Year after year, Lévis “pulverizes” its real estate construction forecasts. Between 2023 and 2025, the Municipality planned 6,000 new units. It will be almost 9,000 new addresses, the city calculates today.
But this “demographic explosion” has a price, and above all, a very concrete effect on municipal infrastructures, which are struggling to keep up.
Due to lack of capacity in the wastewater treatment plants in at least two of the three districts, Lévis must put the brakes on its densification.
Gilles Lehouillier promises to present measures aimed at limiting the number of new construction sites in the coming weeks. “But it’s clear […] that we are going to ask the promoters to take a small break», summarized the elected official at a press briefing.
The wastewater filtration plants serving the Desjardins and Saint-Nicolas neighborhoods are almost at full capacity. (123RF/123RF)
The mayor of Lévis specifies that this is not a complete moratorium on new real estate projects, but rather a slowdown. “We will still have interesting growth,” he promised.
The Director General of the Municipality clarified that the lack of capacity of wastewater treatment plants will have no impact on the citizen.
“There will be no flushing problem […] There will be no repression created by this situation either, he insisted. It’s really the factory that will have to go out of its way to achieve compliance.”
Poor planning and bigger debt
The leader of the opposition at city hall and Repensons Lévis candidate for mayor, Serge Bonin, judges that the announced slowdown is proof that the Lehouillier administration has failed in its planning obligations.
“This is the thing that we have been reporting for a long time, that we are witnessing […] We have reached 3,200 new units this year, while there are 850 planned in the development plan, he emphasizes.
The leader of Repensons Lévis and mayoral candidate for the opposition, Serge Bonin.
(Caroline Grégoire/Archives Le Soleil)
“There is something that is not working […] We were not able to say no to certain people,” adds Mr. Bonin.
“It’s not necessarily a good thing to be first on the growth chart.”
— Serge Bonin, chef and candidate for mayor of Repensons Lévis
The head of Repensons Lévis fears that the massive investments and the catching up which is necessary today will increase the debt of the municipality, and at the same time the tax bill of Lévis residents.
“When we take out loans, we put more projects on the debt […] Everyone will have to pay the bill,” concludes Serge Bonin.
500 million by 2029
Mr. Lehouillier, who has piloted the development of Lévis since 2013, defends himself against the opposition’s accusations of poor planning.
The mayor points to the scarcity of housing in Lévis to explain the decision to authorize the construction of more units than planned each year.
“I remind you that we still have 1% availability of housing in Lévis,” he insisted. We’re missing it.”
“We took a tangent resolutely in favor of development.”
— Gilles Lehouillier, mayor of Lévis
As proof that he was not taken by surprise, the mayor highlights the major investments in infrastructure initiated in the last year by the Municipality.
The mayor of Lévis assures that the reduction in the coming rate is not due to poor management of permit requests. (Jocelyn Riendeau/Archives, Le Soleil)
Some 170 million have already been injected to upgrade certain equipment, including the water treatment system, and Lévis plans to invest 500 million for these purposes by 2025.
“Since 2021, we have had a plan to deal with the situation in terms of infrastructure […] In a few years, within two or three years, we will be able to meet our needs for the next 25 years.”
Gilles Lehouillier also promises that the next five-year capital plan (PQI), which must be presented shortly, will focus on the enhancement and maintenance of municipal services.
Lévis is not the only city to have to slow down residential construction. In recent weeks, Gatineau has had to decree a moratorium on new housing due to lack of capacity in its infrastructure.
Other municipalities are on the verge of doing the same thing, according to Mayor Lehouillier’s office.
