A small town in the Quebec Montérégie region is trying a novel approach to help mitigate climate change impacts and accelerate community ecology.
From 2025, housing owners in Saint-Amable, which., Approximately 40 kilometers east of Montreal, they are charged an annual area of $ 200 if they do not have at least a leaf and deciduous tree in their front courtyard in their front courtyard
The general manager of Saint-Amable, Jean-Sébastien Ménard, said a recent report from the Laval University that showed the high vulnerability and exposure of extreme heat events.
Ménard said the report was a call for attention.
“It was like a blow,” he said.
Ménard said the ecological tax was established to encourage residents to adopt more ecological behaviors and plant more trees.
The trees, he said, are necessary to combat the phenomenon of the heat islands.
Heat islands can lead to the deterioration of air quality and can also negatively affect human health and well -being, increasing the burden of health centers.
The money raised by the tax is reinvirming in ecology initiatives in the municipality, Ménard said.
The new urban developments often lack trees
At first glance, it could be surprising to discover that a small city with a population of 13,322, located between the agricultural fields, is dealing with heat islands. But a closer look reveals the real problem.
“There is a definitive defect of great trees,” said David Wees, professor of the Faculty of the Department of Sciences of the Veglas of the University of McGill.
He added that it is not uncommon in the new urban developments.
According to Centris.CA, an online real estate brokerage website, 45 percent of the houses in the area were built after the year 2000, including 14 percent that were built after 2011.
“This is a new suburb,” Wees said. “And although it is true, there are many Céspedes, large trees have a much greater impact on the weather than the Céspedes.”
Saint-Amable, which., East of Montreal, is enforcing a long-date rule that the properties must have at least one deciduous tree in its patio as a way to help mitigate the impact of the heat islands in the community.
What is happening, he said, is that all the streets, all the parking lots and all the ceilings of the buildings are absorbing solar radiation during the day and radiates it again at night so that the air heats up.
Trees help reduce air temperature by providing shadow and water evaporating, but that’s not all they do.
He said that trees have other benefits, such as reducing wind speed, absorbing certain air pollutants and capturing rainwater.
“So every time it rains, instead of all that rain that enter the wastewater, the sewers of the plant or flood the houses of the people, the trees absorb large portions,” he said.
Tax on trees ‘makes sense’
In the context of encouraging people to plant more trees on their properties, Wees said that Saint-amable approach is good and will make the long-term difference.
“It definitely makes sense,” he said. “It is less punitive than giving fines for people who do not plant trees.”
Ménard said, however, the main impetus for the tax was to accelerate the ecology process.
“We need to double our canopy.” He said: “We have a lot to do.”
While Ménard said that the rule of a tree is not new, never before was observed or enforced.
Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension residents will be able to send projects to replace concrete in their neighborhood with green spaces. The mayor of the city, Laurence Lalonde, says that the ‘Goodbye Béton’ initiative is part of the solution to combat heat islands, deal with strong rains and recover the loss of biodiversity.
The use of a more traditional approach for people to comply, he added, would have required the inspectors to go to the field, write notices, emit fines and “then are often in court,” said Ménard. “It is a long process.”
Instead, the city associated with the Mapeo Yakarto service and used artificial intelligence, sending small vehicles equipped with cameras to upload and lower the streets of the neighborhood to detect the presence of trees.
That was done in 2024 with notices sent to approximately 1,200 properties that were found that they did not meet. Of these, 800 took the necessary steps to plant a tree, said Ménard.
The plan is to send the vehicles again this spring
Growth pain
While Ménard is promoting the success of the initiative, there have been some problems with its implementation.
Caroline Skucas said she was a bit confused when she received a notice from the city saying that she did not comply with the rules.
“There really was no space to negotiate. We have a huge tree on the front and say: ‘Oh, it has to be in the back,” he said.
Skucas ended up two apple trees, but said he felt it was an imposition.
She said that there is not much space in her backyard, and with the big tree in the front and a hedge of cedar around the property, she would not have chosen to add more trees.
Ménard clarified that in certain cases, such as when a house is in a corner of the street, there will be trees requirements for parts of the patio in front of the public street, even if it is at the back.
The type of tree tree plant is also important, with Ménard specifying that the bushes do not qualify as trees.
Wees agreed that it made sense.
“If your main objective is to reduce the effect of the island of heat, the larger, the better,” he said. “More leaves, more shadow, and so on.”
Despite some potholes along the way, Ménard said that he is confident that at the end of the year, all the remaining properties will meet the trees.
He added that the municipality is also doing its part by planting 12,000 trees in public lands.
