Author name: Brenda O'Farrell The 1019 Report

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

Residential property tax bills in Hudson will increase by 2 to 3.8 per cent next year, according to the municipality’s $17.7-million budget adopted Monday.

It is expected that the owner of a single-family home with water and sewer services valued at $871,966, which is the average value of a home, according to the new three-year valuation roll that comes into effect in 2025, will pay $5,585 in municipal taxes. The figure represents an increase of $138, or 2.53 per cent, compared with this year. The same house that is not on the sewer network will pay $5,189 in taxes next year, a 2-per-cent hike, or $102 more than in 2024.

The home of the same value in the Whitlock area will pay $6,487 in taxes next year, an increase of $240, or 3.8 per cent, compared with 2024.

The basic residential tax rate for 2025 has been set at 46.62 cents per $100 of property valuation, down from the 2024 rate of 64.20 cents. The drop in the mill rate is due to the more than 40-per-cent increase in property valuations reflected in the new three-year valuation roll.

“It’s a prudent budget,” said Mayor Chloe Hutchison. “We wanted it to be a budget about developing services.”

But not all members of council supported the fiscal plan presented, with two councillors – Benôit Blais and Douglas Smith – voting against the adoption of the budget and the town’s triennial infrastructure investment plan.

“We could do a lot better than we are,” said Blais in an interview yesterday, adding: “It’s our fourth year and it’s the fourth year without a vision.”

Blais pointed to the fact the town has increased spending by an average of 10 over the last four years.

“Considering those increases, I do not feel that this council fulfilled its responsibilities and due diligence for the citizens of Hudson, and that is why I’m voting no,” Blais said Monday.

The town’s overall spending will increase next year, to hit $17.7 million, a jump of 4.7 per cent over the $16.9 million in 2024. The largest spending increases next year are attributed to a hike in the amounts that will be spent on contractors, most of which are filling vacant positions; the municipal payroll; and an additional branch pickup that will be offered.

The town also adopted its three-year capital expenditures plan Monday. It outlined a total of $5.9 million in spending in 2025, $7.1 million in 2026 and $10.35 million in 2027. Included in the plan for next year is $3.245 million for roads, parks and green spaces; $640,000 for municipal building renovations; almost $625,000 for vehicle replacement, including the purchase of fire service vehicles that had previously been leased; and $567,000 on water service improvements.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

Despite the promises – right up until earlier this month – a fourth lane on the Île aux Tourtes Bridge will not be opened by the end of the year, Transport Quebec last week confirmed, adding that the prospect of restoring a more fluid flow of traffic in both directions on the span at all times of the day has been postponed to some time “before the end of the winter.”

“The return to service of a fourth traffic lane was planned before the end of 2024, but certain beams on the bridge continue to deteriorate in the Senneville sector,” Transport Quebec said in a statement. “Therefore, before reopening another lane safely, the shoring under way since last summer must be sufficiently advanced. In short, we must first complete the interventions on either side of one of the two piles under construction.”

With this ongoing work continuing throughout the winter, Transport officials said, occasional weekend closures of the span will be scheduled in the new year.

Transport Quebec officials did not provide specifics about the work that had not been completed, despite assurances two weeks ago it would provide details of the “remaining steps” required for a fourth lane to reopen.

Work to repair the Île aux Tourtes began in 2016.

When plans to build a new bridge were announced in 2018, the completion date set at that time was for 2028 or 2029. But the rate of deterioration of the old span forced Transport Quebec to shorten the timeline. It is now expected that construction of the new bridge, which began in the summer of 2023, will be completed by the end of 2026.

Two lanes of traffic in both directions of the old bridge have not been available since June 14, 2021, when it had been restored for a few days, as Transport Quebec soon reduced traffic to three lanes, opening two lanes in the direction of rush-hour traffic. This was all following the dramatic complete shutdown of the span on May 14, 2021, that banned all traffic on the bridge for 12 days.

It was also in mid-June of 2021, that Transport officials said they were aiming to have three lanes open in each direction by June 21, 2021, but that never happened.

When it was in full use, the span supported three lanes of traffic in each direction.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The owners of an average single-family home in St. Lazare will see their property taxes increase by 1.8 per cent next year, according to the town’s $46.2-million budget adopted last week.

