Canal de Soulanges
Concours de projet pour l’aménagement culturel et paysager du Parc du canal de Soulanges
The MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges and the ministère de la Culture et des Communications are launching the Concours de projet pour l’aménagement culturel et paysager du Parc du canal de Soulanges. This national competition will allow the design of a vision of enhancement anchored in the environment and carried by the population. The canal de Soulanges, which in its time was a revolutionary construction in terms of hydraulics and technology, is today a remarkable landscape entity.
To prepare, initiate and supervise the competition, the MRC retained the services of landscape architect Isabelle Giasson of the firm EVOQ Architecture. In the past, Ms. Giasson has directed some fifteen projects that have received awards of excellence for the enhancement of heritage sites, the urban revitalization of public areas and the implementation strategy for master plans.
Contest steps
The project competition will be held in two stages. The first stage will determine the top three proposals from among all those submitted by March 4, 2021. In the second stage, the finalist teams will be asked to further develop and refine their ideas. The winner of the competition, to be announced in July 2021, will then be given the mandate to develop a master development plan for the Parc du canal de Soulanges. The proposals and services will be evaluated by an eight-member jury chaired by Philippe Lupien, professor at the École de design de l’UQM, architect, landscape architect and host of the program Visite libre on Télé-Québec.
- The first stage of the competition includes a category reserved for university students. The winning student team will be awarded a $1,000 prize.
If you have any questions about the contest, you can contact us by e-mail at concourscanalsoulanges@mrcvs.ca.
Finalist team
The MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges is proud to announce the finalists for the project competition for the cultural and landscape development of the canal de Soulanges Park launched last January. All of the anonymous proposals received were evaluated according to the evaluation criteria set out in the competition rules by a jury made up of professionals from several fields.
The three finalist teams are as follows:
- BC2 Groupe conseil inc.;
- Fahey et associés in collaboration with Félix Dagenais;
- Collectif Escargo in collaboration with Geneviève Murray.
These finalist teams will now move on to the second stage of the competition in which they will have to develop their ideas further while integrating the vision of the citizens following the survey that was conducted by the MRC and its partners and that collected the comments of more than 800 respondents. The MRC of Vaudreuil-Soulanges has already held a meeting with the finalists in order to present important historical elements related to the canal as well as the results of the consultations to ensure that the final proposals of the candidates will respect the spirit of the canal site as well as the citizens’ vision.
The winner of the contest
After deliberations by the eight-member jury, presided over by Philippe Lupien, professor at the UQAM School of Design, the team composed of Collectif Escargo in collaboration with Rousseau Lefebvre and Geneviève Murray, museologist and cultural project management consultant, won the competition with its proposal Passengers.
Based on the theme of travel, Passengers is a 23-kilometre journey full of surprises that encourages visitors to return. Each stop becomes an adventure, a precious moment, an opportunity to learn an unusual fact, to see nature in a different way or to experience an amazing collective event.
Signature of the agreement with the ministère des Transports du Québec
The MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the ministère des Transports du Québec and the municipalities of Pointe-des-Cascades, Les Cèdres, Coteau-du-Lac and Les Coteaux have signed agreements that officially allow the transformation of the canla de Soulanges and its surroundings into a regional park. This gesture, mainly administrative, allows the MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges and its municipalities to realize more actions around the canal de Soulanges. It is following this agreement that it was possible to establish the regional park of the canal de Soulanges.
The establishment of the Société de gestion du canal de Soulanges
In order to ensure the day-to-day management of the new Soulanges Canal Regional Park, the MRC established the Société de gestion du canal de Soulanges, a non-profit organization. The Société will manage operations such as the maintenance of the works and grounds, the supervision and organization of events, the application of the park’s regulations and will develop and implement the park’s master plan.
The Board of Directors is composed of the general managers of the four municipalities crossed by the canal, as well as representatives from the cultural, tourism and river sectors. Mrs. Marianne Sigouin-Lebel of Développement Vaudreuil-Soulanges is the director.
Administrateurs du premier conseil d’administration du Parc du canal de Soulanges
Comité exécutif :
- Présidente : Madame Karina Verdon, directrice générale, Ville de Coteau-du-Lac
- Vice-président : Monsieur Jimmy Poulin, directeur général, Municipalité des Cèdres
- Trésorière : Monsieur Serge Raymond, directeur général, Municipalité de Pointe-des-Cascades
- Secrétaire : Madame Pamela Nantel, directrice générale, Municipalité des Coteaux
Administrateurs :
- Monsieur Daniel Bissonnette, directeur général, Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges
- Madame Linda Strong Gallant, copropriétaire, Auberge, Spa et Sucrerie des Gallant
- Madame Sylvie Bissonnette, copropriétaire et v-p opérations, Vignoble de Pomone
- Monsieur Claude Desjardins, propriétaire, Traverse Oka-Hudson
Observateurs :
- Madame Joanne Brunet, directrice générale, Développement Vaudreuil-Soulanges
- Monsieur Guy-Lin Beaudoin, directeur général, MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges
The Parc du canal de Soulanges officially becomes the signature project of the MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges
The MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges is pleased to announce that it has received a grant of $2,515,835 from the Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation (MAMH) as part of the Fonds régions et ruralités volet 3 – Projets « Signature innovation » des MRC. This funding, in addition to the $545,000 invested by the MRC, will be used to support the establishment and development of the new Parc du canal de Soulanges.
The financial participation of the MAMH will allow, among other things, to support the creation of the Parc du canal de Soulanges organization, the improvement of recreational facilities as well as the implementation of new activities and infrastructures along the canal and the Soulanges bicycle path. These actions will be guided by the first-ever Plan d’aménagement culturel et paysager du Parc du canal de Soulanges, which will be delivered in the summer of 2022, following an architectural competition conducted in collaboration with the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec in 2021. Under the name Passagers, the plan and the resulting projects promise visitors and citizens a memorable experience based on the valorization of industrial, architectural, ecological and landscape heritage.
Comité directeur de l'entente dans le cadre du FRR volet 3
- Monsieur Guy-Lin Beaudoin, directeur général, MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges
- Madame Joanne Brunet, directrice générale, Développement Vaudreuil-Soulanges
- Madame Suzane Dickey, représentante de la direction régionale du MAMH
- Madame Sophie-Ève Despaties, représentante du ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ)
- Madame Emmanuelle Guay, représentante de la direction régionale de la Culture et des Communications (MCC)