Creation of a Sustainable Development Action Plan for the Municipality of Saint-Zotique

The Municipality of Saint-Zotique wishes to adopt a sustainable development action plan (SDAP) which will establish a vision and lay a basis for sustainable development that respects natural heritage and the community. Under the leadership of a team of municipal employees and experts in sustainable development, the municipality proposes to preserve the biodiversity of the community using the principles of green and blue belt networks*. These principles will facilitate the responsible management of property development projects, the establishment of industries following the "Benefit Corporation"** trend, and the development of an industrial zone meeting industrial ecology criteria (eg : green roofs, vegetated walls, freshness islands, etc.). At the same time, the work team will develop a general assessment of sustainable development through a set of thematic interviews concerning topics of environmental management, economic development and social reality in order to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the municipality regarding its development. Public consultations with key stakeholders of municipal departments, the economic community, and citizens, will enrich these exchanges by ensuring citizen engagement in a common approach directed towards concrete and achievable measures. A Steering Committee will share the results with an outside firm which will be responsible for refining the vision, strategic directions, objectives, actions, and short-, medium- and long-term indicators of the SDAP. At the same time, the plan will take into account the guidelines of the Saint-Zotique urban plan, the Montreal community sustainable development plan and the government sustainable development strategy 2015-2020. Saint-Zotique has already identified several actions and indicators to be considered when planning: an annual survey of the number of electric charging stations will measure the reduction of GHG emissions; the establishment of new bike paths will be supported by the number of kilometres of cycling networks in comparison to road networks, or via the proportion of the population travelling on foot or bike to work; the implementation of organic residue collection can be measured via the tonnage of waste collected annually. To implement good development practices while promoting healthier living environments, trees will be planted in several streets, and the number of trees planted will be measured in comparison to the number of trees cut each year. After the municipal Council approves the SDAP, each year's progress towards the objectives of the plan will be published on the internet, followed by a report in 2021 describing the percentage of achievement of the targets. (Project description from original funding application)