A word from FGM – November 2024

The Vital Signs are reports produced by community foundations in cities across Canada. They measure the vitality of their communities, assess major trends, and use key indicators to identify priority actions in all areas determining quality of life. Through its Vital Signs of Greater Montreal series of reports, the Foundation of Greater Montréal (FGM) aims to inform, bring together, and encourage our community to take action on the most important issues facing us. By collecting and disseminating reliable, contextualized data on the state of our community, we hope to stimulate reflection and support collaboration and the development of solutions that address these issues.

Through its work marshaling philanthropy to support the well-being of the most marginalized populations in Greater Montreal, FGM has an inside view of the impacts of territorial inequities on quality of life. The places where poverty and social exclusion and isolation are most widespread are, inevitably, the areas with the least access to nature, public spaces, and community infrastructure. They are also where people are feeling the consequences of pollution, climate change, and the housing crisis the hardest. It bears mentioning that immigrant, racialized, and Indigenous populations are overrepresented in these areas. With this latest edition of the Vital Signs, we aim to enable our community to better understand and improve the relationship between the environment and people’s lives. Accordingly, this report will pay particular attention to the issues of housing, mobility, access to shops and services, public health, and climate resilience. It provides a consolidated assessment of the current situation, incorporating data from various stakeholders as well as data generated specifically for this study, notably through field interviews.

This data is for action

We thank the members of this edition’s steering committee for their invaluable contributions. The committee includes representatives from the Trottier Family Foundation, the Coalition montréalaise des tables de quartier, the Direction régionale de santé publique de Montréal, the City of Montréal’s Service de la diversité et de l’inclusion sociale, Centraide of Greater Montreal, and the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal. By sharing their expertise and perspectives, these representatives have enabled us to holistically reflect on the issues and produce a report that is both more comprehensive and more conducive to action.

And that is indeed our main message: we must take action. The following pages cover many issues. These issues are complex, but the solutions to them are, for the most part, already known. The crises we face call for ambitious interventions, and the time for half-measures is over. All sectors of our community—governments, the private sector, community organizations, philanthropic players, and other leaders—have a duty to act and work together to ensure that our urban environment does not reinforce inequalities, but helps to mitigate and, eventually, eliminate them.

Thank you for your time and attention. Happy reading!

Karel Mayrand
President and CEO
Foundation of Greater Montréal

Vital Signs 2024 : territorial inequities in Greater  Montréal

Across Greater Montreal, areas that are more disadvantaged are also the areas where the built environment is less conducive to well-being. This is the unsettling truth that is raised by this latest Vital Signs of Greater Montreal report. Produced by Vivre en Ville in partnership with many local organizations, this shared diagnosis includes original analyses, testimonials and many maps that illustrate this phenomenon of territorial inequities.

Download the report