Marcel Carrière’s 1972 documentary, Chez nous, c’est chez nous, has greatly inspired our climate change adaptation consultants. In the documentary, the filmmaker witnessed in Saint-Octave-de-l’Avenir the application of a measure that resulted from the 1966 plan for socio-economic redevelopment in Quebec: the demolition of 11 villages in the Lower St. Lawrence and Gaspé regions.
This documentary, which is available for free on the NFB website, made our consultants, Ernesto Rodriguez and Camille Proulx, reflect about the links that need to be made between demographic changes in Quebec’s population, climate change adaptation, and policies for the migration of aging populations to remote areas.
This topic was further explored with Pierre-Luc Lupien, a sociology teacher at the Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles, a doctoral candidate in sociology at UQAM, and a volunteer with the Équipe de recherche en partenariat Vieillissements, exclusions sociales et solidarités (VIES).
Increasingly, strong links are being demonstrated between the ability to adapt to climate change and the strength of social fabric within a population. Municipalities have a major responsibility in the fight against climate change, as they organize, manage and develop the territory. Likewise, ensuring a healthy social fabric and a high level of community support will help to strengthen a community’s resilience to climate change.
The reality is that many municipal organizations are faced with social or economic vulnerabilities, and must manage them as a priority, sometimes leaving the potential impacts of climate change on their territory. Social vulnerabilities can be described in many ways, but can represent material or moral fragilities to which an individual is exposed and may represent a risk to that individual should a hazard occur. At the scale of the municipal organization, individual vulnerabilities undermine the collective capacity for resilience, particularly to climate hazards. This is one of the areas of study of the Canada Research Chair on Urban Climate Action, led by Sophie L. Van Neste’s team. Van Neste’s team. It is also one of the findings of Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin in his latest book Passer de la ville à la cité : Faire place à la participation citoyenne, which is based on his experience as mayor of Gatineau. This is also the opinion shared by sociology teacher Pierre-Luc Lupien during our interview.
There are different forms of collective action to fight against climate change. Citizen’s work to clean up riverbanks, social planting of trees and vegetation, and public consultations are some of the best known examples. Innovative governance is a key to the success of the ecological transition, but it is necessary to consider the assessment of local social vulnerabilities before intervening, while keeping in mind the need to manage change within communities. Build partnerships between municipal governments and community organizations through local projects such as heat island greening, nature conservation, and the rehabilitation or restoration of natural areas. These are all good opportunities to expand collaborations and involve citizens in their own local well-being, with a positive, nature-based gathering point near their homes.
