MINUTES — PUBLIC – Gatineau, Healthy City Commission – 3rd meeting – May 9, 2024 – 9:02 a.m. to 11:26 a.m.

5. Public question period

Nathalie Gaudet represents the organization Gatineau sans pesticides (GSP). GSP welcomes the City's adoption of the new bylaw regulating cosmetic pesticides on residential properties. Many cities in Quebec now have a bylaw due to probable links between pesticides and numerous diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's disease, and developmental problems in children. For GSP, Gatineau's bylaw does not go far enough to protect the population's health. New pesticides, often just as harmful, are replacing those that are banned. GSP wishes for the City to adopt a rigorous bylaw that truly protects the health of the population. In this perspective, two questions are asked to the CGVS:

• Can the Commission include pesticides as health issues for Gatineau residents in its priorities? • Can GSP collaborate with this Commission to help improve this bylaw, for the well-being of the entire community?

Exchanges take place regarding examples of regulations from other cities. The mobilization carried out by the organization over several years is acknowledged. It is interesting that the question of environmental health is being posed to the CGVS.

Responses will be sent to the organization at a later date.

8. Enjoy the Summer — Gatineau, an inclusive city

The document Profite de l’été 2024 is presented. Members received the document before the meeting. The objective of the presentation is to inform about:

1. The initiatives and steps currently being carried out in connection with the CGVS mandate regarding equity and universal accessibility;
2. The initiatives and steps currently being carried out in connection with the strategy to build safe communities.

Profite de l’été is a summer program taking place in parks. It integrates cultural, leisure, sports, and outdoor activities. In 2023, more than 800 activities were carried out in outdoor public spaces in all sectors of the city of Gatineau. The programming includes weekly activities in the form of courses, workshops, entertainment, and small events that meet the needs and interests of the entire population. The categories of activities are:

• Cultural Cube; • Library activities; • Heritage activities; • Shows, festivals, and events; • Family activities; • Group courses.

Stéphanie Ayotte joins the meeting at 10:20 a.m.

In 2024, an enhancement of the programming was made to add activities from the Youth Commission. An offer of activities targeted for seniors and persons with disabilities was also made; adapted measures are in place. The programming will begin on May 30 and end on September 30. 80% of the programming will take place during the months of July and August in the five sectors of the city. It will be launched on May 23 at Place Laval.

The parks targeted by the strategy to build safe communities will benefit from special programming, especially at the adolescent level, in order to revitalize these environments.

The presentation gives rise to the following comments, questions, or clarifications:

• Will activities address food and gardening issues? It is specified that the Community Garden Program exists, but it is not necessarily aligned with the Profite de l’été programming. During certain events, the collective kitchens group offers a workshop on gardening or collective kitchens. The suggestion is noted for future years. • The programming will be on Adogatineau.ca. • Neighborhood associations can post their programming in the calendar on the city's website.

Being dependent on the weather (smog, alerts, storms, rain, humidity, and heat), a City monitoring team is in place to see to the cancellations or modifications of planned activities. The standards are not the same within organizations. It is therefore difficult to include all summer programming in that of Profite de l’été. This question will be examined later.

9. Presentation of the social portrait of the Outaouais Development Observatory for the City of Gatineau (ODO)

The document Optimiser les décisions grâce au Portrait des communautés de l’Outaouais is presented. This is an update of the community portrait with new data available, among others, from the 2021 Statistique Canada census. Members received the document at the beginning of the meeting. The objective of the presentation is to inform members about the components of the community portrait. It aims to:

• Encourage initiatives in response to identified needs; • Improve people's quality of life; • Contribute to the dynamism of communities.

The process surrounding the development of the portrait is more than statistical; it consists of a process aimed at supporting communities and their actors in socio-community development. The community portrait stems from an approach aimed at mobilizing communities. The main idea is to meet with social development actors to know what challenges they face (homelessness, crime prevention, planning of recreational infrastructure, modification of psychosocial interventions, etc.), how to meet them, and to collect a set of statistical data for this purpose. It includes 115 communities, including 76 in Gatineau. These communities are of a size of approximately 3,000 to 5,000 people. Each portrait includes: a booklet (demographic and socioeconomic particularities; complementary characteristics on the state of health and well-being of the population; indices summarizing and positioning the development of the community) as well as a dashboard that provides complementary information in the form of raw data differentiated by sex for more than forty indicators.

The online publication of the community portrait including all processed data will be done by the end of August 2024. A visit to the ODO website allows choosing from about forty indicators helping to understand the state of the community in relation to them.

Sylvie Lafontaine leaves the meeting at 10:57 a.m. The quorum is maintained.

There will be a knowledge transfer stage consisting of presentations of about twenty minutes followed by two-hour workshops to use the community portrait as a decision-making tool. This stage will be followed by meetings with actors, citizens, and community leaders to ask them what things make them proud, what things they would like to change, and how to achieve them. This therefore means holding 115 citizen meetings that will allow for a qualitative portrait highlighting the strengths and potential of the communities from which work to improve their well-being can be carried out.

Steve Moran leaves the meeting at 11:06 a.m. The quorum is maintained.

As for Gatineau, the City has the will to survey each of the communities.

The presentation gives rise to the following comments, questions, or clarifications:

• Does the portrait differ from the one previously produced? It is mentioned that there are very few differences between them. • The division of communities respects the delimitation of urban villages, the places where the population goes to obtain services, all while respecting the limits of the RCMs. • Holding citizen meetings will require the collaboration of all partners. • Will the communities be met individually or will they be paired? It is specified that both ways of proceeding are possible. One only has to contact the ODO when opportunities arise. • In the education sector, the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) index is used for school catchment areas. How can the school environment use the data? What is the added value compared to what already exists? It is mentioned that the data allows for a better understanding of the social fabric surrounding school environments.