Since 2012, in Quebec, a “heritage cultural landscape” can obtain a designation under the Cultural Heritage Law. Rivière-Ouelle is to date the only municipality to have taken the steps to obtain it. Focus on this still largely unknown legal status.
Posted at 11:30 a.m.
Rivière-Ouelle became on August 30, 2021 the very first municipality to obtain the designation of heritage cultural landscape for part of its territory. But what exactly does this imply?
To hope to obtain this designation, a municipality or a group of municipalities must go through a long process, at its expense. It is necessary to carry out a landscape diagnosis and consult residents and other actors in the area, then create a landscape charter presenting the principles and commitments made by the area for the protection and enhancement of the said landscape.
To carry out this process, the municipality of Rivière-Ouelle called on Ruralys. The centre, which no longer exists, had acquired expertise in landscape and had already targeted the tip sector, in Rivière-Ouelle, as a potential “remarkable landscape”.
So what makes a remarkable landscape?
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Dominique Lalande, former director of Ruralys, archaeologist and heritage consultant
It is not just a landscape that we are looking at, there is the whole aspect of the humanized, inhabited landscape, the heritage, the buildings, the know-how, the occupation and the planning of the territory…
Dominique Lalande, former director of Ruralys, archaeologist and heritage consultant
For Louis-Georges Simard, mayor of Rivière-Ouelle, the interest of this designation is in particular “to make citizens collectively realize the importance of preserving this territory”.
To do this, the municipality has adopted a conservation plan setting out certain existing measures or measures to be put in place, ranging from the preservation of native vegetation (including the petals of wild roses, sought after by pickers) to the enhancement existing public access to shores and banks. “For us, preservation involves more of a collective incentive than constraints, to maintain the pride that people have for their environment, their landscape,” he adds.
A name questioned
It was in 2012 that it became possible to submit an application for heritage cultural landscape designation, but the Ministry of Culture and Communications confirmed to The Press have not received any other application for heritage cultural landscape designation to date.
It must be said that the process is long – eight years in the case of Rivière-Ouelle – and that the associated costs can discourage many. “It has to come from the community, that elected officials, citizens, get on board. Let the fruit be ripe, in short! », remarks M.me The land.
Coastline of the South Shore
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PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
According to some, one of the most beautiful views of Kamouraska can be found in Kamouraska itself, at the restaurant Côté Est.
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PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
The Quai de Kamouraska, another beautiful view of the St. Lawrence and Charlevoix, in the distance.
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PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
The “cabourons”, these rocky ridges found throughout the region, have also been targeted by Ruralys as a potential remarkable landscape. Here, a view from above from the top of a cabouron, in Saint-Germain-de-Kamouraska.
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PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
The sunsets at Notre-Dame-du-Portage have been recognized among the most beautiful in the world by the National Geographic in the 1950s.
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PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Less crowded, Saint-Germain-de-Kamouraska beach also offers a beautiful view.
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PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
In Saint-André-de-Kamouraska, La Tête d’Allumette microbrewery and its neighbor, Camping de la Batture Sebka, are also known for their views.
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PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
L’Islet-sur-Mer is located in the MRC of L’Islet.
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PHOTO PATRICE LAROCHE, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVES
The village of Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse, its church and its presbytery
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Philippe Dubé is a historian and associate professor at Université Laval. He also resides today in Rivière-Ouelle, where his family has roots since the founding of the village. Of course, he appreciates the beauty of the place. But he says he is very critical of the designated territory. According to him, it would have been necessary to consider the entire coastline of the Côte-du-Sud, one of the oldest colonized territories, for the project to have a hold.
One of the things that annoys me deeply is why only Rivière-Ouelle? Granting this status of cultural landscape designation to a municipality, however beautiful it may be, seems to me to be nonsense since a territory, as a geographical landscape, cannot be contained within administrative boundaries. Especially since the Côte-du-Sud as a cultural entity seems to me indivisible, since each element of its heritage on its territory is interrelated.
Philippe Dubé, historian and associate professor at Laval University
It would have been even more logical to consult each other, he says, because this designation “commits the municipality to live up to expectations”. “This requires means that a municipality of less than 1,000 residents does not have. This publicity stunt is a double-edged sword since it is necessary to be able to assume it fully, that is to say to know in depth this landscape transformed by the human presence and to know how to communicate it to the public. Otherwise, this designation remains wind, as there are so many in this part of the country. »
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- 83%
- Proportion of people consulted who said they agreed or completely agreed with the designation process.
Source: Municipality of Rivière-Ouelle