What to watch in Trois-Rivières in 2025

The elections

The event to watch in 2025 in Trois-Rivières and in other municipalities in Quebec is undoubtedly the elections of November 2. Will the announced departure of Jean Lamarche be the small push that will convince some potential candidates to take the plunge? Already, the councilor and head of Trois-Rivières Ville Forte, Pascale Albernhe-Lahaie, as well as former host Catherine Gaudreault have confirmed their presence on the starting line of the electoral campaign. Councilor Dany Carpentier and former mayoral candidate Jean-François Aubin are still in discussions. In addition, we still do not know who the Action Trois-Rivières party will try to seat in Jean Lamarche’s chair. Another big unknown in these elections: what will the participation rate be? It was a whopping 36% in Trois-Rivières in 2021.

Homelessness

Homelessness continues to grow in Trois-Rivières. We will have to see if the two winter stops will be enough to meet needs and if their activities will cause friction with the neighborhood. The Point de rue organization’s sweet spot is back on Royale Street, in downtown Trois-Rivières. For its part, Le Havre has set up a new heat stop on rue Fusey, in the Cap-de-la-Madeleine sector. Located next to a CPE on Laviolette Street, Tandem Mauricie will probably try to move again in the next year. He is still looking for premises. Could it accommodate an Overdose Prevention Site (ODS) at a new location? The CIUSSS MCQ wishes to hold an SPS pilot project in Trois-Rivières, but no site has yet been formally identified.

The housing crisis

Even if the vacancy rate increased from 0.4 to 0.9% in 2024, the housing crisis remains a glaring problem in Trois-Rivières. Construction is running at full speed, but the number of social and affordable housing remains insufficient. Projects saw the light of day in 2024, such as the 179 affordable housing units for L’UTILE students and the Waska Witcihitowin community living environment. In 2025, we will have to monitor whether Trois-Rivières will move forward with the zoning change at Girard Park which would allow it to expand its social housing pool. Several projects are expected to be completed in 2025, including a building of 29 social housing units at the entrance to the city center, 60 affordable housing units on the site of the former Sainte-Marie-Madeleine church and ten supervised housing units in the Le Citadin district.

The Quebec Games

It will be a party in Trois-Rivières from July 25 to August 2, 2025, for the 59th Final of the Quebec Games. Some 3,500 athletes, aged 12 to 17, will arrive in town. A study estimated the economic impact of the last final of the Quebec Games, held in Sherbrooke, at $19 million. The provincial government is granting five million dollars to host cities to modernize their sports infrastructures. In 2026, this amount increases to six million. Trois-Rivières would have liked to benefit from this addition of one million, but it seems that this will not be the case. Seven competition venues are planned. The challenges therefore promise to be significant, whether in terms of budget, recruitment of volunteers or logistics.

The 1250 gates of Marthelinois

This real estate project risks still generating a lot of discussion in 2025. Around 1,250 housing units could be built on the Golf le Marthelinois land, located in Sainte-Marthe-du-Cap. This development could include single-family homes, semi-detached homes, buildings with four units, five to eight units, as well as 13 to 32 units. Other meetings are planned this winter on this subject. It remains to be seen whether it will succeed in alleviating the concerns of residents in the area, who are concerned about the impacts of this project in particular on the tranquility of the neighborhood, their quality of life, traffic and the state of the water table.

Water

A major project will begin in Saint-Louis-de-France to optimize wastewater treatment. The first stage, which requires investments of $24 million, includes the renovation of the pumping stations. Other work related to wastewater, this time in the west of the city, should be announced in 2025. The City also wants to improve stormwater management in the Trois-Rivières-Ouest sector. If all goes as planned, work to reprofile the Lacerte River will begin in 2025. Finally, Quebec requires that Municipalities reduce residential consumption of drinking water by September 1, 2025. Thus, it would not be surprising if the City announces a ban on watering lawns with drinking water in the coming months.

Openings

Two and a half years after its catastrophic closure due to the state of its structure, it is expected that the Jérôme-Cotnoir arena will once again be able to welcome skaters for the 2025-2026 season. The Exhibition swimming pool, for its part, will return to bathers this summer, after its closure in 2024. However, it will be inaccessible again in 2026 for the last stage of its renovation. The brand new swimming pool on Saint-Quentin Island and its bathers’ pavilion should be inaugurated in time for the Quebec Games. Other projects will be interesting to follow in 2025: the new police station and the reconstruction of the Seigneurs pavilion which will however only be at the plans and specifications stage, as well as the work in room J.- Antonio-Thompson, which will be closed all year round. Furthermore, uncertainty hangs over the aquatic complex project while Trois-Rivières was refused a major subsidy.

Transportation

The Société de transport de Trois-Rivières (STTR) is among the first in class in Quebec. Its ridership is increasing, and social pricing is very successful. It has several projects in its pipeline, such as increasing the frequency of certain journeys and better service to the outskirts. But will she have the means to achieve her ambitions? The question of the registration tax will undoubtedly come back on the table in 2025. Furthermore, traffic continues to increase and traffic jams are increasing, to the great dismay of Trois-Rivières residents. Some elected officials will undoubtedly argue that public transportation is part of the solution. In addition, the year 2025 could be decisive for the bicycle bridge project under the Radisson Bridge. Another file: high-frequency or high-speed trains. Will we see concrete progress or only promises?

The Bellemare Group

The Bellemare Group expects to obtain the authorizations required by the Ministry of the Environment to continue certain of its activities at Vieilles-Forges in the coming months. This would put an end to the order issued in October by the ministry, which prohibits its subsidiaries, Sable des Forges and SDF Abrasif, from receiving aggregates. Already part of this order was suspended by the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec in November. We will also have to see if the company will be able to carry out all its projects related to the recycling and revaluation of glass even if its zoning request was rejected by the municipal council in July.

Crime

Crime has been on the rise in Trois-Rivières since 2021. The results are not yet available, but everything suggests that this will still be the case in 2024. The conflict between criminal bikers and other gangs has had repercussions in the regional capital, even if it was not as affected as other municipalities in Quebec. The month of November was particularly eventful when Trois-Rivières was the scene of at least 12 arson attacks, compared to an average of around four to five per month. However, over the year as a whole, their number remains comparable to that of 2023. There were also at least three events involving a firearm in November, which is usually extremely rare in Trois-Rivières.