“Populists”, “misleading”, “dangerous”: the mayor of Quebec has castigated the comments made by the CAQ which normalize urban sprawl and which summarize urban densification as a fashion. The climate emergency, underlines Bruno Marchand, imposes a push that the government, according to him, still does not seem interested in giving.
The mayor of Quebec wanted to set the record straight. He took advantage of the opening of the meeting of the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ) to do so on Wednesday morning.
“I read, on behalf of the government of Quebec, that if one thinks of densification, that means that one does not want to develop the territory. It’s not that, it’s not that at all, ”corrected the mayor of the national capital.
Some CAQ ministers have recently raised eyebrows in the municipal world by questioning the need to densify cities. The Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel, sums up densification to a “fashion” and a “trend”. His colleague from Municipal Affairs and Housing, Andrée Laforest, warned on Tuesday against the possible confusion between “urban sprawl” and “territorial development”.
For Mr. Marchand, “when the government says that, [il] harms the debate” surrounding land use planning in Quebec. The CAQ’s game is “really dangerous”, maintains the mayor of the capital, and his speech has “populist” overtones.
“We are in a climate emergency, people are asking us for actions that will have an impact, underlined the mayor of Quebec. If what we are told is that it is not that important, I think that we are out of step with the citizens. »
The arguments put forward by the CAQ to defend its third link do not convince the mayor of Quebec. The burden of proof, he repeats, rests with the government.
“When we are told the electric car will save us, that is not true, ruled Mayor Marchand on Wednesday. The electric car is what the electronic cigarette is to the cigarette. It’s a lesser evil […] because producing an electric car is worse in terms of GHGs. It is estimated that in Canada, it takes 85,000 kilometers to make it profitable compared to a gas-powered car. So when we are told: “in the tunnel there will be electric cars, that will be a good thing”, I want us to demonstrate it. »
A movement behind the mayor
The mayor of Quebec finds allies in his crusade against the CAQ government. A report by the Advisory Committee on Climate Change on Monday proposed imposing a moratorium on road development to curb urban sprawl.
The president of the UMQ and mayor of Gaspé, Daniel Côté, also maintains that densification, far from being a passing fad, is rather a “heavy trend” present internationally and fueled as much by the need to reduce the construction costs of cities than the polluting emissions of their inhabitants.
“People have the right to live where they want,” reminded the mayor of Quebec, Wednesday, echoing the words of Minister Bonnardel who believes he does not have the authority to tell people where they should reside. “But whenever someone lives very, very far from where they work, they demand that the government build highways […] It increases costs and it increases, above all, our greenhouse gas emissions. »
Bruno Marchand is more and more openly playing the role of conscientious objector in the face of a CAQ which does not always respond adequately, according to him, to the alarm sounded by the IPCC.
“For the moment, the government has not shown any interest – at least the Minister of Transport – in curbing urban sprawl,” he accused again on Wednesday.
The exit of Mayor Marchand precedes the speech of Prime Minister François Legault expected Thursday morning before the UMQ meeting in Quebec. On Friday, it will be the turn of Minister André Laforest, of the MAHM, to speak. Many are waiting to see the content of the land use planning strategy she is to present this spring.