: My father immigrated, in a way. He left the Quebec City area to settle in Montreal many years ago. So in my family, I am the first generation born in Montreal. You are broaching something quite nebulous, because we have to understand we are dealing with human beings here.
Every human being has an esthetic ideal in life. That esthetic ideal is created according to what he sees and hears. Television, most notably, shows esthetic ideals in soap operas, comedies and so forth. Everything is very urban and people have a taste to live an urban lifestyle. Being stuck in traffic for some people is perfectly fine because above all else, they are behind the wheel of a car and they love to drive.
For some, the esthetic ideal is to live near the river, in the lower St. Lawrence Valley. That was my esthetic ideal some time ago. A few years before I was hired by the council, I had sent my resume to apply for a position that was quite interesting in Rimouski. My wife and I thought that this would be a good place to raise children. As you can see, these are personal choices.
Mr. Lessard was talking about older people who have a sense of belonging to a group, their family. They are not going to go into exile the way people did in the days of the James Bay project or Manicouagan, or like lumberjacks did when they left for three months to go work in the woods and then came back. Unless we are living in a Ceaucescu-type regime and that we force people to move, every individual has the freedom to make choices in life, and the result of these choices create sociological, geographical and therefore economic dynamics.
I do not have much to say about how you achieve this. There is often a coercive approach, regarding doctors among others. Young doctors are being told that if they want to live the good life in Montreal some day with their Mercedes, first they have to go drive a more modest American car in a region and come back a few years later. This approach causes an outcry, and forcing people in this way is risky, if you think about the Quebec and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. One can give them an incentive by offering a great deal of money but here again, it does not work. That is the human dynamic.