Sept-Îles, April 2, 2024 – Last fall the Port of Sept-Îles launched an ambitious public consultation and invited the community to share its hopes and dreams for the future of the port lands in the lower part of the city. Today the Port is proud to release its summary report (in French) on the PSI website and social media (PSI consultation summary document).
An interactive platform for constructive dialogue
The Port set up a dedicated platform for the consultation with a Q&A module and idea box to collect people’s concerns, suggestions and ideas.
“We’d like to thank the people of Sept-Îles for their response,” said Port of Sept-Îles President and CEO Pierre Gagnon. “In all, the platform logged an impressive 6,819 visitors. And those visitors registered a total of 729 votes on the 55 projects submitted. The number of participants was much higher than we expected. It just goes to show how deeply our community cares about the development of the lower part of town.”
New ideas for a promising future
The contributions highlighted several priorities—enhancing urban and natural spaces, developing culture and the arts, promoting environmental awareness and sustainability, strengthening tourism and recreation, and improving public infrastructure and services. Together, the ideas proposed attest to a collective desire for a more integrated and greener vision of future development in Sept-Îles.
An international movement
The Port’s approach aims to establish and maintain a dialogue with the community and reflects a growing international movement in port cities worldwide. Bruno Delsalle is the general manager of AIVP, a worldwide reference association that supports joint city–port sustainable development strategies. For him, relations between the city and the port must always be citizen-centred.
“All around the world, the city–port–citizen–business dialogue is a key driver in building sustainable port cities that deliver economic performance while at the same time controlling and reducing environmental impacts and creating an outstanding living environment. This initiative is very much part of that trend. Not only do I welcome it—I’m convinced that some of the ideas put forward by residents for public spaces and facilities can really bring the city and port together.
Ongoing engagement and upcoming projects
The Port of Sept-Îles is committed to incorporating as many of the suggestions as possible into its development projects. It is equally committed to maintaining an open and constructive dialogue with the local population to ensure that future projects line up with the hopes, dreams and needs of the community it serves.
“Our goal,” said Port of Sept-Îles CEO and Chair of the Board Bernard Lynch, “is to incorporate as many of the ideas and concepts submitted as we can in our development plans. We’ll be making some tangible announcements soon regarding initiatives that will constitute the heart of what we do this spring.”
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ABOUT THE PORT OF SEPT-ÎLES
Boasting diverse, state-of-the-art facilities, the Port of Sept-Îles is North America’s largest ore-handling port, with a projected volume for 2024 of more than 40 million metric tons. It is also recognized as the largest primary aluminum port terminal in the Americas in terms of operational volume. The facilities at the Port of Sept-Îles play a vital and strategic role in the economy of Eastern Canada. The Port is also deeply committed to sustainable development and has pioneered the first environmental observatory on the St. Lawrence to monitor the marine ecosystem as well as a research chair with Université Laval to study coastal ecosystems and port operations.
ABOUT AIVP
The mission of the International Association of Cities and Ports (AIVP) is to improve city–port relations by promoting dialogue and cooperation between local communities, port authorities, citizens and economic operators. Today AIVP has close to 200 member cities around the world, all working to make dialogue between ports and cities the foundation of their urban, port and economic development projects. Because port cities are frontline actors in sustainable development, AIVP’s 2030 Agenda provides them with a framework that affirms each city’s uniqueness while allowing them to experiment with and implement concrete and innovative solutions.
Sources:
Frédérick Jolicoeur-Tétreault
Communications and Public Relations Director
Port of Sept-Îles
Phone: 418-965-3764
ftetreault@portsi.com
Bruno Delsalle
Executive Director
AIVP
Phone: +33 2 35 42 76 14
bdelsalle@aivp.org