Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist
GASPÉ – Four major components were retained in the report aimed at providing Gaspé with a Strategic Development Plan for the next 10 years.
The territory, the social component, the economic component and the internal component of the municipal organization are the elements that emerged following the consultations conducted online and in person during the months of October and November.
The consultations engaged nearly 1,000 people online, including 250 young people, as well as more than a hundred participants in the various workshops organized throughout the Gaspé area.
Several workshops were also held with elected officials, the municipality’s administrative staff and other socio-economic partners in the community. “The population contributed enormously to the activity, much more than I could have expected,” says Mayor Daniel Côté.
An ongoing online consultation invites residents to provide feedback on the proposed priorities.
“There aren’t any big surprises: people are generally satisfied with the work accomplished and the way we are developing this town. Where there are pitfalls is the issue of housing, intra-urban and inter-urban transportation, the commercial offer where the municipality can’t do much. These are the elements where people have put big reservations. We will have to emphasize these elements,” explains the mayor, who notes that the population’s satisfaction rate is close to 80%.
The online survey, which takes approximately 10 minutes to complete, will help prioritize what is presented to the population. The town hopes to adopt the final strategic plan by mid-March.
“There will also be time objectives. Among other things, in the next steps, we will modernize urban planning,” emphasizes the mayor. Internally, efforts will also be made to improve communication between the town and its citizens. To address this, a communications officer position has been created.
The 10-year planning horizon was also intended to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Jacques Cartier’s arrival in Gaspé.
“All sorts of ideas emerged. People wanted more civic activities, but given Gaspé’s place on the national stage, there will be elements of national history that will have to stand out. It is still the first meeting place between Indigenous communities and European communities. The beginning of the Francophonie in America was in Gaspé,” maintains the mayor.
Residents also expressed interest in infrastructure legacies and maintaining strong relations with First Nations.
A 500th anniversary celebration committee will soon be formed. “We don’t want to do it at the last minute. We want to train it as far in advance as possible so that we can already start looking for funding, work with the First Nations, with Saint-Malo, which is our twin city in France because of our ties to Jacques Cartier, who left Saint-Malo in 1534. We have several long-term projects,” he adds.
Gaspé has chosen to complete its strategic planning before launching consultations on the future of the land of the former Ministry of Transport service centre downtown and that of the arena.
“We were supposed to launch the consultations at the beginning of the year, but we chose to do them one after the other to avoid people being inundated with surveys,” the mayor explains.
The demolition of the former Minister of Transport (MTQ) buildings was completed in January, with decontamination still to be carried out.
The town is expected to take possession of them at the end of the year or early next year. “The arena property will be fine when there is a financial assistance program that will accept us to build a new arena. We still have a few years before the land is available,” he notes.
The consultation will address both properties. “We don’t want to duplicate. If people choose to build a citizen space on land x, there won’t be two citizen spaces,” explains the elected official.
The survey on the strategic plan is available online until February 28 on the town’s website.