Responsible Development for the Municipality of Sainte-Louise

The Municipality of Sainte-Louise is a rural community of 704 inhabitants and wants to develop a sustainability action plan for its territory in order to optimize its limited resources and inspire the community to transform its economy and way of life for a more sustainable, responsible future. The project will be headed by the mayor and three volunteers from the environment, responsible development and beautification committee (CEDRE) and the youth committee which is already involved in planning the ideal municipality. Inspired by a shared vision of responsible municipal development, the municipality will develop objectives based on the themes of biodiversity, climate change, land use, waste, water, energy, transportation planning, contaminated sites, economy, well-being, culture and recreation. Energy use in Sainte-Louise will also be studied by a teacher who is a CEDRE member and his students at a college in La Pocatière. The municipality will implement a concrete action plan based on a triple bottom line of economic, environmental and social benefits with monitoring indicators and a reporting process. Key municipal and paramunicipal stakeholders will be involved throughout the process. The public will also be consulted to enable residents to work on the various parts of the action plan. Sainte-Louise hopes to show that it is possible for very small municipalities to plan for sustainability. The municipality plans to share its knowledge by producing a project guide with specific tools that will be circulated to other municipalities in the MRC de l’Islet (rural county municipality, RCM) and in Quebec. (Project description from original funding application)