Mitacs Accélération (M. A)

Description

This research focused on philanthropic actions and their impacts in a local development context, namely how the financial capital made available to actors circulates to fund projects that can have a social impact and meet needs within of a community whose territory is devitalized. Thus, with the help of a case study, we sought to better understand the concrete deployment of solidarity finance in terms of the redevelopment of devitalized territories. We did this based on the study of the process of revitalizing the commercial artery of rue Notre-Dame Est within the historic village heart of Pointe-aux-Trembles in the east of Montreal. This district has struggled since the 1980s to find real dynamism despite the efforts of the municipality and local actors. Recently, a process of revitalization of the sector was initiated by the Société de Développement Angus (SDA), a real estate developer, which concluded a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MAMH). This initiative is funded in part by Garantie solidaire and the Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins. With a view to revitalization, the SDA has acquired buildings in the said sector to initiate commercial and residential development. By working with civil society actors active in the Pointelier territory, the objective of the SDA is to instill a lasting dynamism in the heart of the village of old Pointe-aux-Trembles. By the same token, the SDA, in partnership with Entremise, a social economy enterprise, has developed a strategy for the temporary occupation of vacant premises awaiting new constructions to be carried out. This type of revitalization process at the scale of a neighborhood and this type of transitional urban planning experimentation remain poorly documented in the Quebec and Canadian scientific literature.