GENEVA | Quebec City is one of the “precursor” cities in terms of urban health, according to a leader of the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Also read: Quebec Tramway: an imminent announcement, believes Mayor Bruno Marchand
• Also read: Fight against climate change: Mayor Bruno Marchand insists on the importance of “city diplomacy”
This is what Nathalie Roebbel, urban health team leader at the WHO, said Monday afternoon after a 90-minute meeting with the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand.
“We see in the current commitment of the town hall an intensification of this need. The main reason for organizing this meeting is that the City of Quebec has, to its credit, important experiences in addressing urban health,” she said.
According to her, the main merit of Quebec is to have “identified major urban health issues for the population”, but also “to use a certain number of strategies to advance its urban health policy”.
The latter, however, recognized that municipal administrations often encounter difficulties when trying to bring together services and partners “who do not always speak the same language” in a rather new area of intervention.
Offer health
Bruno Marchand’s visit to Switzerland is marked by this health issue, even if cities are obviously not intended to administer the health system. According to the mayor of Quebec, incentives to encourage citizens to integrate active mobility into their lives contribute greatly to the physical and psychological well-being of the population, which would make it possible to lighten the heavy burden carried by a health system very much in demand.
Satisfied with his meeting at the WHO, Mr. Marchand reiterated that “when we develop a city, we can offer health, we can avoid accidents, we can offer active mobility so that people are in better shape” .
Present at this same meeting, professor and researcher from Laval University Jean-Pierre Després affirmed that “the socio-economic model that we have given ourselves literally creates people who will develop chronic social illnesses such as abdominal obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases…”
Advocating a radical change in the ways of measuring “vital signs of lifestyle”, Mr. Després also estimated that greater involvement of cities can greatly contribute to improving the situation.
Do you have any information to share with us about this story?
Write to us at or call us directly at 1 800-63SCOOP.