With a new three-year property valuation roll taking effect for the 2025 taxation year, the average single-family home in the municipality saw a whopping 50-per-cent increase in value. This means the average house in the town is now valued at $702,694, up from $467,600.

This huge hike has forced the town to lower its taxation rate. The owners of this property will see a tax bill of $3,738 in 2025, which represents an increase of $65 compared with 2024. This year, the taxes on that same home jumped $156, or 4.45 per cent and the previous year there was a $141 hike, or a 4.19-per-cent increase, bringing the overall increases in taxes on that property since the end of 2022 to $362, or 15 per cent.

The residential property tax rate for 2025 has been set at $0.4246 per $100 of valuation, down from the 2024 rate of $0.6262.

Included in the calculation of each tax bill is a $280 annual water tax, up from $275 this year; a $185 garbage tax, up from $180 this year; a $165 sewer treatment charge, which is the same since 2023; and a $50 potable water treatment plant fee, which is also the same as this year.

The property tax increase in 2025 averages out to about $5.40 per month for the average single-family home.

There are other itemized charges that are assessed based on specific tax rates per $100 of valuation, meaning those properties with higher valuations will pay more, while owners of lesser valued properties will pay less. For the average valued home of $702,694, they include a $25.30 charge for the construction of municipal buildings, which is down 42 cents from last year; a $14 fee for the construction of the new fire hall, which is the same as this year; a $13 fee for the extension of the bicycle path network, again, about the same as this year; a $10.54 charge for the reconstruction of Ste. Elizabeth Street; a $7 charge for the expansion of the La Pinière nature park and a $4.92 contribution to the building of the synthetic playing field next to Westwood High School’s junior campus.

Spending is up

Overall, the city will be spending about $3.1 million more next year compared with 2024. Among the biggest increases are services the municipality has no direct control over. Among those charges is the town’s share of the cost for the Sûreté du Québec, which is up 10.34 per cent in 2025, which represents a total of $5.34 million, marking the first time policing costs have topped the $5-million mark for the municipality. The contribution to the MRC of Vaudreuil-Soulanges jumps 6.38 per cent in 2025 compared with 2024.

Other increases assessed to the town are charges from the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal, which will jump 5.54 per cent next year compared with this year; and fees for the regional transit authority, or Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain, which will increases by 6.94 per cent from 2024.

These charges represent about 20 per cent of St. Lazare’s overall spending, or about $9.2 million. The biggest slice of the town’s budget – 36 per cent, or about $16.6 million – goes to salaries.

3-year capital program

The city also adopted its three-year capital expenditure program on Dec. 11. It includes $50.6 million in projects in 2025, $14.27 million in spending in 2026 and $20.9 million in plans for 2027, for a total of $85.785 million.

Among the projects planned for 2025 are about $19.6 million to improve and extend potable water services; $23.5 million in recreational upgrades, including establishing a new youth centre. Another $7 million will be spent on road improvements.

Part of this spending in 2025 will be financed by about $15 million in provincial government grants, the town’s treasurer said.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

Real estate prices across the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region have been on a steady march upward since the COVID-19 pandemic, with sale prices of individual homes seeing substantial jumps in the last four years. But the overall increases in property values are coming into sharper focus as municipalities reveal the numbers contained in the new three-year valuation rolls being used to calculate tax bills for 2025.

The property value increases in municipalities across the region are hovering around 40 per cent, with St. Lazare seeing one of the largest, at 50 per cent. The result is adding billions of dollars to the region’s asset balance sheet.

The overall value of properties in St. Lazare, the second largest municipality in the region by population, has hit $5.7 billion, according to the new 2025-2027 valuation roll. That figure represents a $1.9-billion increase in the collective value of all properties in the town since 2020, when the last three-year roll that covered 2022-2024 was drafted, a jump of 50 per cent.

In Vaudreuil-Dorion, the largest municipality by population in the area, the overall value of properties now stands at $11.38 billion, according to the new roll. That is up 38.9 per cent from the $8.19 billion as outlined on the 2022-2024 roll.

In Hudson, the overall value of all properties in the town is now pegged at $2.2 billion, a 40.1-per-cent increase over the $1.58 billion in the 2022-2024 roll.

In all three municipalities, the rate of increase in residential properties compared with other categories, including vacant lots, commercial assets and agricultural holdings, saw the largest rate of increase.

The valuation rolls serve as one of the key tools in calculating municipal and school tax bills.

