The Eco-quartier program is an environmentally-oriented intiative created in 1995 by the City of Montreal and aimed at the active promotion of recycling, urban cleanliness and the overall embellishment of the city’s public and private properties. Within a few years, Eco-quartiers had been implemented in every district of the former City of Montreal, and they have since become a familiar neighbourhood institution.
Wishing to reach citizens close to their homes and to be a part of their daily lives, the city’s buroughs agreed to use the electoral district as a geographical basis for the implementation of the Eco-quartier program. In fact, the biggest challenge was to reach all of Montreal’s residents, indistinctly of religion, age, race, sex, language or culture. The small size of the electoral sub-districts – on average 12 000 households for 30 000 residents – garanteed that the program would be carried out on a human scale, through direct intervention with the communities’ residents.
The districts were then instructed to entrust the Eco-quartier platform to a local non-profit environmental organisation, which in turn would become the promoter of the Eco-quartier in that particular electoral district. In Parc-Extension, this responsability was passed on to the « Parc Extension Quartier en Santé » round table in 1996, a short time after its incorporation in the community. “In fact, it was during its public forum in 1993 that PEQS clearly stated its priority would be the improvement of the local urban environment”
(Parc Extension News « Améliorer l’environnement urbain », March 26, 1996, p.4)
Parc-Extension is one of the most culturally diverse neighbourhoods in Montreal and perhaps even in Canada. 62% of its residents were born outside Canada – representing 75 distinct cultural communities – and 80% have a native language other than French or English. Furthermore, 52% live under the poverty level, the unemployment rate is up to 20,8%, and 28% of all households receive social security benefits. Learning a new language is but one of the many challenges the neighbourhood’s youth must face when they begin their integration to the Quebec society. Dropping out of school, delinquency and difficulty entering the job market are a few of the consequences of this cross-culturalism that the Eco-Quartier, along with other community organistaions, are faced with and must consider in their daily interventions.
Within the scope of the City of Montreal’s environmental agenda, the Eco-Quartier program is aimed at promoting good eco-citizenship by encouraging Montrealers Dans le cadre de la mission environnementale de la Ville de Montréal, le programme Éco-quartier a pour but de promouvoir l’éco-civisme dans les habitudes de vie des Montréalais en vue d’améliorer leur milieu de vie par des actions environnementales ciblées. In practice, this means organisations are asked to optimise the results of their various green programs by gradually inducing attitudinal and behavioural shifts Concrètement, il est demandé aux organismes d’optimiser le rendement des différents programmes verts en induisant graduellement les changements d’attitude et de comportements préalables à la prise en charge des préoccupations environnementales par les Montréalais.
The Eco-quartier program does not intend to cover all aspects of urban environmental issues. The buroughs have asked the Eco-Quartier coordinators to focus their interventions on three aspects – “re-using and recycling”, “embellishment” and “cleanliness”. La mise en œuvre du programme privilégie une approche centrée sur la sensibilisation, l’information, la formation et la participation directe des résidants à l’amélioration de leur cadre de vie.
Specifically, Parc-Extension’s Eco-quartier has given itself the agenda of raising awareness about the environment and recycling practices among the district’s many different cultural communitites by going door-to-door accompagnied by various interpreters (urdu, punjabi, hindi, tamoul, etc.). Futhermore, by targeting the neighbourhood’s schools, we also focus on environmental education among the district’s youth, who often has much power to influence family behaviour.
Given the overarching goal of the Eco-quartier program to re-use or recycle up to 65% of the city’s domestic waste – and considering Parc-Extension’s demographics – the Eco-Quartier Parc-Extension, with the collaboration of the Public Works Board, has identified several other goals specific to the Villeray/St-Michel/Parc-Extension buroughs:
Recycling
►Pick-up of selected recyclables
1) Conducting surveys of the rolling bins used in buildings, institutions and businesses;
2) Developing performance ratios (both quantitative and qualitative) allowing for a better assessment of results in regards to the afore mentioned goals ;
3) Implementing efficient recycling procedures in buildings of 9 apartment units or more :
- Distribution of green rolling bins
4) Maintaining good recycling habits in buildings of 8 apartment units or less :
- Strenghtening weekly pick-ups by going door-to-door and giving out courtesy slips.
5) Establishing recycling programs in commercial outlets and small business offices :
- Implementation of special cardboard pick-ups.
- Encouraging business owners to participate in an integrated waste management project.
6) Schools, institutions and community organisations
- Further strengthening the implementation of recycling and the efficiency of pick-ups (Plastic, glass, metal, paper, milk boxes).
7) Municipal buildings
- Further strengthening the efficiency of pick-ups (Plastic, glass, metal, paper)
- Insuring follow-ups on complaints at the district councils.
►The St-Michel Eco-centre
- Encourage residents to safely dispose of their hazardous domestic waste by bringing it in to the Eco-centre.
►Seasonal pick-ups
- Promotion of dead-leaf and christmas tree pick-ups, as well as the battery, paint and ink cartrigde disposal service
►Home composting
►Participation in regular street and alley cleaning efforts and in the “Annual Spring Cleaning”
►Annual distribution of flowers and compost
►Promotion of the “Montreal in Bloom” Contest
►Promotion of holiday decorations and the “Magie des lumières” Contest
►To participate in the various neighbourhood concertation tables;
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PEQS (Parc-Extension « Quartier en santé »)
- RAMPE (Parc-Extension’s Urban and Social Development Group)
►To be recognised by Montreal’s leading environmental organisations;
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CRE (Regional Environmental Council)
-RESEQ (The Eco-Quartier Services Group)
►To collaborate and create partnerships with local community organisations;
►To collaborate in the development of promotional tools and informational campaigns and to share ressources and expertise with other organisations, thus sparing our tight budget;
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