(Saint-Apollinaire) Jonathan Moreau grew up in a village. Today he is the mayor of a city… and he hasn’t moved!

“In front of my house, when I was little, it was a field. We left by bike and returned at dusk. Now, in front of my parents, it’s a residential area,” says the mayor of Saint-Apollinaire.

The municipality of some 9,000 inhabitants is growing faster than its shadow. Its population increased by 30.4% in five years, between the 2016 and 2021 censuses. It is the city of more than 5,000 inhabitants with the strongest growth in Quebec, the fourth in Canada.

Saint-Apollinaire owes its growth in large part to its location. The city is attached to Highway 20, less than 30 minutes – when there is no congestion – from Lévis and the Pierre-Laporte bridge, which leads to Quebec.

Saint-Apollinaire is not an anomaly. The four other Canadian cities that grew the most between the last two censuses are suburbs on the outskirts of Toronto, Victoria and Winnipeg.

Recent work by a Canadian researcher leaves no doubt: the suburbs are largely dominant in the country, and they are constantly gaining ground.

This professor of urban planning at Queen’s University became obsessed with the suburbs a few years ago. In an interview, he said that he had been consulted as an expert by the federal government. Ottawa wanted to set up an infrastructure fund for public transportation.

“A senior official said: ‘The census just told us that Canada is 82% urban, so we need subways, subways, subways…'”

David Gordon was startled. It was not subways that were needed, but light trains, because it was obvious, in his eyes, that growth was taking place in the suburbs.

The senior official did not give up. He even asked Professor Gordon for figures on the Canadian population living in the suburbs. But these figures did not exist.

The pugnacious academic set out, with his team, to answer this question. It wasn’t easy. It took five years.

He had to comb through all 41 census metropolitan areas. Studying the maps one by one, he and his team divided the metropolitan areas into four zones: “active centres,” where there are many transportation options other than the car; suburbs with well-developed public transit, such as parts of Longueuil; suburbs where the car dominates; and peri-urban areas, almost rural places where more than half of workers commute into the city.

His conclusion? “Canada is two-thirds suburban,” says Mr. Gordon. The latest update of its study, released recently, specifically indicates that 66% of Canadians live in the suburbs.

This phenomenon is not running out of steam. Between 2016 and 2021, 66% of the population increase in metropolitan areas took place in car-dependent suburbs, and 16% in peri-urban areas, even further afield.

Why care about urban sprawl? Experts agree that this phenomenon has significant repercussions on society.

“It’s important for environmental reasons. If we live more in the suburbs, it is certain that we will drive more, emit more CO2, use more space. So, it has an impact on congestion, on agricultural land, social development too, the quality of life, the social fabric…”, lists Fanny Tremblay-Racicot, doctor in urban planning and associate professor at the National School of public administration (ENAP).

“It also has an impact for public authorities. It’s more expensive in infrastructure, more intensive in public infrastructure,” she says.

David Gordon also sees an issue with the aging of the population.

It is clear that, despite government policies with exotic acronyms, although very Quebecois, such as PNAAT or OGAT*, urban sprawl continues.

“For many people, the American way of life with the automobile and the ownership of a single-family home remains a very strong ideal,” notes Gérard Beaudet, professor of urban planning at the University of Montreal. We know that for 90% of families with young children, the ideal is a bungalow. It remains a very powerful ideal. »

There are dozens of new houses growing in Saint-Apollinaire. As we pass by, rue du Geai-Bleu, workers are busy. An entire neighborhood is being born.

A quick search online reveals a brand new semi-detached for sale, with five bedrooms, for $298,000. A godsend in these times. The price of houses in the city is out of reach for the majority of families.

“We won’t hide it, the further away you go, the more affordable the land is. So there are a lot of young families looking for a first home,” notes Jonathan Moreau.

The mayor expects growth similar to that of recent years in the 2026 census. Ultimately, he believes that Saint-Apollinaire can accommodate 13,000 people in its urban area, 4,000 more than today.

“We remain in our white zone. We thought about requesting an extension of our urban perimeter. We know that the rules have been tightened. But the municipality is sensitive to that, not to spread out for nothing,” says the mayor.

“So, we’re doing densification! “, he said. A dozen buildings of 20 units are under construction in the municipality.

But the fact remains that residents here are dependent on cars to get to town. Public transportation options are slim. The mayor would like to connect to the Lévis network. Meanwhile, congestion can be difficult during peak hours.

What does Mayor Jonathan Moreau think of the debates on urban sprawl? He understands the concerns of the experts, but he makes the argument of individual freedom.

“I think that each municipality has a duty to densify and avoid sprawl,” believes Mr. Moreau. But it’s hard to start saying: “You’re going to stay there and you’re going to stay there!” At that point, it’s communism, as far as I’m concerned. People have the freedom to choose, but the impact on the environment must be minimized. That, I agree. »

Professor David Gordon is sympathetic to the individual liberty argument. “I worry because my research is often used by the libertarian right to say, ‘Look, everyone loves suburbs, we should just build more of them, stop worrying about this urban planning stuff.’”

But according to him, this argument is incomplete. The exponential growth of suburbs doesn’t just reflect consumer preference, he says. “It also results from a choice by the government. There are plenty of subsidies and developments that make it easier to use the car and make public transport more difficult. It was thought to be the right thing to do after World War II. We didn’t know it didn’t work.

“As urban planners, we must recognize that this is desired by the majority of the population, but find better options. »