Canada/Rouyn-Noranda wants more greenery on its territory

The City of Rouyn-Noranda wants to green its urban perimeter.

This week, the municipal council authorized the submission of a grant application for $345,000 under Section 1 of the OASIS program of the Ministère de l'Environnement, de la Lutte aux Changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs.

The grant is intended to support the Gestion durable du territoire et stratégie structurante de verdissement project.

Rouyn-Noranda's deputy mayor, Samuelle Ramsay-Houle, points out that the city must submit a grant application for each of the three components of the government's OASIS program.

The Ministry of the Environment tells us: "You have to have submitted projects for Component 1 to be eligible for Component 2 and Component 3."Stream 1 is really a planning and ideation phase, while Stream 2 is an implementation phase, and Stream 3 is more about sustaining green infrastructure. You have to go in order," she explains.

For example, Ms. Ramsay-Houle says it's too early to say what kind of improvements could be made with the money received.

There's really a lot of work to be done, just to upgrade our green infrastructure. If we want to envisage a massive greening of the urban core and even outlying areas, we need to do it in an organized way, we need to equip ourselves with working tools that are adapted to our needs. Just think of a software program for inventorying trees and woodlands on our territory. We need functional tools," she says.

Identifying vulnerabilities

The deputy mayor maintains that the funds requested under Component 1 of the program will be used in particular to identify the main greening needs on the city's urban territory.

It's really going to be used to see where our vulnerabilities are on the territory. Where and how we could benefit from more greening," she explains.

Among the benefits sought by the city through greening, Samuelle Ramsay-Houle immediately mentions the reduction of heat islands.

That's what the OASIS program is all about [...] but we know that there are lots of co-benefits to greening. So there could also be vulnerabilities in terms of soil erosion and stormwater management. So all this will be included in the same analysis to identify priorities for intervention," she explains.

If its grant application for OASIS component 1 is successful, the city will then have until the end of 2025 to apply for the second component of the program.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca/