Prepare your succession… or your campaign
The return from the holiday break does not promise to be easy for the mayor of Lévis.
Gilles Lehouillier will quickly have to plunge back into the political game, since he has promised to announce his intentions for the municipal elections in January 2025.
His decision to run again or not has been awaited for months by the media, but also by members of his team and potential candidates who are thinking about running for mayor.
The latest news was that the politician who has been mayor since 2013 said he still had not made a decision. However, he mentioned that he still wanted to get into politics.
If he were to bow out, he will still have to participate in the process of selecting his successor at the head of Lévis Force 10. Otherwise, he will have to prepare his own campaign for mayor.
Defending the management of recent years
The electoral context of 2025 will undoubtedly force Gilles Lehouillier to defend his record of the last four years, or even the last 12 if he decides to run for one more mandate.
These were marked by rapid demographic, economic and real estate development in Lévis, the result of “pro-development” policies proudly put forward by the mayor.
The last few years have been marked by the buildings that have sprung up along the main boulevards of Lévis. (Jocelyn Riendeau/Archives Le Soleil)
But rapid growth also comes with significant challenges. The Lehouillier administration was, for example, forced to prohibit the issuance of new construction permits in a large part of the territory of Lévis, due to lack of wastewater treatment capacity.
Several other services, such as schools, roads and sports and cultural infrastructures, are also struggling to keep pace.
Gilles Lehouillier and his team will have to demonstrate how the development of recent years has contributed to improving the quality of life of Lévis residents and explain their management of growth, while the business community and political opponents respectively denounce a “lack of foresight” and a “loss of control” of development by the administration in place.
The support of Lévis residents for the densification of their city is critical while major economic development projects are on the horizon, with the modernization of the Davie shipyard and the potential industrial exploitation of part of the Rabaska land.
Finding “the right recipe” to make promoters pay
After the last budgetary episode, where Lévis had to amend its 2025 budget a few days after its adoption, the Lehouillier administration will have to find a way to pass on part of the development bill to developers.
The mayor has been promising to do so since last February, and believed he had found part of the solution in a surtax on vacant land, which was expected to bring in around 12 million to Lévis.
But he had to give it up after a warning from the minister and protest from the business community, outraged at having to pay a surcharge on land where development is prohibited.
The Director General of the City of Lévis, Dominic Deslauriers, and Mayor Gilles Lehouillier, during the adoption of the moratorium on the issuance of permits, on November 29. (Caroline Grégoire/Archives Le Soleil)
Gilles Lehouillier therefore reduced the municipal investment plan and cash payments to compensate for this shortfall.
He is now counting on a committee formed with the chamber of commerce and organizations representing developers to find “the right tax recipe” that makes developers pay the price of the densification of Lévis. This could involve a lump sum amount like “price at the door”, for example.
In any case, the fruits of the tax measures that will be designated will not reach the City’s coffers before January 1, 2026.
Resolving transportation issues
Gilles Lehouillier and his team will also have to find a way to resolve the episodes of road congestion which are increasingly frequent on the South Shore.
Among other things, he will have to defend the management and planning of work as well as decisions regarding public transportation.
While Lévis residents say they are quite dissatisfied with mobility in their city, Repensons Lévis promises to make it a central theme of the next electoral campaign.
The mayor of Lévis will also have to clarify his vision on mobility in the Quebec region.
On the eve of the holidays, Gilles Lehouillier published a letter severely criticizing the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and its CITÉ plan, which notably proposes the development of a rapid bus service in Lévis.
Gilles Lehouillier criticized the organization for having presented a vision “100% focused on public transportation” which would not be worth the price, according to him. He also called into question the integrity and impartiality of the Fund.
The mayor, faithful defender of the third link, fears that the CITÉ project will empty the pockets of the Quebec government, and prevent or delay the completion of the highway link.
“We will let the mayor explain the words of his letter and present his vision of mobility for the city of Lévis,” the office of Minister Geneviève Guilbault responded curtly.
Maintaining your relationship with Quebec
Another of Mayor Lehouillier’s projects will be to establish bridges with the Legault government.
In the last month, Mayor Lehouillier has not spared his criticism of the CAQ in the matter of the third link, even if Quebec has returned to its highway promise.
In the last year, Gilles Lehouillier has increased his criticism of the Legault government, especially in the third link issue. (Yan Doublet/Archives Le Soleil)
After throwing flowers to the conservatives of Éric Duhaime on the subject, the elected Lévisian questioned the influence of the CAQ ministers of Quebec and Lévis, inviting them to “continue dreaming”.
In interview with The Sunthe mayor of Lévis accused Quebec of throwing “a lure” to citizens who want a new bridge. “It’s an illusion because there is nothing. It’s not included in any plan, it’s nowhere.”
Gilles Lehouillier says he is not afraid of alienating Quebec in the third link issue, where the government will inevitably have the last word.
For what? “Because the questions I ask are the questions that the population asks themselves […] When they see the plan cited, people see that the motorway link is not attached anywhere. He’s like in the clouds.”
