FRank Detcheverri, the 41-year-old mayor of Miquelon, walks up a grassy hill. – The view isn't that bad, huh? he's joking. The ocean sparkles 40 meters below an empty hill. The sound of a man playing bagpipes, as if singing a sea serenade, comes from the coastline. This hill will become the site of his new home and the homes of all his fellow villagers.
In the distance, about half a mile away, you can see the outlines of about 400 buildings in the village of Miquelon. It is located just 2 meters above sea level in the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Located off the Canadian coast south of Newfoundland, this is an “overseas community” Franceand the country's last foothold in North America.
It's the kind of place where people leave their car door open while they grab groceries from the general store, and everyone nods. Hello when they pass you on the street.
But just over ten years ago, something happened that forever changed the direction of the island's future. In 2014, Francois Hollande became the first French head of state to set foot on Miquelon, and it dealt a huge blow to its population of about 600: Miquelon could soon disappear due to rising sea levels, he said, which are estimated to reach one meter by the end of the century.
As a result, he included the village's Coastal Hazard Mitigation Plan, which prohibits any new construction.
This news came as a shock to the village residents. “For such a small village, this meant that it had no future,” says Ksenia Filippenko, a geographer at the University of the Maritimes of Côte d'Opale, who began her graduate work on the resettlement of Miquelon immediately after Hollande's statement.
If people couldn't build anymore, they would have to move. And they didn't want to move.
But when she returned to the village just a few months later, she noticed a change in the people. The village was hit by two successive hurricanes, which flooded houses and damaged property. It seemed that people were now beginning to realize that they would have to move and took to the streets to demand a plan.
But it wasn't until 2022 that the local government, led by Detcheverry, seriously considered moving after the village was nearly hit by Hurricane Fiona, one of the world's largest. most expensive weather events in Canada.
The move, when completed, will give Miquelon the unenviable title of being the first French village to move due to the climate emergency. The French government is investing public finances through unprecedented use Barnier Foundationused to financially support French citizens whose homes are threatened by the climate crisis by purchasing their homes.
“Usually you have to leave your house immediately once the government buys it,” says Detcheverry. “We've agreed with the government to give our residents three years to build new homes. And we're doing it gradually, building about seven to eight homes a year.”
The move is currently voluntary and about 50 people have signed up to move. Last month, nine people signed leases and received building permits. At the same time, workers began securing Miquelon's water and electricity supplies to the new facility.
The goal is to maintain communication between two objects while people move across the bridge between them. While most of the village's residents will remain at the old site, the town hall, school and other public buildings will remain there. The new village will also house a storm shelter.
Philip Detcheverry, a former utility executive no relation to the mayor, is one of the pioneers. Like most Miquelon residents, he built his house himself 40 years ago. But letting go was easier than he thought, he says. He and his wife had suffered damage from several floods and saw the move as a new opportunity. He already has a ready-made plan for his new home.
“The restrictions of not being able to build here, and not being confident that we were sufficiently protected from the sea and the storms that were getting stronger and more frequent, forced us to tell ourselves that our property here was no longer worth much,” he says.
“What will we leave for our children?” According to him, the move is an investment in the future of his two sons. “Otherwise we would just leave the building behind.”
Tthe ocean is always present on Miquelon, it can be seen from almost all points of the island; his movements dictate island life: whether a ship can deliver supplies, for example, or whether anyone can make a doctor's appointment on St. Pierre. It was his generosity that brought people here.
Many residents of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon are descendants of the Acadians, 17th-century French settlers who founded a colony in what became the Maritime Provinces of Canada.
The Acadians came to fish for cod in these waters centuries ago, but were driven out when the archipelago oscillated between British and French rule in the 18th century. Each time the academicians returned – in a sense, moving is in the blood of the villagers.
But in In the early 1990s, the cod fishery ceased.and in 1992, Canada introduced a moratorium on the harvest of this species. Although St. Pierre is trying to find ways to diversify its economy through tourism and creating new construction jobs, it is struggling. And Miquelon's economy never recovered.
The grief over the loss of the fishery is still palpable. “We always find a way to talk about the loss of fishing,” says Philip Detcheverry. “But we need to start working on something new.”
Those who support the project believe it could help, especially as the archipelago has an aging population. There are no universities in Saint Pierre and Miquelon, so many young people move to mainland France or Canada to further their studies. Most don't come back.
Nancy Hayes is optimistic. Like other villagers, she wears many hats. She is on the organizing committee for the annual 25 km island race. race, is in charge of customs, and volunteers with the local soccer team when they need help.
“I’m optimistic and positive,” says Hayes, “because otherwise we would just be watching the water rise.”
She also works at City Hall, where she sees more and more residents interested in moving. Hayes hopes that giving young people the opportunity to build homes will also inspire some Miquelon residents to return home.
However, not everyone is on board yet. Philip Detcheverry says he can't talk about his move with some friends because the conversations get too heated.
While signs of the island's climate crisis are clear – the ocean is slowly eating away at the isthmus that connects parts of the island – many believe they have more time. Miquelon has never experienced storms like the ones that catalyzed the project many years ago. It's hard to say, but it may take another one Hurricane Fiona change people's minds, Hayes says.
The small town also complicates things. “We are all more or less cousins,” says Frank Detcheverry. “We all know each other. That's why it's difficult to pull off a project like this.”
The president of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Bernard Briand, is among the skeptics. Although the territorial council has given the municipality of Miquelon the land they wanted and is supporting the mayor throughout the relocation project, he is not confident that their efforts will be successful.
He believes more needs to be done to keep the village as it is. “When you step foot on Miquelon, you feel its history, its soul,” he says. “How to recreate the soul?”
This is one of the questions that Laurent Pinon and his colleagues, whose urban architecture agency is working on the relocation project, also grappled with.
“This project reflects the history of Miquelon,” he says. People can build their own houses – a long tradition in the village. Many of the materials used in the new village will also be repurposed from the current one.
“We're taking everything that exists—the residents, their homes, their geography—and we're going to organize everything differently to create a new village that allows them to continue to live there.”
The immediate priority is to ensure the safety of residents. Figuring out what to do with the local church, cemetery and other historic sites will likely require difficult negotiations, but relocating people should be a top priority.
Although construction is now in full swing, there is still a possibility that people may end up back where they started. There will be local elections in the new year and it is unclear whether another government will proceed with the move.
“This is hope,” says the mayor. “WITH [prevention plan] and climate change, Miquelon died. It would disappear. I want to give my village a future.”
