Sustainable development
For a few years now, the Morin-Heights Municipal Council has decided to put sustainable development on the agenda as a priority. Here are the main actions already taken and realistic objectives to implement in the next few years.
Should you have ideas and suggestions to make in that respect, please do so at municipalite@morinheights.com
| ACTIONS | OBJECTIVES |
|---|---|
| Since June 2007, Council holds its meetings without paper, so does the Town Planning Committee, since 2008. | Reduce the impact on natural resources. |
| All paper used by the Municipality must be made from post-consumption fibres (at least 30%) | Eliminate 50% of printed memos, accounting documents, reports, etc. |
| Info-Morin-Heights is published on 100% recycled paper. | Publish Info-Morin-Heights online only by 2020. |
| Bring high speed Internet to all areas of the municipality. | Improve communications to the public and increase access to government communications while reducing paper use. |
| A policy aiming at restricting the idle of Municipal vehicles is in force | Reduce pollution and greenhouse gasses. |
| All terrain vehicle and snowmobiles are banned on the territory. | Reduce pollution and greenhouse gassese |
| Door to door recycling collection every other week; collection of the organic waste by 2018. | Give new value to residual matters and reduce garbage going to dump sites. |
| Door to door domestic garbage collection every two weeks during the cold season. | Reduce the amount of waste going to dump sites for as well as the impact of transportation related pollution on greenhouse gasses. |
| Partnership in the Ecocenter. | Improve quantity of recovered residual matters. |
| Collection of batteries and cell phones at the Town hall. | Redirect site hazardous materials away from dump and protect the water table |
| Recyc-frigo Program | Control hydrocarbons and gasses |
| Composting Workshops | Teach how and encourage citizens to compost at home putting clippings and other organic matters to good use. They’re not considered as waste to be disposed of in dump sites. |
| Drinking water conservation awareness program. | Encourage citizens to reduce their water consumption as it is not an unlimited resource. |
| Control measures for periodic emptying of septic tanks. | Protect the underground water table, bodies of water, wetlands and public health. |
| Trail conservation program during the planning of development projects. | |
| Acquisition of 31 acres at Mont Bellevue in the center of the village. Protection and Acquisition Program of cross-country trails. Of the 55 km of municipal territory, 5 square km are protected green spaces, which corresponds to 9% of the territory. The Municipality owns and protects 65 acres of green space on its territory. |
Improve the general quality of life, protect the environment and reduce greenhouse gasses. Increase the quantity of square kilometres of protected space by 5% in the next five years. |
| The Québec Government controls 1 088 and the MRC des Pays-d’en-Haut, 45 acres of green spaces on the Morin-Heights territory. | |
| The Infrastructure Construction Policy establishes strict standards on the control of surface water drainage systems. | Prevent erosion and protect surface water quality. |
| Beaver dams control program | Protect the quality of water and of the infrastructures. |
| Program to control tree cutting | Protect environment and reduce greenhouse gasses. |
| Tree planting program | Protect the environment and reduce greenhouse gasses. |
| The minimal lot dimension is now 4 000 m2 in the non-serviced sectors, and 2000 meters in the partially-serviced sectors. | Control the population density on the territory and visual pollution. Reduce the percentage of deforestation. |
| Construction is prohibited on land where the elevation is superior to 30%. | Protect mountain tops, the integrity of the landscape as well as prevent erosion. |
| Mountain lots must have superior acreage in proportion to the slope. | Prevent erosion and control the density on the territory. |
| Visible constructions from major roads must respect a 15 meter setback from the established slope ridge. | Protect mountain tops, the integrity of the landscape and prevent erosion. |
| The water line setback is established at 15 meters on all the territory whatever the inclination of the shore slope. | Protect shorelines and water quality. |
| No work can be done on waterfront properties within the 15 m setback and constructions must respect a setback of 20 m from the high water mark. | Prevent erosion, natural habitats and indigenous plants. |
| Replanting and control of vegetation on shorelines. | Protect water quality. |
| The use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers is banned. | Protect the water table, bodies of water and public health. |