Developing the Eastern Sector of Quebec: Mayor Calls for Government Support

2023-10-12 20:25:59

BRUGES | The mayor of Quebec minimizes the consequences of abandoning the InnoVitam project and expects the Quebec government to help financially develop the eastern sector of the city.

The Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, confirmed to Radio-Canada that the government would not move forward with the establishment of an innovation zone in the eastern district of the city, a project that the municipality had named “InnoVitam”, but which had been in decline for several months. It is “not relevant,” and there are other projects for the Quebec region, the minister told the state corporation.

For Mayor Bruno Marchand, this does not mean that the City will not develop the eastern sector or that it decontaminated 15 lots there for nothing.

Funding

“We are going to develop this sector. We will do it. It is a sector of the future. Now, the question of financing, whether it’s called InnoVitam or Machin owl, for me, what’s important is that the government supports us. When Mr. Fitzgibbon says that there are going to be other projects in Quebec, we are going to work on him and we are going to take him at his word, and we are going to expect that it will be in Quebec.”

The minister cited the Rabaska land in Lévis. This worries the leader of the opposition, Claude Villeneuve, who fears that Lévis will take precedence over the capital. From Bruges, where he is on mission, the mayor reacted.

Not overtaken by Lévis

“You have to lack self-confidence to think that you are being overtaken by Lévis. Quebec is a capital, it has more than its lion’s share. And that Lévis is developing, that’s a good thing.”

The land had to be decontaminated, anyway, specifies the mayor. “Decontamination makes it possible to create housing and parks that cannot be created on contaminated land.”

He now expects concrete actions from the government. “Money from the Quebec government to support economic development is important.”

Asked Thursday regarding the abandonment of Innnovitam, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, affirmed “that there are many projects” for the greater Capitale-Nationale region.

She cited the Metropolitan Economic Zone whose goal is “to attract investments, businesses, foreign students and major events” to Quebec and Lévis.

– With the collaboration of Taïeb Moalla

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