But a significant jump in a property’s value does not directly translate into an increase in taxes. Municipalities compensate for the increase by reducing their mill rate, the figure charged per $100 of valuation.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The growing burden of the increasing costs of Sûreté du Québec services on municipal budgets is not the only issue that has local municipal officials reeling. The fact that the number of officers assigned to the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region continues to drop while these costs are rising is an added rub.

Forcing taxpayers to continuously pay more for less is outrageous, Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Guy Pilon says.

Despite overall SQ costs rising by in the Vaudrueil-Soulanges region, there will be five fewer officers assigned to the area in 2025 compared with 2024, according to Pilon.

This new drop in staffing is in addition to the 10 officers who were transferred out of the region last year.

“The level of service does not correspond to what we pay,” Pilon said.

And adding to the frustration for Pilon is that fact that elected officials cannot find out how many officers are on duty in the territory at any given time.

“We don’t know how many officers we have (on patrol),” Pilon said.

This information is denied, he says, with the SQ claiming disclosing that number would compromise public security.

“We never know how many officers are on the territory,” he reiterated, explaining that of all the officers assigned, it is not known how many are on vacation, sick leave, maternity or paternity leave, or otherwise unavailable.

The number of officers scheduled during various days of the week or for the various shifts during any given 24-hour period is also not known, Pilon said.

According to an analysis of the SQ costs put together by St. Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance, 131 officers were assigned to the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region in 2023. That number was cut to 121 in 2024. Now, it is expected to drop again by five to hit 116.

There were 3,369 officers on the SQ force across the province in 2024, according to Lachance’s analysis. With the total cost of the provincial force this year set at $814.13 million, the cost per officer is $241,653.

In the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region in 2024, the overall cost of policing hit $34.3 million, up from $31.99 million in 2023. This represents a 6.49-per-cent increase.

Based on the number of officers assigned to the region in Lachance’s analysis, the cost per officer in 2024 is $281,513, 16.5-per-cent higher than the provincial average.

It is expected that with the increased costs and lower staffing levels for the coming year that the cost per officer in 2025 will substantially top those levels.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

With only 27 days left in 2024 and despite a promise from Transport Quebec that a fourth lane will be reopened on the Île aux Tourtes Bridge before the end of the year, there is still no date when another lane will be put into service across the span allowing two lanes of traffic in both directions.

“The reopening of additional lanes depends on the progress of the work, which is complex, as well as weather conditions,” Transport officials confirmed in a statement issued last week. “The number of lanes on the bridge will increase as soon as it is safe to do so and an update will be provided over the coming days on the remaining steps to get there.”

That is the latest update from the Transport Ministry last week as they announced the bridge will be closed completely again next weekend.

Marking the eighth time the span will be shut to all traffic this year, the Île aux Tourtes will be blocked to all vehicles from midnight on Friday, Dec. 6, until 5 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 9.

The upcoming closure is to allow the reconfiguration of the lanes of Highway 40 on the approach to the bridge “in anticipation of the winter period,” Transport Quebec said in a statement issued last week.

At the end of October, Transport Quebec officials said an additional lane was to reopen before the end of 2024. That announcement was made as the ministry announced another weekend closure of the span, which occurred from Nov. 1-4. At that time, the closure was said to be necessary “to carry out marking work and to modify the configuration of the lanes in anticipation of the reopening of a fourth traffic lane. This is planned for the end of the year, when work to strengthen the current bridge will be sufficiently advanced. The ministry wishes to carry out these interventions now in order to take advantage of more favourable weather conditions for the durability of the marking.”

In September, the span was closed for two full weekends, once at the beginning of the month and then again towards the end of the month.

Those closures were deemed necessary to accommodate work in the installation of steel structures under a portion of the east end of the bridge. These structures are designed to provide additional support to the span.

Throughout last summer and into the fall crews extended two jetties into the lake from the eastern shores in Senneville. These jetties have served as work areas, allowing workers to install piles. The aim is to install steel structures on the piles, providing additional support to the old bridge’s main beams.

It is once these steel structures are in place that Transport Quebec said it would be able to open more lanes across the span.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

Hudson town council on Monday took the first step towards establishing an affordable housing project in its village centre by approving a motion to proceed with the purchase of land on Main Road, next to the former Wyman Church. But not all elected officials are onboard.

