, whose three sons, Jérôme, Félix and Hubert, moved to Lac-Mégantic.

Jérôme and his partner, Katia Derbel, opened Ditchfield, a micro-roaster, on rue Salaberry.

“The community is really strong here, everyone knows each other, everyone is super friendly, but the pace of life is slower. People take the time to see each other, then spend time outside,” Katia emphasizes.

Next door, Sarah Girouard runs Quartier artisan, whose mission is to equip artisan entrepreneurs across Quebec. “At the start of the pandemic, I didn’t think about it for long,” she says. “I knew a lot of people, the Quartier artisan project was already well established, but it lacked a real presence at that time. So I bought a house, a dog, a car, the whole kit!”

Visit the Cittaslow website (in English)