Call to rethink how to build Quebec in order to resolve several crises

The housing crisis, the overexploitation of aging infrastructure, the damage caused by floods and the rising cost of living are crises that could, in part, be solved by the same solution: smarter planning of our cities and regions.

This is the message being sent by a group of urban planners, farmers, developers, architects, builders and environmentalists who are gathered in Old Montreal on Wednesday morning to ask all political parties to make land-use planning a priority.

“For years, these crises have seemed isolated,” but “they are not,” says Jeanne Robin, secretary of the ARIANE alliance, which brings together several organizations.

“We are treating the symptoms, when we should be tackling the root of the problem. The problem is the way we are developing our municipalities and regions. The good news? That’s also the solution,” wrote Jeanne Robin in a statement.

With less than a year to go before the provincial elections, the organizations meeting on Wednesday called on political parties to make the five commitments below.

Taking care of what already exists

The group urges politicians to maintain existing infrastructure to “preserve assets and ensure safety and resilience.” Therefore, built heritage should be valued and reused rather than “replaced,” not only to save money but also to preserve the heritage and culture of communities.

“At the Quebec level, built heritage represents a real estate stock that we cannot afford to neglect. More than ever, it is essential to consider existing buildings as an indispensable solution for current issues in terms of sustainable development, housing crisis, maintaining quality of life and the built environment,” writes Andréanne Jalbert-Laramée, administrator of Action patrimoine, in a press release.

Investing in strategic infrastructure

The resilience and capacity of communities depend on public infrastructure, such as water management and distribution networks or public transportation. 

“The Quebec government has strategic choices to make regarding infrastructure. Upgrading water infrastructure is a priority for the construction sector, especially since it is essential to get out of the housing crisis,” commented Francine Sabourin, Executive Director of the Quebec Construction Association.

Quebec communities will have to “design more simply to reduce costs and do more with less,” emphasizes the press release published by the organizations gathered on Wednesday.

Between 2015 and 2025, the average cost of water main repair projects increased by 88 per cent, the costs of repairing 100 meters of sidewalk increased by 72 per cent and the average cost of projects for new traffic lights increased by 100 per cent, according to a recent report by the firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, cited in the press release.

The general rise in prices and the modification or addition of regulations would, for the most part, be responsible for these increases.

Plan for enough housing

According to Statistics Canada, in Montreal, rents demanded increased by nearly 71 per cent between 2019 and 2015, and approximately 10,000 people were experiencing homelessness in Quebec during the last count in October 2022.

Build in the right place

The group of organizations argues that housing, facilities and infrastructure construction projects should prioritize “locations that reduce distances to travel” and optimize the use of infrastructure.

It is also necessary to choose locations that “avoid urban sprawl by avoiding agricultural land”, that protect ecosystems and that “support resilience by avoiding exposure to natural and climatic risks”.

According to a Ouranos report cited in the press release, additional maintenance costs for the electrical grid related to climate change could reach $656 million per year by 2050.

Protecting our agricultural land and our natural environments

The fifth commitment that the coalition of organizations is submitting to politicians concerns the preservation of “the productive capacity of agricultural land.” The organizations are calling for “maximizing the benefits of ecosystem services to strengthen our food self-sufficiency, our climate resilience, and to halt the loss of biodiversity.”

“The environment and the economy are often presented as opposites. The truth is that laissez-faire costs Quebecers a fortune. Planning well, choosing where and how we build, is good for everyone’s wallet,” summarizes Martin Vaillancourt, Director General of the National Association of Regional Environmental Councils, in a press release.

The ARIANE alliance plans to request meetings with the various political parties before the start of the elections in order to “obtain concrete commitments”.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews