With traffic congestion increasing in Portneuf, the City of Saint-Raymond is calling for the creation of a shortcut between the MRC and Highway 40. However, some believe that it would be better to think about urban sprawl towards the region before to act.
“For us, this is an important project,” says the new mayor of Saint-Raymond-de-Portneuf, Claude Duplain. The idea of a bypass between Portneuf and the highway is not new and has been discussed in the region for decades, but Mr. Duplain is now relying on new arguments.
“The transport time when passing through the villages increases,” he says. It is becoming more and more difficult to invite new industries to establish themselves in our localities. The same goes for “the people who have to travel to Quebec”.
Last summer, the Ministry of Transport indicated that the project was not in its plans, but Mr. Duplain still wants to move the file forward. “If it’s like that today, imagine what it’s going to be like in five, six or ten years. »
During the election campaign, he undertook to hold a “big consultation” on the file. It will take place in the spring, he promises. “It’s time we stopped thinking in the short term. »
Exponential growth
The population of the MRC de Portneuf has exploded in recent years. From 2006 to 2016, its growth rate was 20%, and a further increase of 15% is expected by 2026, according to Statistics Canada and the Institut de la statistique du Québec. By way of comparison, the rate of increase in the Quebec agglomeration between 2006 and 2016 was 8.5%.
While there are concerns about the urban sprawl that could be induced by the future third link, more and more households are migrating in particular to Portneuf, where the houses are more affordable and the outdoor offer attractive. But the road is often longer than expected. “Before, you could get to Quebec in three quarters of an hour. Today, in less than an hour and ten, it can be difficult,” summarizes Mayor Duplain.
The main bottlenecks are in Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier and Pont-Rouge. Located between Quebec and Saint-Raymond, Sainte-Catherine is located at the inner limit of the Metropolitan Community of Quebec (CMQ).
An unenviable situation, according to its mayor, Pierre Dolbec. If it wants to build an access road, the government should also “launch a serious reflection on the harmful effect of urban sprawl in peri-urban areas”, pleaded the municipality in a letter of November 2020.
The towns of Portneuf, he says, are giving him “unfair competition”. “We are obliged to finance public transport and things like that. What Saint-Raymond and the others do not do. […] In terms of the costs to be assumed, it does not even compare. “It would be necessary, according to him, that the cities of the Portneuf region be subject “to the same rules” or “that the government impose a certain tax on them to balance the financial burden of the municipalities”.
Cities like Pont-Rouge, located 15 kilometers away and which also faces congestion problems. Its mayor, Mario Dupont, concedes that it is a “problem”, but for him, there is no urgency to act. “There are weeks when the traffic is very fluid and other days when it can take 20 minutes. »
In the past, Pont-Rouge strongly opposed the connecting road, because Saint-Raymond proposed that it be built on its territory. There has also already been talk of a link via Neuville or Saint-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, but the precise location of the project remains to be clarified.
One thing is certain, the new mayor of Pont-Rouge says he is unable to take a position. “Studies should be done on the subject,” he says.
An unpopular concept
The case of Portneuf is a typical case of urban sprawl, notes Fanny Tremblay-Racicot, professor at the National School of Public Administration in planning and urban planning. “We are urbanizing villages, but these roads are not made to absorb all these cars. »
“We need to have regional planning and develop where there is road capacity, for example on the Côte-de-Beaupré which has a lot of road capacity and overall little development. »
A new link between Portneuf and Highway 40 would only prolong, or even accentuate, the sprawl by convincing more CMQ workers to settle there.
Already, the proportion of Saint-Raymond-de-Portneuf residents working in the CMQ was 35.4% in 2016. In Pont-Rouge, it was 54.50%. Mayor Mario Dupont says it himself: his city is becoming “the new suburb” of Quebec.
But like all elected officials in the region with whom The duty spoke, he is not very comfortable with the subject of urban sprawl. When it is pointed out to him that this phenomenon is considered by land-use planning experts to be a problem, he sighs and says that it is not he who “chooses”, in reference to the people who make the choice to settle in peripheral.
“I don’t call it urban sprawl, I call it giving people a choice,” said the mayor of Saint-Raymond-de-Portneuf, Claude Duplain. How can a family that wants to raise their children close to nature be forced to stay in the city? We are in a free country. »
The mayor of Sainte-Catherine, Pierre Dolbec, argues for his part that there has been no urban sprawl on his territory because he is inside the CMQ.
I don’t call it urban sprawl, I call it giving people a choice. How can a family that wants to raise their children close to nature be forced to stay in the city? We are in a free country.
Expand the CMQ?
If there is one responsible for urban sprawl towards Portneuf and elsewhere, it is inaction, according to Fanny Tremblay-Racicot. “This is the consequence of not having integrated Portneuf into the CMQ during the last Metropolitan Plan in 2011.
At the time, the elected members of the CMQ asked the Quebec government to reject the urban development plans of four municipalities in Portneuf (Donnacona, Pont-Rouge, Saint-Basile and Lac-Sergent).
“We especially want the Government of Quebec to do a bit like the CMQ, that is to say impose or propose that the neighboring MRCs also impose targets on themselves,” declared the vice-president of the executive committee of the City of Quebec at the time, François Picard.
And now ? The CMQ wonders. “The growth of certain municipalities bordering the metropolitan territory and their high degree of spatial integration into the CMQ justify the implementation of additional urbanization management measures, or even their integration into the territory of the CMQ for development purposes. of the territory, ”she wrote in a report submitted in 2020 to the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Andrée Laforest.
In addition to Portneuf, the report highlighted the ongoing urban sprawl towards the MRCs of Nouvelle-Beauce, Lotbinière and Bellechasse. At the time, it was suggested to continue the reflection during the overhaul of the Metropolitan Land Use and Development Plan.
A redesign that is currently underway. However, the idea of expanding the territory or calling on Portneuf is not in the cards, according to the prefect of the MRC de la Jacques-Cartier, Sébastien Couture, responsible for the file at the CMQ. “The Metropolitan Community is already very large. I did not see any will in this direction. »