St. Charles River Society

The beautiful St-Charles River is the main river flowing through Quebec City. Acting as a natural backbone, the river dissects the city along its north-south axis. From its source at St-Charles Lake, the St-Charles rivers runs 32 kilometres through three Quebec City boroughs, the Cartier-Brébeuf National Historic Site, and Wendake First Nations. Now a popular natural recreational space central to life in the city, one might not suspect that less than fifty years ago it was a concrete banked, garbage-filled river.

The effort to renaturalize the river began in the 1990s, led by a motivated group of citizens in collaboration with the City of Quebec. There were strong feelings amongst all local players, from government to citizens, to remediate and clean up the river and its surrounding park. The City of Quebec underwent massive infrastructure work, and when the initial management of the site was complete in 2008, the question remained as how to move forward with upkeep, maintenance, and animation. From the City’s perspective, handing this job to private enterprise was not an ideal course of action due to the context of the natural environment setting, but keeping this work under the City’s public service umbrella wasn’t feasible due to budgetary constraints. Different community and economic development organizations got together to open and promote the space, and in November 2000 the Société de la Rivière St-Charles was formed.

Park People spoke with Guillaume Auclair, Director of Operations at the Société de la Rivière St-Charles and Jacques Grantham, former Quebec City Manager of Services for the Environment, about this mutually beneficial arrangement between a municipality and a non-profit for upkeep and maintenance of the St Charles River Linear Park.

The Société de la Rivière St-Charles is a non-profit organization that works to highlight and promote the St Charles River, its linear park, and its heritage to residents and tourists through park management, animations, and awareness activities while respecting sustainability principles.

As a non-profit organization, the Société de la Rivière St-Charles started out its relationship with the City on a small scale, without any formal agreements. In the first years after its founding, the City offered the Société de la Rivière St-Charles small contracts for very specific jobs. The first contract was in 2002 for the Chantier Urbain program--a program which engaged marginalized youth through employment opportunities maintaining the park trails, with the assistance of a park technician. Over time, the relationship between the Société de la Rivière St-Charles and the City of Quebec strengthened, and became one of trust. “The relationship started small, as the river re-naturalization process wasn’t complete. The City wasn’t going to give the Société a mandate for the entire site, so we started with smaller projects.” states Jacques “With time, the trust between the two entities increased. The Société de la Rivière St-Charles maintained its position as a group of action, collaborating with the City and focused on the river, as opposed to a political pressure group.”

In 2005, the Société de la Rivière St-Charles signed their first contract with the City of Québec to maintain the linear park trails. Since then, they have expanded their services to include waste management, horticultural services and winter maintenance, and now are the main maintenance service provider to the City of Quebec. They also plan events, manage an environmental brigade, run a cross-country ski program and an environmental water patrol to advise residents and businesses along the river.

The Board of Directors plays a key role in shaping the activities of the Société de la Rivière St-Charles. This team is made up of 11 volunteers, who dedicate their time to guiding the organization, including putting work into guiding principles and a strategic plan. “The board of directors is comprised solely of volunteers who provide their expertise and advice. It's as beneficial to the City as it is to the organization. The Société has always helped move things forward, in collaboration with the City.”

The Société de la Rivière St-Charles signs contracts with the City of Quebec for its park maintenance services and does not receive traditional municipal grants or subsidies. This working relationship allows the Société de la Rivière St-Charles to have private contracts with the City. The City can give the Société de la Rivière St-Charles service mandates without seeking outside contractors, however they do need to maintain an exceptional level of quality of service. “It is hugely beneficial to have these types of agreements,” Guillaume comments, “but we do have to stay competitive in this active market and maintain a high level of quality in our work because the City could easily look for other providers.”

Providing excellent quality of work for the City is a constantly evolving process for the Société de la Rivière St-Charles. This is managed through maintaining a high level of organizational skill and expertise to respond to the needs of the City, as well as placing importance on employee retention within the organisation. When asked for advice for other growing nonprofits, Guillaume advises: “As a non-profit, we aren’t able to offer very competitive salaries, but we try to offer other benefits. Employee retention is very important”. Things like health insurance, ample vacation and sick time, as well as a positive work environment, all help with employee retention. The team leaders who return year after year understand their job, what needs to be done, and how they can perform their tasks efficiently and precisely.

The Société de la Rivière St-Charles now has 10 year-round staff and about 35 seasonal staff, and their operating budget is around $1 million. The majority of this budget comes from municipal contracts, but a percentage also comes from grants, independent revenue and service agreements with Parks Canada.

In order to maintain a larger group of year-round permanent employees, they are now looking for ways to increase their activities and services in the winter. By developing these new skills and offerings, the Société de la Rivière St-Charles also hopes that the City will have even more confidence in their work and their working relationship will build.

There are numerous benefits to having a non-profit involved in the river’s maintenance, animation and upkeep. “First off, we get more value for our money. The non-profit can access subsidies that the City couldn’t,” explains Jacques. There are also benefits for the social economy. The river flows through many communities on its 32 kilometre journey, including underserved neighbourhoods. Having a non-profit involved in the management helps mobilize people where they live. There are opportunities created for local employment, volunteering, and community engagement.

The majority of the Société de la Rivière St-Charles’s contracts with the City are three years in duration, meaning that they have good medium-term financial stability. They have also developed working relationships with Parks Canada, for the management of the Cartier-Brébeuf National Historic Site, and with Wendake First Nations.

“The City works directly with the Société” states Jacques. They align their views on big decisions concerning the river.  Having daily contact is key due to how the fragile natural system is susceptible to many environmental factors, such as erosion and pollution. The Société de la Rivière St-Charles and the City see eye-to-eye in the importance of these matters. However, this shared viewpoint does need to be constantly worked on and shouldn’t be taken for granted. Jacques emphasizes that “For this relationship to survive, there needs to be a political commitment and a government that understands the crucial role of this non-profit and the importance of this natural environment.”

Both Guillaume and Jacques agree that the skills developed over the past 16 years have enabled the Société de la Rivière St-Charles to provide services tasks that the City of Quebec cannot do themselves. The work of the Société de la Rivière St-Charles has helped transform the park into a desirable place for City of Quebec residents to work, live and enjoy.

• A shared vision for the river enables the City and the Société de la Rivière St-Charles to continue to work towards the maintenance of this beautiful natural feature.
• A dedicated volunteer Board of Directors, from the local community, creates a long term vision and goals for the Société de la Rivière St-Charles.
• Start small-in the first years, the City of Quebec offered the Société de la Rivière St-Charles small contracts for very specific jobs.
• Involving the local community on the rivers shores is important to the success of the project.  The ongoing involvement of diverse communities inhabiting different areas along the river allows opportunities for civic engagement and for communities to connect to their natural environment.
• The Société de la Rivière St-Charles places high importance on providing an exceptional service-and retaining their trusted employees- in order to continue the working relationship with the City of Quebec.
• Employee retention is key to exceptional service by the Société de la Rivière St-Charles. Offering employees benefits and other incentives, as well as positive work environment and consistent work hours, allows the Société de la Rivière St-Charles to retain valuable staff.