(Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies) With its stately estate and its beautiful old houses, Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies has the quiet charm of the riverside villages. We are here in the heart of the Côte-du-Sud, east of Quebec, a historic region whose French settlers were already cultivating the land in the 17th century.e century.
Within two years, however, this village of just under 1,000 inhabitants will probably merge into a large city.
Saint-Roch is an eloquent example of this new wind of mergers blowing across Quebec. Its city council is considering not one, but two potential marriages.
“Whether it’s east or west, I’m convinced we can’t lose. We can just benefit from securing a better future,” says its mayor, André Simard.
The first scenario under study is that of a four-way grouping to the west, with Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, L’Islet and Saint-Aubert, in the MRC of L’Islet. But when, in the east, six members of the MRC of Kamouraska (La Pocatière, Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, Saint-Onésime-d’Ixworth, Saint-Denis-De La Bouteillerie, Rivière-Ouelle and Saint -Pacôme) launched a study in turn, Saint-Roch joined the exercise.
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If residents of Saint-Roch frequent the shops and services of Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, many go instead to La Pocatière. Elected officials therefore want to be able to set the record straight on the consequences of the two groupings, and of the status quo.
“We are in extreme competition for labor with large urban centers, it will be more and more difficult to attract resources and pay them well. »
A sign of the times, Saint-Pacôme and Rivière-Ouelle will soon share their general director – a precedent that everyone in the region has told us about.
Saint-Roch shares its municipal inspector with Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, but for Mayor André Simard, we have to look further. “Service agreements are normal for us to have, but they are fragile because they come and go. We have to get to the bottom of things. »
“Heavier”
About fifteen minutes away, the mayor of La Pocatière, Vincent Bérubé, is just as convinced.
“When we speak for 12,000 people, we are heavier than for 4,000,” he says, referring to the region’s ability to attract young families, local businesses and subsidies for leisure infrastructure – such as the complex. multi-sports that La Pocatière wishes to set up in its former arena.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
View of La Pocatière from Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière
The first stage, which consists of carrying out studies financed by Quebec to document the consequences of a regrouping, should be completed in the spring, both for this scenario of seven in Kamouraska and for that of four, in L’Islet.
Such groupings are also being studied in at least two other regions. At this stage, citizens hardly ask any questions, the mayors interviewed told us. We are far from the tearing of shirts caused by the forced mergers of the early 2000s.
The seven-way scenario in Kamouraska nevertheless includes a major unknown: Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, which has already voted massively against a merger with La Pocatière. In the 1999 referendum, the “no” vote won by nearly 77% of the votes (579 out of 756).
“At the time, we were against the merger: I certainly voted against it,” admits the mayor of Sainte-Anne, Jean-François Pelletier.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
Jean-François Pelletier, mayor of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière
Sainte-Anne and La Pocatière have already formed a single municipality. They separated in 1960, but remained linked by geography, since Sainte-Anne encircles La Pocatière.
The La Pocatière station, from where you can take the train to Montreal, is also located in Sainte-Anne. On the other hand, the houses facing it, on avenue de la Gare, are located in La Pocatière.
In short, the border between the two municipalities is invisible. But if Sainte-Anne rejects the merger again, Saint-Roch will automatically be excluded from the merger with La Pocatière, since Sainte-Anne stands between the two.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière
“I think things have evolved a lot. There are many services that we are starting to share,” underlines the mayor of Sainte-Anne.
At the wheel of his yellow bus, he takes the students to La Pocatière, since his municipality does not have a school. Sainte-Anne also has an agreement to use the library and leisure services of La Pocatière – and other agreements with several municipalities for fire services and residual materials collection.
“It makes me think of credit unions, of which I was an administrator for a long time. I participated in three rounds of mergers in the area: the funds said to themselves that they would perhaps be much stronger together than by competing and paying for double deals! »
The studies funded by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MAMH) are only a first step. Municipal groups are long journeys strewn with questions. What will happen, for example, if Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies chooses La Pocatière and, in doing so, leaves the MRC of L’Islet for that of Kamouraska?
“In the long term, it will appear in our MRC of L’Islet if we lose a municipality,” points out the mayor of Saint-Aubert, Ghislain Deschênes.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
Ghislain Deschênes, mayor of Saint-Aubert
Heartstrings
Another major unknown: how many will make it to the finish line? In other regions, we mainly see marriage plans for two people. And on the South Shore, some have already left the ship.
Sainte-Louise, in the MRC of L’Islet, withdrew from the study last June. The mayor was still interested, but agreed with the rest of the council.
“The feeling of belonging is still very strong around the table. I don’t want to say “parochialism”, but we think that we are capable of continuing on our own for a while longer,” explains Normand Dubé.
Saint-Gabriel-Lalemant also withdrew from the project in Kamouraska.
Even if the prospects of mergers currently make few waves, elected officials know that they touch sensitive chords.
“The goal is not for La Pocatière to swallow up other municipalities, it is to arrive at a global consensus. The intention is to ensure that the surrounding towns and municipalities maintain their local services,” assures Mayor Vincent Bérubé.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
Vincent Bérubé, mayor of La Pocatière
The name of Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies, which was first that of a lordship, has been in the landscape of the Côte-du-Sud since 1656. “This belonging, this identity, we do not see why that would end in history,” argues Mayor André Simard.
Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies should appear in large letters on road signs, and the name of the merged town in parentheses below, he said.
“I intend to fight the battles it takes to change the rules. What we want is to improve the future of our citizens, not make them lose their identity. »
Exit, the word that starts with an F
Even if Quebec supports mergers (20.1 million over five years in the last budget), the word has become taboo. “Merger” appears only once in the Guide to the amalgamation of municipalities, compared to almost 200 times for “regroupment” and its derivatives. And the scenario must be studied “on a voluntary and consensual basis”. “Politically, they have no interest in pushing. What we know about the mergers of around twenty years ago is that there is great resistance from the population,” recalls Jean-Philippe Meloche, director of the School of Urban Planning and of landscape architecture from the University of Montreal. “The mergers of the 2000s were based on absolutely crazy hypotheses of economies of scale, which not only never proved true, but led to the opposite,” recalls economist François Des Rosiers, of the Center for research in planning and development at Laval University. “Below 5,000 inhabitants, I think it is logical to consider this as a solution to optimize the management, production and distribution of services,” he nevertheless believes. Ontario, more populous, has only 444 municipalities, compared to 1,106 in Quebec. Do we have too many villages? Despite research, “there is no evidence that small municipalities do not function well [ni] of serious empirical evidence to suggest that if it were all merged, things would really be better,” says Mr. Meloche.