Éric Robitaille

Complete neighbourhoods, places where residents can meet their daily needs on foot, have become a central component of healthy and sustainable urban planning. Yet most assessment frameworks are calibrated for dense metropolitan environments, leaving rural and peri-urban municipalities without operational tools suited to their territorial needs. This article presents MilieuxVie, an open-source, browser-based interactive mapping application developed for the Laurentides health region of Québec (76 municipalities, 11 land-based unorganised territories, 2 indigenous territories and 4 aquatic administrative units; 93 territorial units in total; ~680,000 inhabitants). The tool evaluates the spatial accessibility of 12 service categories drawn from the Vivre en Ville (2026) complete-neighbourhood framework and OpenStreetMap data, using 2026 residential parcels from the provincial property assessment roll as origin points and weighting results by number of dwelling units. Three adaptive radius tiers (dense, intermediate, rural), based on residential dwelling-unit density (dwellings per km² of residentially designated urban land), scale the distance standards to settlement density. Because thresholds are scaled to settlement density, scores express context-relative service proximity rather than a uniform pedestrian standard and should not be read as directly comparable absolute accessibility across rural, peri-urban, and urban settings. A dedicated urban perimeter mode further disaggregates analysis to sub-municipal built-up zones, aligning the tool with Québec’s provincial Government land-use planning guidelines (GLPG). Gap analysis outputs identify which service types fall below the 70% coverage target, helping elected officials and planners identify where to focus further analysis. Results illustrate the scope of accessibility deficits across the region and highlight the analytical limits of uniform distance thresholds when applied beyond metropolitan contexts. Scores differ significantly across different settings (Kruskal–Wallis p = 0.006); the adaptive radius tiers narrow but do not close the structural gap, with rural municipalities scoring significantly lower than dense ones. The tool is freely available and requires no software installation, making it directly deployable by local planning offices.

Complete neighbourhoods — places where residents can meet most daily needs on foot — have become a cornerstone of healthy and sustainable urban planning. Yet most assess-ment frameworks were calibrated for dense metropolitan environments, leaving rural and peri-urban municipalities without operational tools suited to their territorial realities. This article presents MilieuxVie, an open-source, browser-based interactive mapping applica-tion developed for the Laurentides health region of Québec (76 municipalities, 11 land-based unorganised territories, 2 indigenous territories and 4 aquatic administrative units; 93 territorial units in total; ~680,000 inhabitants). The tool evaluates the spatial ac-cessibility of 12 service categories drawn from the Vivre en Ville (2026) com-plete-neighbourhood framework and OpenStreetMap data, using residential parcels from the provincial property assessment roll (MAMH 2026) as origin points and weighting re-sults by number of dwelling units. Three adaptive radius tiers (urban, intermediate, rural) based on municipal area correct for the systematic under-performance of standard thresholds in low-density settings. A dedicated Urban Perimeter mode further disaggre-gates analysis to sub-municipal built-up zones, aligning the tool with Québec's provincial planning orientations (OGAT). Gap analysis outputs identify which service types fall be-low the 70 % coverage target, enabling evidence-based prioritization for elected officials and planners. Results illustrate the scope of accessibility deficits across the region and highlight the analytical limits of uniform distance thresholds when applied beyond met-ropolitan contexts. The tool is freely available and requires no software installation, mak-ing it directly deployable by local planning offices.

Access to green spaces is essential for promoting public health, reducing inequalities, and fostering urban resilience. This study evaluates the 3-30-300 indicator as a tool for assessing green space accessibility in Montreal, Canada. The framework sets three goals: every resident should see three trees from their home, live in a neighborhood with at least 30% tree canopy, and have a park or green space within 300 m. Using geospatial analysis, this study examines how well these criteria are met across Montreal’s neighborhoods and investigates disparities linked to socio-economic factors. The study reveals a significant variability in the distribution of green spaces across Montreal neighborhoods, as measured by the 3-30-300 metric. Tree canopy coverage ranges from 0.8% to 84%, with a median of 25.7%, while distances to parks vary from adjacent to over 2.4 km. The number of trees around residences is highly skewed, ranging from 0 to 771, reflecting substantial heterogeneity in green space accessibility. Spatial analysis highlights pronounced inequalities, with only 19.4% of neighborhoods meeting all three criteria. Hotspots of compliance are concentrated in peri-central and well-established residential areas in the West and East, while central and peripheral neighborhoods, especially in northeast Montreal, frequently fail to meet the standards. These findings underscore strong spatial disparities in urban green infrastructure, consistent with global studies on inequitable access to green spaces.

