NEW CHALLENGES
I've reviewed the MRC's last two development plans and read the meeting minutes. And I say bravo! We have elected officials and staff teams who clearly understood the situation that prevailed at that time. Except that the world has changed quickly. Particularly in five areas that I'm outlining here and which we now need to address.
1. An aging population that is not renewing itself
While the new demographics are affecting all of Quebec, it is a much more critical variable here in the Pays-d'en-Haut MRC. As can be seen in Figure 1, our territory has proportionally fewer young people and more elderly people than elsewhere.
This poses three main challenges:
-
more traffic and costs in health services;
-
less renewal of active workforce;
-
less attractive for families with young children.
Demographic gap with the rest of Quebec
The MRC has twice as many seniors as young people, which places it in a very unfavorable position compared to Quebec as a whole. The proportion of the active population (20-64 years) is also lower.
2. A strategic geographical position weakened by congestion on Highway 15
Those who live here and work in Greater Montreal, as well as day-trippers and tourists eager to enjoy our attractions, have lost control of their travel time, which now varies between one and two and a half hours.
More and more time lost on the Laurentides highway
These data taken at the junction of Highway 50 even hide the worst: the increase in traffic is not observed at night, but is concentrated during rush hour, which is getting longer.
3. A business model threatened by global warming
More than half of all direct and indirect jobs in the MRC depend on recreational tourism, while, as the forecasts in Figure 3 illustrate, there is an urgent need to support winter facilities while accelerating the diversification of the four-season offering. And to diversify our economy.
Basically, it will rain more often and more heavily, there will be more heat waves, more strong winds and less snow cover.
4. Social cohesion damaged by the housing crisis
According to the Canadian Housing Affordability Index, our MRC has rental health deemed critical, ranking 97th out of 98 in Quebec. This means that in the shadow of the arrivals of recent decades, generally in good financial health, live here thousands of families, often single-parent, with more than modest incomes, as shown by the statistics in Chart 4.
16%
below the poverty line
5,000
devote 30% to housing
16,000
social assistance providers
Access to comfortable housing at a decent price for every citizen forces regional authorities to intervene.
5. A heritage that struggles to remain alive
The stories of the upper countries would benefit from being enriched by much more art practiced and consumed; the landscape and quality of life here lend themselves so much to artistic expression. This ranges from an architectural signature to the organization of events that can attract thousands of participants and big names. The "zero" figure in Figure 5 is intended to provoke action and in no way denigrate the artists and artisans who strive despite unfavorable conditions.
The Laurentians, in general, are the poor relation, culturally speaking, of all the administrative regions of Quebec.
ZERO...