This text is part of the special section Municipalities
Housing shortage, homelessness, climate transition, public transport… Cities find themselves at the heart of Quebec’s biggest current challenges. Enough to keep the new president of the Union of Municipalities of Quebec (UMQ), Martin Damphousse, busy.
In May 2023, the mayor of Varennes, Martin Damphousse, became the 59the president of the UMQ. A year later, he salutes the strong mobilization and solidarity of the members, administrators and staff of the Union. The UMQ brings together nearly 400 municipalities, and 50 elected officials, mayors, prefects and presidents of metropolitan communities sit on its board of directors. It also employs more than 50 workers.
Their mobilization is more than necessary given the scale of the challenges facing municipalities. Starting with the housing shortage. “This crisis has not subsided over the last year and it contributes to another major problem, that of homelessness,” underlines Martin Damphousse.
The housing vacancy rate in centers with more than 10,000 inhabitants fell from 4.4% in 2016 to 1.3% in 2023, according to the Institute of Statistics of Quebec. The number of homeless people jumped by 44% between 2018 and 2023, according to the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec.
All of this fuels insecurity that pushes citizens to turn to the municipal government, which is closest to them. But these social problems are complex. Cities need more resources to help find solutions.
A new agreement
As such, the president of the UMQ welcomes the new fiscal pact signed in December 2023 with the Quebec government. In particular, it plans to include in the law the sharing with municipalities of an annual amount equivalent to the growth in revenue generated by one point of the QST. A decision that is all the more important given that consumption tax revenues are expected to increase by two billion dollars by 2025-2026, according to the most recent Quebec budget.
The agreement also covers support for the development of a sufficient supply of housing, the renewal of municipal infrastructure, assistance for vulnerable people as well as adaptation and climate transition. Climate issues are also very high on the list of challenges for the UMQ.
“The succession of floods, forest fires and ice storms is making our citizens aware that climate change is already happening, and the UMQ has been at the forefront of this issue,” said Martin Damphousse.
Climate priority
Last February, the Quebec government announced that it would pay $500 million to cities to support them in adapting to climate change. Municipalities will have to adopt a climate plan by 2026 and implement it, at least in part, by 2030. At the time of the announcement, only Gatineau, Laval, Montreal, Victoriaville and Quebec already had a plan for this. kind.
For its part, the UMQ launched its Energy Plan in February 2024, which is based on four major levers: reducing consumption, promoting social acceptability (which posed a problem in the development of wind energy, among others), accelerate the production of renewable energies and develop partnerships for the energy transition and adaptation to climate change.
“We want to get away from fossil fuels, but we will lack green energy to get there,” underlines Martin Damphousse. Even hydroelectricity is starting to become rarer and this is dramatic for the municipal sector, because it means that important economic development projects can fall through. »
Transport and democracy
Public transport remains a major issue. Martin Damphousse recalls that no municipality has asked the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, to manage public transport for them. But they hope for a more solid commitment and, above all, clear directions for the coming years, in a perspective where these forms of travel are in deficit, but remain a crucial tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Quebec.
The president of the UMQ also remains concerned about the state of health of municipal democracy and especially its image. “When things go badly in certain places, we talk about it a lot, but we rarely mention the fact that in the majority of cases, things go very well,” he says. He adds that Bill 57, tabled last April, could contribute to cleaning up the climate in municipalities. This provides in particular for new criminal offenses to counter the rise in cases of incivility against elected officials.
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