"La Cité Maraîchère de Romainville is based on short circuits and partnerships with local producers," says Geneviève Dufour. "It's an approach that echoes District Central's initiatives in urban agriculture and food short circuits. What's particularly innovative, and what we can't wait to see, is how the produce is marketed on site with the café-cantine."
Bringing together retailers and consumers in the industrial sector is also a key area of development for District Central. There are already a good number of businesses in the area, both in design and manufacturing, that share the ambition of putting as little pressure as possible on our resources. They sell their products directly to consumers, whether online, in shops or by organising warehouse sales.
"But we want to go even further," says Geneviève Dufour. "We want to create urban innovation laboratories to test new approaches, for example in terms of the circular economy."
She is convinced that visits to various projects in France will feed into the SDC District Central's discussions about the development of its territory. "The discussions we'll have will enable us to identify possible solutions,"she says, "which we can then adapt to Montreal's reality. We will then be able to adapt them to Montreal's reality".