Courtesy www.easterntownships.org
By Dian Cohen
Local Journalism Initiative
Those of us who live in Quebec’s Eastern Townships (aka Estrie) know how good it can be. We have a selection of universities and colleges to feed our brains and sufficient internet connections to improve ourselves without leaving home. We have one of the best research and teaching hospitals anywhere, several other regional hospitals we should try not to go to and many local health clinics we should work hard to expand. We have a regional airport. Two innovation zones and five poles of excellence provide (relatively) strong economic and business development. We can enjoy an observatory and the first international dark sky reserve for star-gazing. And of course the natural beauty of four national parks and a global reputation for year-round outdoor activities serves us all well.
The Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information (IRIS) wants life here to be even better. IRIS is a 20-year-old, independent non-profit founded to analyze Quebec’s public policies with a view to creating a better life. The Institute recently turned its attention to the Townships. (IRIS: Revenu Viable En Estrie 2024). There’s an amazing difference in the amount of money it takes to live modestly in each of our nine municipal regions (MRCs). The researchers suggest that life could be infinitely more affordable for many of the half-million people who call Estrie home if only a few missing services could be provided. The big question is whether their prescription is possible.
The study looked at three types of households — a single person living alone, a single parent with one pre-school child and a two-parent family with two preschool-aged children. Drawing from both Statistics Canada and Institut de la statistique du Québec, it paints a detailed portrait of life here. In general, Estrie looks much like the rest of Quebec. Except that we’re growing faster because more people are choosing to live here – especially in the municipalities of Saint-Denis-de-Brompton (MRC du Val-Saint-François), Waterville (MRC de Coaticook), Bromont (MRC de Brome-Missisquoi) and Roxton Pond (MRC de La Haute-Yamaska).
We have a stronger manufacturing sector (16.6 percent) than in the rest of Quebec (10.1 percent.) We’re older than Quebec as a whole: while every fifth Quebecer is 65 years old or more, in the Townships, one in four belongs to this age group.
In a city like Bromont, the high concentration of wealthy households pushes up prices for all categories of expenses, including a basket of quality food. A single person needs more than $50,000/year to live there. A household of two adults and two preschool-age children needs nearly $95,000. These amounts are considerably higher than for a single person in Granby ($33,490) or for a family of four in Lac-Mégantic ($71,044). It’s therefore not surprising that relatively few poor people live in Bromont.
In the majority of MRCs, the supply of childcare services, particularly subsidized childcare, doesn’t meet the demand. Even in the two MRCs where supply is slightly higher than demand (Granit and La Haute-Yamaska), there’s a significant lack of places. In other words, to find an available facility, families sometimes have to travel quite far from where they live. Unless there is reliable public transportation, these families need access to a car.
Public transit exists in each MRC, but with the exception of Sherbrooke, it’s intermittent and unreliable. For rural villages, it’s rare to find a shuttle service to bigger towns that have services. La Haute-Yamaska and Coaticook MRCs stand out by the high proportion of their populations who work in their locality. In contrast, the majority of residents in Val-Saint-François and Haut-Saint-François commute outside their local MRC. These are also the MRCs with the fewest people able to get to their jobs in less than 30 minutes. The situation is better for workers in Granit and La Haute-Yamaska Granit and La Haute-Yamaska, where the vast majority have a shorter commute. Sherbrooke stands out for its ability to retain workers on its territory.
That said, there are wide variations within each MRC. In many villages and towns, the absence of local shops, health clinics (dental, medical, etc.) and cultural venues requires travel to varying distances.
All MRCs have public and adapted public and paratransit services. In most cases, you need to book your trip a day in advance. While the service is punctual and predictable, it does not, for example, allow for emergencies such as a child becoming ill at the day-care center while the parent is at work. This not ideal for a single-parent family.
The study suggests than if a public transit network could be established and all families who wanted it could obtain a quality and affordable childcare place near their home, single-parent families as well as households of two adults and two children in Granby, or even in Cowansville, could consider a life without a car, thus making living more comfortable on a modest income.
Considering the times in which we live – namely the unsettling and often terrifying demands coming from the president of the United States — we can be appreciative that the researchers at IRIS have produced such an interesting portrait of our home region. As for their suggestions for more taxpayer-funded childcare spaces and public transit, it’s possible that more childcare spaces could be created some time in the future – perhaps after the federal and provincial debts have been paid down a bit. It’s unlikely that affordable public transportation can be established in a land area where the population density is only 31 souls/km2 — minimal density at least 10 times this number is necessary.
For now, let’s give ourselves a little pat on the back and savour our good fortune to be living in this particularly well-endowed and relatively peaceful corner of the world.