Lake Megantic Quebec - Building a city does not consist solely of erecting buildings.
 
That's the easy part.
 
Building cities requires first and foremost the creation of a culture and mindset, the creation of a common vision that unites citizens, investors, and promoters in achieving a shared objective.
 
On 6 Jul 2018 Lake Megantic will commemorate the fifth anniversary of the train derailment that destroyed the downtown area.
 
The accident left deep scars, many of which are still healing.
 
The process of healing a population that has suffered a major trauma requires time.
 
It requires that each individual and part of the community be empowered to help create something bigger than itself.
 
This process was vastly underestimated in the wake of the tragedy, which contributed in many ways to the indecision, hesitation, and false starts that characterized the first years post-disaster.
 
Lake Megantic aspires to become "the largest of the small towns," rebuilding itself on three pillars, energy transition, creative and cultural entrepreneurship, and lessons learned from the tragedy.
 
The reality is Lake Megantic has not yet been able to create the necessary momentum to rebuild, although a snowball effect seems to be on the verge of being triggered, thanks to a convergence of factors including new leadership.
 
Since the disaster, projects emerged independently from one another and not within a shared and coherent vision.
 
The consequence of this individualistic approach has been to compromise the realization of projects.
 
This explains why the downtown area remains largely unbuilt.
 
Indeed, the town of Lake Megantic is only now, with a new administration elected this past November, taking on the leadership in defining its vision for reconstruction.
 
This important change redefines the role of the town as being critical for economic development.
 
Lake Megantic is emerging as a breeding ground for innovation in energy transition in Quebec and Canada, by hosting the first micro-grid in Quebec.
 
This investment of nearly $10 million by Hydro-Quebec represents a unique opportunity to invent the city of tomorrow.
 
In partnership with the region's entrepreneurship centre, the Centre Magnetique, Lake Megantic is developing an accelerator for startups working in energy transition.
 
One of the latent strengths of the Lake Megantic region is the emergence of artisans.
 
The handmade business sector is booming locally and internationally.
 
These creative companies have the capacity to contribute to a new form of industrial development.
 
This win-win collaboration allows the industrialist to tap into the creativity of the craftsmen and the craftsmen to benefit from the network and expertise to grow their businesses.
 
As well, Lake Megantic is seeking to support those who wish to develop projects based on the lessons learned from the tragedy and reconstruction process.
 
The recent announcement by governments that a new segment of the rail line will bypass the centre of the town is an additional gesture that puts the past behind.
 
Five years after the train derailment that caused the destruction of the downtown area and claimed 47 lives, the momentum for reconstruction is finally on the rise.
 
With a vision being clearly articulated, investors, promoters, and citizens are uniting, mitigating risk, and working together.
 
The main lesson about the reconstruction process is that in building a city anew, from scratch, there is no substitute for a well-defined and unified vision and concept.
 
Working collaboratively on imagining the city of the future served first as a healing and therapeutic exercise and now is clearly emerging as the road map for Lake Megantic's reconstruction.
 
Bernard d'Arche.