Châteauguay : on a mission for the environment

The City of Châteauguay has had an environmental advisor on its staff for almost a year. In this era of climate change, Marilyne Robidoux has a busy schedule, organizing environmental activities for the general public and helping the municipality’s various departments take a greener approach.

Translation Amanda Bennett

According to Châteauguay Mayor Eric Allard, hiring Marilyne Robidoux is the “greatest gesture for the environment” that the current municipal council has made since the last election. “She offers us another perspective. It was essential to have even more environmentally conscious input in our thinking and decision-making,” he said in an interview.

Her first few months were spent analyzing what was already being done on the environment in Châteauguay. Since then, the environmental advisor has been providing support to the public works and civic life departments when it comes to organizing activities such as the distribution of rain barrels and the upcoming riverbank clean-up.

Her mandate is ensuring that sustainable development guidelines are incorporated into the projects undertaken and the choices made in the municipality’s various departments.

“I’d like to set up an ecological transition plan to be able to put specific actions in place with deadlines,” she explains.

Everyone is responsible

She believes that both municipalities and individual citizens have a responsibility in the fight against climate change.

 “We have to be able to come up with regulations that impose certain environmentally friendly changes but from the bottom up, if we sort our waste better, if we are more careful about our consumption of drinking water, there are a whole host of actions that can benefit the environment,” pointed out Marilyne Robidoux.

The Water Challenge

The management of drinking water, wastewater and rainwater is unsurprisingly one of Châteauguay’s top priorities for the environmental consultant.

Reducing wastage is one solution. Another is increasing water absorption capacity which can reduce pressure on the municipality’s infrastructure. “Creating areas where water can be absorbed so that it can enter the water table and then be purged for drinking, or so that it can simply run off into the river, would avoid it having to go through the water treatment plant, which entails enormous costs,” she explained.

Another priority for the municipal employee is to ensure a diversified canopy. Adequate forest cover reduces heat islands, she pointed out. Châteauguay has lost many of its most common tree species to the emerald ash borer. To avoid another infestation of this kind, towns need to plant a wider variety of trees.

Concerns For 2024

The Mayor of Châteauguay told the newspaper that he was worried about water because of the low water levels of the river and Lake Saint-Louis. “We haven’t had much snow this year. The result is that the river and Lake Saint-Louis are low. That’s where we get our water for drinking,” he pointed out. The city is working on a drinking water awareness campaign and is counting on residents’ support. “A lot of people say: ‘I pay taxes, I don’t mind, I’ll just waste it,’ but we’re beyond that. Taking care of our environment is important,” asserted Mr. Allard.