Citizen Consultation Prior to the Opening of the REM for the Saint-Laurent Borough

Large-scale consultation: Challenges and issues

The citizen consultation exercise conducted jointly between Saint-Laurent's Communications team and Intervia involved a major issue: the large number of people affected by this project (approximately 39,169) spread over very specific sectors. This context ruled out the possibility of using a mass communication approach so as not to bias the results of the study. A particularly complex challenge was the language barrier, as a portion of the population consulted spoke neither French nor English. This called for the use of specific communication channels and the collaboration of local organizations to enable us to reach a representative sample.

Various communication tools were set up in a fairly short time. The final objective was to collect a significant number of responses to the survey created for the project, the analysis of which would make it possible to determine the sectors where the SRRR stickers would be implemented. In addition to traditional communication tools (postcards, advertising in the local newsletter, publications on Saint-Laurent's social networks), a consultation evening was organized for each sector targeted to inform the citizens concerned homogeneously. One of our liaison officers was also mobilized to collect all requests and questions from residents by email and phone. Finally, door-to-door canvassing was implemented in the sectors with the lowest response rates so as to reach the target sample.

At the end of the survey period, our teams were able to provide a precise analysis of the data collected using geomatics, and thus provide Saint-Laurent with the data necessary for its final decision-making.

Community relations: meeting the population’s needs beyond the right-of-way of a construction site.

Although our services related to the community and the social acceptability of projects are mainly intended for construction sites in urban areas, they are not exclusive to this type of mandate. In fact, the issue of mobility within cities must consider projects that do not always have a physical right of way, but touch on more diverse issues such as the consultation described above. Parking and traffic issues on residential streets that have become transit streets due to the development of a major mode of public transit such as the REM have a lot to do with mobility and must be resolved with all the agility available to our communication experts.