Finally ! The Government of Quebec is opening the door to greater quality and sustainability for our province by unveiling a National Policy on Architecture and Land Use Planning (PNAAT).
Posted yesterday at 10:00 a.m.
We had been waiting for such a gesture for a long time, which would allow Quebec to assert itself through its built environment. Already in the 1960s, the government of Daniel Johnson (senior) vigorously defended provincial jurisdiction in the fields of housing and urban development. We saw there, with good reason, correlations between the development of the territory, the health and the well-being of the population. But the variable geometry interest of the political teams that have followed one another over time will never have led to such a policy… before today.
Meanwhile, countries such as the Netherlands, Norway and Scotland have adopted architectural policies to affirm their ambition to carefully protect and develop their territory to make it a national pride.
Admittedly, this type of commitment does not protect any nation from mistakes along the way, but it circumscribes the playing field by relying on enlightened public policies.
Quebec therefore wants to play in the big leagues by tabling such a national policy, which is all in all adequate in the context. All the buzzwords are there, from “living environments on a human scale” to “ecological connectivity”.
Let’s wait, however, before declaring victory
Beyond the great catchphrases, this policy will have to be accompanied by a concrete and ambitious action plan, which will force the State to become exemplary in terms of regional planning. A gigantic challenge, it goes without saying.
The government will have no choice but to rethink the awarding of public procurement contracts by diversifying these strategies, especially given the overheating of the construction market, which is here to stay. He will have to tackle the law of the lowest bidder criticized for many years, in addition to reviewing the non-indexed decree of architects who work with the State in order to remunerate them at their fair value… and so on.
He will have the duty to better support (not to say train) our elected municipal officials, seeing in particular the recent debates on densification which ideologically oppose cities like Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville and Saint-Jérôme.
The taxation of municipalities also needs to be seriously rethought considering that the latter derive their main source of income through the development of their territory. However, the Government of Quebec recently closed the door to this revision, which has long been demanded by the Union of Municipalities of Quebec…
And what about the climate emergency?
This PNAAT goes against the discourse of certain ministers, such as François Bonnardel, who sees “densification” as a “fashion” when the document clearly proposes consolidating the territory and limiting urban sprawl.
Moreover, when several deputies defend tooth and nail projects like the third link, in Quebec, despite being decried by a host of transport and planning experts, one wonders if our elected officials will have the courage to go beyond the simple pre-election speech with an action plan that will have teeth for the deployment of this policy. Same questioning when we witness the destruction of heritage buildings, such as the Domaine-de-l’Estérel, in almost total political indifference. Or, when the government promotes sprawl by approving dezoning as it did with the MRC de Montcalm.
To be credible, the PNAAT will have to force the State to review its practices… and elected officials to reconsider electoral promises, such as highway tunnels costing more than $6.5 billion!