View the original article in BâtiVert magazine
By Yves-Olivier Palardy, Urban Planner, Director of Urban Planning and Guillaume Gilbert, Urban Planner, Associate Vice President
Recent decades have left a legacy of several issues related to how we have planned our territory. Urban sprawl, the proliferation of heat islands, and automobile-centered city design are all challenges that complicate coherent planning interventions. Added to these issues is a problem long neglected but now unavoidable: the lack of dialogue between the capacity of drinking water supply and wastewater treatment infrastructure, and development and densification objectives in a context where climate change is altering precipitation patterns and aquifer recharge processes, influencing their behavior and storage capacity.
This inconsistency has led to critical situations. The case of Saint-Lin–Laurentides, where water deliveries by tanker truck were necessary as early as 2018 to serve the housing stock, clearly illustrates this phenomenon. Although widely publicized, this situation is not isolated: several Quebec municipalities must deal with the consequences of past omissions.
These findings underscore the urgency of integrating these considerations upstream of projects, rather than intervening in reactive mode, and this, from the perspective of genuine sustainable development.
A Planning Shift Across Quebec Territory: New Government Guidelines
The Government Land Use Planning Guidelines (OGAT), in effect since December 1, 2024, emphasize this issue. Guideline 2, entitled “Ensure the conservation of ecosystems and focus on sustainable and integrated water resource management,” now requires RCMs in all groups to:
- assess water needs to support territorial development over a 30-year horizon;
- identify potential sources to meet the needs of current and future projects.
It should be noted that with Bill 16, sanctioned in 2023, the Act respecting land use planning and development now requires that urban plans include measures to protect and ensure the availability of water resources. These legislative changes confirm the strategic importance of these considerations in land use planning and make them mandatory in the planning of municipal territories.
A Stricter Environmental Protection Regime
In addition to modifications to certain land use planning tools, the environmental authorization regime and regulations relating to municipal wastewater treatment facilities governed by the Environment Quality Act have also undergone major changes. Their now stricter framework (for certain cases) imposes additional standards and significantly limits overflows from certain facilities.
Legislative modifications, both at the land use planning level and in the environmental protection regime, combined with climate change, highlight major issues for municipalities and the management of their water resources. Rather than viewing these changes as generators of isolated crises, they should be seen as revealing a profound transformation of practices and responsibilities. This “perfect storm” underscores the importance of adopting a proactive and integrated approach, where anticipating needs and strategic land use planning become essential to ensure the resilience and sustainability of territories.
Two Approaches to the Same Issue: APUR’s Experience
To illustrate the scope of these issues, two implementation strategies by APUR are presented below. One was developed in response to a critical situation, while the other is based on proactive anticipation.
Case 1: Saint-Lin–Laurentides – Controlling Development in the Face of a Crisis
Located in the RCM of Montcalm (Lanaudière), the City of Saint-Lin–Laurentides experienced rapid growth, far exceeding the capacity of its infrastructure. As early as 2018, water deliveries by tanker trucks were necessary to maintain a minimum level in the water supply network, to avoid rationing for certain sectors.
Faced with this situation, elected officials had to decide: continue development in a booming market or impose a moratorium to correct course. The City opted for caution by adopting an interim control bylaw, drafted by APUR, limiting the issuance of permits for construction requiring new service connections. This moratorium, extended until 2027, stabilized the situation despite the commissioning of a new drinking water production plant in 2025. New measures to ensure the availability of water resources in sufficient capacity are currently being analyzed and will ensure its sustainability.
This case demonstrates that tools exist to manage a crisis, but it primarily underscores the need to integrate the issue of water supply from the land use planning phase.
Case 2: Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu – Aligning Urban Intensification with Infrastructure Capacity
In 2023, the City of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu undertook a revision of its planning framework, while updating the list of structural and priority municipal projects for its downtown. This approach aimed to ensure the coherence of interventions and promote accelerated redevelopment that respects a human scale.[1] The City thus launched the revision of its downtown special planning area.
In accordance with the amendments to the Act respecting land use planning and development by Bill 16, particular attention was paid to aligning territorial densification with the capacity of municipal infrastructure, particularly those related to wastewater treatment. Rather than reacting to a crisis situation, the City chose to anticipate needs and plan development taking into account the limits and potential of infrastructure.
Collaborative work between the Infrastructure and Water Management Service (SIGE) and the urban planning department made it possible to define priority development sectors and deferred sectors, thus establishing a vision for urban intensification in the medium and long term. This approach made it possible to “free up” certain strategic areas of the territory for short-term densification, while ensuring harmonious and controlled evolution of the urban fabric.
The revised regulatory framework authorizes the accommodation of new housing, businesses, and community facilities, based on the capacity of existing infrastructure and work planned by SIGE, which will ultimately make the vision a reality. A permutation mechanism then allows for adjusting territorial intensification without compromising the overall planning of urban form.
Conclusion
Aligning infrastructure capacity with land use planning is no longer an option: it is an essential condition for sustainable and coherent development. New regulatory requirements provide a structural framework, but their effectiveness will depend on the ability of local stakeholders to anticipate needs and integrate these considerations into their strategic decisions.
[1] City of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. “Downtown Special Planning Area.” Accessed at https://imagine.sjsr.ca/centre-ville