High consumption of ultra-processed foods and drinks (UPF) has been linked to poor diet quality and an increased risk of non-communicable diseases. To inform public policies and interventions aimed at reducing UPF intake in Canada, updated information on UPF intake among different sociodemographic groups is needed. This study, using data from 5872 adults aged 18 years and older from the International Food Policy Study (2018–2019), aims to estimate the dietary energy contribution of UPF and assess its variation among sociodemographic subgroups. All foods and drinks reported in a single 24 h dietary recall were classified using the Nova system. We estimated the mean proportion of total daily energy from UPF and subcategories of UPF in the overall sample and among sociodemographic subgroups. Multivariable linear regression models evaluated the association between sociodemographic characteristics with the proportion of total daily energy from UPF. On average, adults consumed 45.2% of their total daily energy from UPF. UPF consumption was slightly higher among males than females (49.4% vs. 47.6%, p = 0.039) and younger adults aged 19–30 years compared with older adults aged 51–64 years (50.0% vs. 47.2%, p = 0.029), adjusting for a range of sociodemographic factors. Overall, UPF consumption was relatively high among adults in all sociodemographic subgroups, highlighting the need for policies to decrease UPF consumption in the entire population.

(1) Background: this study examines the effectiveness of the 3-30-300 indicator as a tool for assessing the accessibility of green spaces in the island of Montreal, Canada. The 3-30-300 framework defines three standards for urban vegetation: every resident should be able to see three trees from their home, live in a neighborhood that has 30% canopy cover, and have access to a park or green area within 300 meters. This study measures the distribution of these criteria across Montreal's neighborhoods using geospatial analysis and examines disparities linked to so-cio-economic factors. (2) Methods include spatial analysis using metrics like Getis-Ord G and Lee's L to identify patterns and correlations with socio-economic vulnerabilities. (3) The results show that there are inequalities in the distribution of green spaces: only a limited neighborhoods meet all the 3-30-300 criteria, while several outlying areas lag. (4) Conclusions: such results clearly show the need to have specific urban greening programs, particularly in neighborhoods that face so-cioeconomic challenges, to reduce inequalities in accessibility to green infrastructure for improved public health and urban resilience.

This study aims to bridge the gap between the potential and realized spatial access to food outlets in rural areas of Québec, Canada. By assessing both aspects, this research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by rural communities in accessing food resources and the effectiveness of existing interventions in addressing these challenges. A mixed methods approach was adopted to collect and analyze data, combining GIS-based spatial analysis with community-based surveys. The spatial analysis allowed for the quantification of the potential access metrics, while the community surveys provided valuable information on travel behaviors, preferences, and barriers experienced by residents when accessing food outlets. The results of the distance measurement calculations showed that for both the potential and realized distance measurements, convenience stores are more easily accessible than grocery stores and supermarkets. Thus, workers seem to have a strategy for minimizing the impact of long distances by combining work and grocery shopping. These results are measured for the realized accessibility to grocery stores and supermarkets and the principal retailer used. Finally, the results of the analyses show that there is a socio-economic gradient in the potential geographical accessibility from home to the food outlets. The importance of developing and strengthening the local food environment to make it favourable to healthy eating and supportive of food security is discussed.

