Staggering is important to maintain services, supports the mayor of Saint-Maurice, Gérard Bruneau. According to him, any municipality that wishes to develop must necessarily follow this path. The mayor mentions that his municipality needs income from real estate to develop.
With a population that stagnates, services will also stagnate and will be reduced thereafter, admits the mayor. Densification could lead to a devitalization of certain rural municipalities, he argues in response to mayors who have affirmed their position against urban sprawl and who advocate the densification of municipalities at the foundations of the Union of Quebec Municipalities.
Gérard Bruneau specifies that certain municipalities around Saint-Maurice are devitalized because they have been emptied of their essential services due to the densification of these environments.
The person who has managed the municipality of Saint-Maurice since 1991 reminds the Government of Quebec that even if some mayors advocate the densification of their city, there is a land use policy that must be respected.
” Occupation of the territory is what allows rural municipalities to have the necessary revenues through taxation or other means to be able to develop and have services and precisely to avoid losing local services. »
The real estate boom in Saint-Maurice, a major challenge
Although he maintains that urban sprawl is necessary for the development of his municipality, Mayor Gérard Bruneau admits that it is a major issue. A pleasant challenge for any municipality wishing to develop
he specifies.
The real estate boom has impacts in particular on the quality of the water, which becomes yellowish and brownish at times, which worries some residents. People fill their pools on days when it’s not allowed. Farmers use the water for their seeds. A set of factors that cause overconsumption of water by residents, causing a lack circumstantial
according to the mayor.
It therefore becomes impossible to pursue residential development. The drilling of a new well and the establishment of a new drinking water supply line becomes necessary. The mayor says he asked the promoter to wait for the increase in water supply before undertaking new projects.
Staggering is important to maintain services, supports the mayor of Saint-Maurice, Gérard Bruneau.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Martin Chabot
A destination that attracts more and more
Saint-Maurice being located near Trois-Rivières, people are more interested in settling there. One in three residents comes either from Trois-Rivières or from outside the Mauricie region, promoters say.
Several houses are currently under construction. The future occupants come from Sherbrooke, Montreal, and even Quebec. According to some testimonies, they would be attracted by the quality of life in the municipality, the outdoors, the wide open spaces and the affordable cost of real estate compared to large urban centres.
In Trois-Rivières there are parks, but there is less space, the grounds are smaller
confides a resident of Saint-Maurice who has spent her entire career in Trois-Rivières, but who has decided to settle in Saint-Maurice.
Saint-Maurice is not the only municipality that is interested in urban sprawl. In Saint-Etienne-des-Grès, the authorities would like to have 90 additional plots of land for residential development. However, several constraints, including that related to the supply of water, curb their enthusiasm.
With information from Maude Montembeault
Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca