Victoriaville shows muscle. Faced with the prospect of seeing the Société Alcoholique du Québec (SAQ) branch leave downtown, the municipality announces it will adopt a bylaw to block the government company’s path.
What to know:
- The Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) wants to move its branch from downtown Victoriaville to a suburban area.
- The mayor of Tardif, Antoine Tardif, publicly denounced the state company’s decision last week, considering it to be in complete contradiction to government guidelines regarding land use planning.
- In fact, in its National Policy for Architecture and Land Use Planning (PNAAT), Quebec advocates the importance of revitalizing regional city centres.
During the municipal council meeting on Monday evening, Mayor Antoine Tardif presented a draft regulation that could be adopted in mid-October in order to amend the municipal zoning.
This amendment will have the effect of “prohibiting businesses whose use is solely related to the sale of alcoholic products except in the areas that make up the city center and the regional commercial center located along Arthabasca Street.”
In other words, everywhere except the two SAQ branches in Victoriaville that currently exist.
“As elected municipal officials, we have the ability to develop our lands according to our zoning regulations to determine the different uses we see for different types of businesses,” Antoine Terdiif explained in a speech to the municipal council.
He continued: “In this case, we clearly define the places where we see companies specializing in the sale of alcoholic products developing in our territories.”
SAQ stands by its positions
The announcement comes after a public outing by him last week to denounce the planned move of the SAQ branch from his municipality’s city center to a peripheral area, This is a decision by the public company that completely contradicts the government’s orientations regarding territorial development, he said.
However, the city’s tactics, announced Monday evening, did not appear to have shaken the SAQ. Crown spokeswoman Genevieve Cormier confirmed it still intends to move forward with relocating the downtown branch.
“We understand and take into account the concerns of the Mayor of Victoriaville. However, we maintain our intent, because the environment we seek when establishing the SAQ branch remains at the heart of our customers’ shopping journey, integrated with the food product sales areas.
Crown has not indicated whether it would consider challenging the new regulation in court if Victoriaville does go ahead.
Court test
If so, there is a high probability that the regulation will end up in court, where it could easily be invalidated, estimates Municonseil’s lead lawyer, Mario Paul Hus, who has about forty years of experience in domestic law.
“We always say that municipal regulation should not target just one person. […] “Adopting a measure that prevents the SAQ from taking action does not pass the test,” he says, explaining that attention must be given to the way regulations are written.
The City of Victoriaville explains that it consulted legal experts before submitting this draft bylaw and says it is confident of its legality.
A mechanism has also been provided to allow exceptions to the rule for a pub, for example, wishing to establish itself outside the city center boundary. It is enough for the promoters to submit their project to the City Planning Commission, which studies them on a case-by-case basis and can recommend some of them.
Appeal to the Minister
The Victoriaville Municipal Council also appealed to Municipal Affairs Minister Andre Laforest to intervene in the matter on Monday evening.
Elected municipal officials adopted a motion asking Legault’s government to urgently amend the law Governance law for government companies In order to force SAQ and its associates to respect its directions regarding land use planning.
The office of Finance Minister and SAQ head Eric Girard announced on Tuesday that no such adjustment was planned.
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