Background: Local food environments are recognized by experts as a determinant of healthy eating. Food cooperatives (coop) can promote the accessibility to healthier foods and thus improve the health of the population, particularly in remote rural communities. Objective: To measure the effects of implementing a food coop in a disadvantaged community with poor access to food. We have two main research questions: (1). Does the establishment of a food coop in rural areas described as food deserts have an impact on accessibility, frequency of use, food consumption, food quality, and ultimately the health of individuals? (2). Does the establishment of a food coop in rural areas described as food deserts have an impact on food security and community vitality? Design: A natural experiment with a mixed pre/post method will be used. The sample is composed of households that came from geographically isolated communities (population: 215 to 885 inhabitants) which qualified as food deserts and located in rural areas of Quebec (Canada). All communities plan to open a food coop (in the years 2022–2023), and as their opening will be staggered over time, participants from communities with a new food coop (intervention) will be compared to communities awaiting the opening of their food coop (control). Data collection was carried out at three time points: (1) before; (2) 1 to 5 months after; and (3) 13 to 17 months after the opening of the coop. Questionnaires were used to measure sociodemographic variables, dietary intake, residents’ health, and community vitality. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with community stakeholders. Results: Few natural experiments have been conducted regarding the impact of implementing food coops. Gathering concrete data on the effectiveness and processes surrounding these interventions through natural experiments will help to quantify their impact and guide knowledge users and policymakers to make more informed decisions.

Unhealthy eating habits can compromise one’s health and generate significant individual, social, and health services costs. The adoption of healthy eating habits depends on individual and environmental determinants related to the characteristics of the physical, economic, political, and socio-cultural environments. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to assess the effect of the physical environment, more precisely the effect of food outlet accessibility, on diet. A subsample of the CARTaGENE survey, composed of 7783 adults aged 40 to 70 years old residing in four cities in Quebec (Canada), was used. Measures of proximity as well as absolute and relative measures of the density of retail food outlets, fast-food outlets, and convenience stores near participants’ residences were used to analyze fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake. Univariate logistic regression showed that the minimal recommended portions of F&V intake (5 or more portions) were significantly associated with all seven measures of the retail food environment (OR between 0.76 and 1.27). However, these relations were mostly non-significant when confounding variables were considered in the analysis except and counterintuitively for proximity to the nearest convenience store and density of convenience stores. Variables most significantly correlated to F&V intake were individual-level confounding variables of sex, income, and education. These results show that more research is needed to understand factors explaining F&V intake in this population.

Unhealthy eating and food insecurity are recognized risk factors for chronic diseases. Collective and environmental factors, such as geographic access to food condition food choices. The objective of this study was to map food deserts and food swamps in Gaspesie, a region of Quebec (Canada), using geographical information systems (GIS) and field validation. Eleven sectors (5 rural and 6 urban) where 5% of the Gaspesie population lives were considered food deserts. Eight sectors (all rural) constituting 4.5% of the population were considered food swamps. Nearly 88% (3/8) of food swamps were located in disadvantaged and very disadvantaged areas. The Gaspesie region is already actively involved in changing environments to make them conducive to healthy eating for all. The mapping of food deserts can support intersectoral collaboration on food security. Food swamp mapping will make it possible to more accurately characterize the existing food environment in the region. Both indicators will be useful in raising awareness and mobilizing partners for a comprehensive strategy to improve the food environment that is not only based on the food desert indicator alone but also takes into account the presence of food swamps.

Introduction A significant proportion of secondary school students and young adults in Quebec have experimented with electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). Both personal and environmental factors have been associated with the use of vaping products by youth. Geographical accessibility to the points of sale of these products may be one of these factors. The purpose of this study is to develop a profile of the spatial distribution of stores specializing in the sale of vaping products (vape shops) in the vicinity of secondary schools, colleges and CEGEPs in the province of Quebec. Methods We calculated the accessibility of businesses to account for geographical exposure. Analyses were conducted to provide a snapshot of the situation in Quebec and to identify associations between the characteristics of educational institutions and geographical accessibility to vape shops. Results A total of 299 vape shops were identified. Colleges are closer to a vape shop (median distance: 1.2 km) than are secondary schools (median distance: 2.3 km). Large private colleges located in urban areas are closer to specialized vape shops. Medium or large private secondary schools located in urban and more advantaged areas are also closer to a specialized vape shop. Conclusion This study is a step in developing an understanding of the location of vaping product shops and their geographical accessibility to young people. Important to consider is the geographical accessibility of young people to non-specialized shops that also sell e-cigarettes and then any potential connections between geographical accessibility to such non-specialized shops and the use of vaping products by young people.