The plan, as briefly outlined by Mayor Chloe Hutchison, would see the lot eventually transferred to a non-profit organization that would, in turn, oversee the construction and eventually manage the project.

“This would offer affordable housing in the core” of the town, Hutchison said during the public meeting.

No details about the size or the number of units the project would include were provided.

But not all councillors supported the move.

“I’m pro development of this kind,” said councillor Benoit Blais in an interview with The 1019 Report yesterday. “But I’ve never seen in my career a project of a few million (dollars) where you can’t see the legal documents.”

“The money,” Blais continued, “will it be repaid in a year, two years, three years?”

He reiterated that he is not against the idea of the town backing an affordable housing development project. But, he said, there are too many unanswered questions about this particular proposal at this time.

Hutchison, however, was adamant that the project will not cost Hudson taxpayers.

“There is no potential dollar loss on this project,” she said in response to questions about the proposal.

“There is zero cost to the town,” she later added.

According to the resolution adopted by the majority of councillors, the town will seek to negotiate the purchase of the lot, a 37,000-square-foot tract of land off Main Road, which had once been the planned site of the proposed Villa Wyman seniors’ residence, which was abandoned after its plans failed to get approval from the town.

Now, if the town buys the land, it would then transfer the lot to Toit d’Abord, a non-profit specializing in affordable housing in Vaudreuil-Soulanges.

The non-profit would then seek a series of grants – from the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal and the provincial government’s Société d’habitation du Québec ­– which would then reimburse Hudson for its investment.

Toit d’Abord would be the eventual owners of the project and manage the property.

“They will run the place. They will handle its upkeep, all the leases and all the subsidies from the provincial government,” Hutchison said.

Councillor Douglas Smith was the other councillor who voted against the move.

“As stewards of our town, we shouldn’t be gambling with taxpayers’ money,” Smith said in an interview yesterday. “And I see this as a gamble. We haven’t seen enough proof that this is something we can’t lose on.”

Earlier this year, the board of directors of Villa Wyman had put the property up for sale, with an asking price of $650,000. In June, an offer to purchase the lot for an undisclosed sum was accepted. But that deal fell through. The purchase offer, however, put the possibility of the town acquiring the land on the council’s radar, as the municipality had registered a right of first refusal on the property.

In August 2023, Hudson council voted to formally register a right of first refusal on 22 lots within the town’s territory, including all the lots in the waterfront area surrounding Sandy Beach; all the churches in the town, along with the parking areas surrounding them; the Sikh temple on Main Road; the Como golf course; and the Manoir Cavagnal seniors’ residence. The move was made after the provincial government passed a law that allows municipalities to register a right of first refusal on properties that are put up for sale.

By filing the right with the land registry, the law gives municipalities the opportunity to match, or even increase offers, in order to purchase land and buildings that are up for sale once an offer on a registered property is accepted by the current owner.

It was while the town was considering its option on whether to avail itself of its option to purchase the Wyman lot, that the offer by a private owner was withdrawn.

“My intent is to go through an acceptability process with the neighbours” to integrate the project, Hutchison said, explaining that there is a growing demand for affordable housing in the region.

She said there is a need for approximately 2,500 units to meet the housing demand in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region, according to current estimates. This project would be a small contribution to filling that need with affordable residences in the area, she said.

Affordable housing is defined as housing that costs less than 30 per cent of a household’s pre-tax income. Applicants would have to meet criteria set by the provincial government to qualify to rent a unit in the project.

Last month, a proposed plan to build a three-storey, 18-unit affordable housing project in Vaudreuil-Dorion through Toit d’Abord was withdrawn after residents raised a series of objections. Criticisms included the fact the building would be built, in part, on land that currently is part of a park and is included in a newly identified flood zone, would obstructed the view of the Baie de Vaudreuil, and the city had not conducted public consultations before selecting the location.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

Rising costs for the Sûreté du Québec have local elected officials voicing outrage and calling on the Quebec government to make changes.

“It’s indecent,” said Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Guy Pilon last Wednesday after the MRC approved its $40.1-million budget for 2025.

The exact cost of the provincial police force in 2025 is not yet publicly known, as each municipality receives a separate bill for the service. But the two largest towns in the region – Vaudreuil-Dorion and St. Lazare – are reporting hikes of just over 10 per cent, pushing costs for policing services to record highs.

