Guy Chiasson

Gouvernance métropolitaine et régimes politiques de frontière. Analyse à partir du cas d'Ottawa-Gatineau

This paper analyzes the relations between multiple levels of government in the context of the Ottawa-Gatineau cross-border urban agglomeration. This agglomeration is atypical when compared to cross-border urban spaces more commonly studied by literature. Our analysis determines how Ottawa-Gatineau’s particular characteristics (an interprovincial border and a federal capital status) translate in terms of multi-level governance. We use a conceptual framework proposed by Leresche and Saez (1997) that identifies three distinct border regimes: the government (limes), the governability (marche) and the governance (synapse). Following these categories, we show how the construction of a cross-border metropolis in Ottawa-Gatineau follows a multiscalar trajectory during which the government regime (1950-2000) precedes the governability one (since 2000). While there are early signs of a cross-border metropolitan governance, some elements tend to show that the governability regime persists.