“What are citizen initiatives in suburban and peri-urban areas in Quebec about? What funding supports them? What can we learn from them? This report presents the results of a first database on citizen and non-profit organisations initiatives in suburban and peri-urban areas of Montreal and Quebec City in 2020-2022. The objectives are to give visibility to citizen actions in the suburbs, and to better understand the targeted themes and funding sources.”
“The results are as follows. Two themes clearly stand out as more important in terms of the number of initiatives: that of the protection of natural environments and biodiversity (87 initiatives, for 47% of the total) and that of the socio-ecological transition (34 initiatives, for 18% of the total). These are also the two most important themes of the unincorporated citizen groups, which also mobilize on food systems, while other issues are less present, such as mobility and the built environment. Very few of the initiatives listed link their actions to issues of inequality, social or environmental equity (16%).
The Chair’s new report, “Citizens’ Initiatives on the Environment and the Socio-Ecological Transition in Suburban and Peri-urban Settings” was co-authored by Agathe Parent Corriveau, Éric Bégin, Hélène Madénian and Sophie L. Van Neste. The document demonstrates the dynamism of citizen initiatives in the suburbs and the importance of the theme of protecting natural environments and biodiversity.