What is worse, Pilon argues, is the amounts the 23 municipalities in the MRC Vaudreuil-Soulanges pay for policing has increased faster compared with other regions of the province, while the number of officers assigned to this area is set to drop again in 2025, for the second year in a row.

“We should not accept it,” Pilon told his colleagues during the MRC meeting. “We should reject it.”

As the largest municipality in the MRC, the City of Vaudreuil-Dorion pays the biggest share of the MRC’s policing bill in the region. In 2025, that figure is expected to hit $10.9 million, up 10.1 per cent from the $9.9 million paid in 2024, said city treasurer Marco Pilon in an interview with The 1019 Report last week. The city’s council is set to formally adopt its budget for the coming year on Dec. 9.

In St. Lazare, the second largest municipality in the region by population, the bill for SQ services is set to top the $5-million mark for the first time, hitting $5.34 million in 2025, representing a 10.6-per-cent increase over the 2024 bill of $4.82 million, according to Mayor Geneviève Lachance.

St. Lazare council will formally be denouncing the hikes for policing costs at its next public meeting on Dec. 10, Lachance said. The municipality will also issue a call to the provincial government to change how it bills municipalities for policing, including setting maximum limits.

How SQ costs are assessed is determined by the provincial Public Security Ministry. It is calculated using a complex formula largely based on property valuations within each MRC, which provides for the so-called richest regions of the province – those with the highest property values – to pay more. As such, municipalities in MRCs like Vaudreuil-Soulanges end up footing more of the provincial bill to reduce the financial burden of the SQ on other, less affluent regions.

But that formula is being abused, Pilon claims. Instead of towns within the MRC Vaudreuil-Soulanges sharing its policing bill with the provincial government – as was promised when municipalities were forced to disband their local policing services in favour of SQ services in 2003 – it is now one of three regional counties in the province that pays more than 100 per cent of the assessed costs to offset the burden on other regions. This shifting of the financial burden is completely out of whack, he says, with the municipalities in the MRC Vaudreuil-Soulanges now assuming just over 117 per cent of the actual costs of the police force.

“There is a word for that,” said an incensed Pilon in an interview with The 1019 Report last week. “It’s ‘fraud.’ It may not be illegal, but it’s immoral en maudit.”

“The MRC has to settle this issue,” Pilon added. “It’s a nail they should be hammering all the time.”

For her part, Lachance has put together an analysis of the growing costs to bolster the message her council will be sending to the Quebec government, arguing that since municipalities have no input on the SQ’s costs and given that the provincial officials are the only ones to negotiate these costs, the provincial government should assume a larger share of the bill.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

A total of 266 vehicles were stolen in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region in the last 13 months, with just about 40 per cent snatched by thieves in Vaudreuil-Dorion, according to an analysis conducted by the Journal de Montréal’s Bureau d’enquête and published earlier this month.

A total of 105 vehicles were reported stolen in Vaudreuil-Dorion between Sept. 1, 2023, and Oct. 21 of this year, the report claims.

The information was compiled based on information obtained from the Sûreté du Québec through access-to-information requests.

A total of 23 vehicles were reported stolen in Pincourt in the same period, earning the town the distinction of having the second highest number of vehicle thefts in the region. At least one vehicle theft was reported in 19 of the 23 municipalities of Vaudrueil-Soulanges in the last 13 months.

The Fairview Pointe Claire shopping centre in the West Island, according to the report, was the one area in the province with the highest frequency of car thefts, with 185 vehicles reported stolen from the mall’s parking lot in the last year. That represents a rate of theft of about one vehicle stolen every two days, surpassing Pierre Trudeau Airport in Dorval, where 126 vehicles were stolen in the last year.

But despite what appears to be high numbers of vehicle thefts, a report issued earlier this year by Équité Association, a national non-profit organization that focuses on insurance crime and fraud prevention, points to a 17-per-cent drop in the number of vehicle thefts in Canada in the first six months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. Last year was a peak year for car thefts, the association says.

In Quebec, which saw the most significant drop in auto thefts from January to June 2024 compared with all other provinces, Équité Association claims, the number of vehicle thefts were down 36 per cent.

