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Q&A: Mayor Jean-Maurice Matte, Town of Senneterre, Québec |  |
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For me, a sustainable community is one that is dynamic, and to which the residents have a strong sense of belonging. A sustainable community is also a combination of economic, community, social and environmental activities —activities that are first and foremost based on the needs of the citizen. Q: What are the main challenges facing the town at the moment? What makes it different from other communities in the region? Right now, our greatest challenge is to face up to the economic crisis. Our local economy is mainly based on the development of natural resources, which is now an industry in crisis. What makes us different from neighbouring communities facing the same problems is our willingness to diversify our economy. I am thinking of our thermal park project, which is enabling us to develop other sectors of the economy, in particular the agri-food, agro-industry and fish farming sectors. Since the turn of the century, the town has also had the services of a full-time mayor and full-time elected officials, whose main priority is to ensure sustainable economic development for the town of Senneterre. Q: Your town has launched a number of new initiatives in the last couple of years. What is the initiative that you are most proud of? Our largest project here in Senneterre is obviously the thermal park (website available in French only). This type of project is unique in Québec. It is completely in line with provincial and federal government thinking, and it also meets the needs of our residents. The thermal park is a project that recovers waste heat. It recovers excess heat from the Boralex Power Income Fund’s cogeneration unit in Senneterre so that the energy can be redistributed to farming, agri-food, agro-industrial and processing companies. For example, with a thermal potential of 63 million kilocalories per hour, 25 hectares of greenhouses can be heated. These greenhouses are used to grow eggplants, cantaloupes, zucchini, and Asian vegetables. We are particularly proud of this project, as it enables us to diversify the local economy. Here in the Abitibi–Témiscamingue region, the climate is an obstacle to agriculture. A study showed us that certain agri-food products would generate significant profits for the local economy. The thermal park is a solution to numerous problems: it creates jobs, diversifies our economy, and opens doors to new markets in the region. It also meets our sustainable development and industrial ecology needs. Q: How did you get the community to take part? Fortunately for us, the community got on board immediately. The residents recognized the willingness of the elected officials to move forward and, as there were positive economic benefits to the project such as job creation and the development of a new local economy, there was no hesitation from our residents in supporting the town’s initiatives. Q: What barriers did the project face and how did you overcome them? Our biggest barrier for the thermal park was to convince Boralex and the other investors to support the project. In times of crisis there is often a tendency to put aside projects that are a little out of the ordinary. But we used convincing arguments to get them on our side: job creation, economic benefits, carbon credits and the importance of going green. One element was very important in convincing our investors to move ahead: the financial support we received from FCM’s Green Municipal Fund and the Government of Québec’s support fund for single-industry municipalities (le Fonds d’aide aux municipalités mono-industrielles). Q: What advice would you give to other municipalities interested in undertaking a similar project? You have to harness heat or energy sources that are poorly used to make them more efficient in terms of energy consumption. Every region of Québec should have its own biomass-powered cogeneration unit. The energy generated by this unit could be used, for example, to supply electricity for a greenhouse. This would enable municipal economies to become more local and make use of products that meet the needs of a regional market. Q: In what way is this project unique in Québec and in Canada? Thermal parks have been done before in Europe, in Canada and in Québec. What makes this project unique is its magnitude and its location. Abitibi-Témiscamingue provides an excellent quality of life for its residents. However, the climate and the soil do not encourage crop diversity. Thanks to the thermal park, some fruits and vegetables that were not traditionally grown in the region will now be available. Q: How do you keep the momentum going? How do you sustain your sustainability efforts? At the moment, our emphasis is on the thermal park and all its components. We have made that the priority in Senneterre. As our regional municipality, the MRC de la Vallée-de-l’Or (website available in French only), is responsible for several infrastructure sectors, such as waste, we have been able to concentrate all our energy on this project. 
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