At the Vaudreuil-Dorion City Council meeting held on Monday, October 16, District 3 - Des Bâtisseurs Councillor Jasmine Sharma tabled a motion to mandate the city's general management to analyze and propose eco-taxation tools to achieve the city's environmental objectives in terms of sustainable mobility and control of urbanization and its impacts. Ms. Sharma's proposal was unanimously adopted by the Board.

Councillor Sharma indicated she was delighted by her colleagues’ willingness to implement development practices that take environmental impacts into account. In her esteem, it was a good first step in the right direction. 

“I’m pleased my motion was supported by Town Council, and I’m eager to hear what the Director General’s findings are and which avenues he suggests we explore. Meanwhile, I hope to meet with residents who are taking action on the environmental front as well as organizations such as Mères au front and the Mouvement d’action régional en environnement (MARE) to talk about some of the things we should be working toward together. If you want to be part of this initiative, please let me know,”said Sharma, whose political priorities are largely informed by sustainability concerns. 

Ecofiscal measures are defined by the Quebec government as “a range of economic instruments to discourage activities that are harmful to the environment, encourage activities that are beneficial to it, and to foster innovation.” 

These measures are based on cost internalization, polluter-pays and user-pays principles. They can include incentives, such asuser fee structures that reward lower consumption and tax exemptions, as well as disincentives, such as taxes. Councillor Sharma stressed that the Vaudreuil-Dorion must use the right tools to be able to determine which projects are sufficiently forward-thinking and aligned with its environmental agenda. 

This is consistent with the City’s 2020–2025 strategic plan, which reflects a clear commitment to fighting climate change, and its environmental policy, the main focus of which is adaptation and resilience to these impacts.

Councillor Sharma feels strongly that it is high time for Vaudreuil-Dorion to follow the growing trend toward ecofiscal policy that is being seen elsewhere in Quebec, the rest of Canada and around the world.

“Recent climate events alone should be enough to spur us into action and get us to embrace best practices in climate change adaptation. But we need to have the means to act on our convictions, specifically by being able to tap into the insights ofother Quebec municipalities that have already introduced these kinds of programs. The Ministère des Finances and the Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ) have also published studies and guides to encourage municipal administrations to move forward in this direction. I am convinced that this is precisely what Vaudreuil-Dorion needs to do. The hour has come for us to set measures like these in motion to ensure the sustainable development of our community.”