Here are the total number of cars stolen in the region by municipality from Sept. 1, 2023, and Oct. 21, 2024, according to the Journal de Montréal’s analysis:

Coteau du Lac: 10

Hudson: 6

Île Perrot: 21

Les Cèdres: 12

Les Coteaux: 10

Notre Dame Île Perrot: 17

Pincourt: 23

Pointe des Cascades: 2

Rigaud: 10

Rivière Beaudette: 4

St. Clet: 2

St. Lazare: 18

Ste. Marthe: 1

St. Polycarpe: 1

St. Zotique: 20

Terrasse Vaudreuil: 2

Très St. Redempteur: 1

Vaudreuil-Dorion: 105

Vaudreuil sur le Lac: 1

Total: 266

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

Fissures of division and disagreement among elected officials are cracking the surface at the MRC Vaudreuil-Soulanges.

And the mayor of the largest municipality in the territory, Guy Pilon of Vaudrueil-Dorion, says he will pry them wider by asking tough questions in public beginning later this month. He is going to start with attempting to find out the salary paid to the MRC’s prefect, Patrick Bousez, for 2024-2025. It is a piece of information Pilon has requested, but has been told he would have to make an access-to-information request to obtain.

“It’s landed at that,” Pilon said in frustration during an interview Monday.

In 2021, The 1019 Report requested the salaries paid to all elected officials in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region. Bousez earned $156,843 as prefect of the regional council at that time, in addition to his $25,290 annual salary as mayor of Rivière Beaudette, earning him a total of 182,133 and the distinction as the top-paid elected official in the region. It is not known what, if any, annual increases he has been allotted.

Bousez was not available for an interview with The 1019 Report.

The splintering of consensus at the regional authority – which rarely offers any public debate or discussion of the issues – emerged Nov. 4 during a special meeting of the 23 mayors who sit on the council. In a split vote, the council opted to hire a new director-general, fill three top administrative roles, create a new post and abolish two others.

These moves come about four months after the MRC council suspended its former long-time director-general, Guy-Lin Beaudoin, and ordered an internal investigation into what multiple sources at that time described as a series of issues. Days later, the Quebec Ministry of Municipal Affairs announced it had assigned an official to act as an “observer” to review how the MRC manages its human resources. Then, days later, Beaudoin abruptly quit.

The MRC recently received notice that Municipal Affairs had completed its report, which has not yet been seen by elected officials, Pilon confirmed Monday.

Pilon, who voted against the motion to name Alexandre Lambert to the post of director-general, said his opposition stems from the council’s failure to conduct an open and competitive hiring process to fill the top administrator’s job.

“Would they do that in their own town?” Pilon said, referring to the mayors who supported the move.

“People don’t care at all,” he added, again referring to some of the mayors in the region.

Hudson Mayor Chloe Hutchison was one of seven mayors who voted against the hiring, a group of elected officials who represent 47 per cent of the MRC’s population. Her objection focused on the process to fill the position as well.

“It’s a big position,” Hutchison said, “why not look at who is available.”

Lambert, was first hired by the MRC in February of this year to the post of interim assistant director-general. He was named interim director-general in June, when Beaudoin was suspended.

During the Nov. 4 meeting, the MRC council also opted to abolish the positions of assistant director-general and director of human resources, while naming new people to the posts of director of the clerk’s office and clerk of the treasury; director of communications and social development; and director of finances and accounting, and assistant treasury clerk. It also created the new position – director of territorial planning. This position has not been filled.

St. Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance voted in favour of hiring Lambert.

“To me it was a clear and easy decision,” Lachance said in an interview Monday, explaining Lambert’s performance since first being hired by the MRC was proof he could meet the challenges of the position.

The MRC oversees land use plans for the region, waste management and civil protection services, as well as prepares valuation rolls for the towns and promotes regional economic development.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

Water meters will begin to be required in all non-residential buildings in St. Lazare by next fall, according to a new bylaw set to be approved by council next month.

The move is the result of the municipality failing to meet water-usage targets set by the provincial government.

“It is being imposed on us to reduce consumption,” said St. Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance in an interview with The 1019 Report.

Eventually, all homes will have to be equipped with the devices to track their water use, she added. But for now, only 60 homes will be fitted with meters to provide municipal officials with a sampling of the level of individual household use in the residential sector. The selection of these homes will be on a voluntary basis, Lachance said.

In addition, according to the proposed bylaw, all new homes built after the bylaw is approved will have to be constructed “in anticipation of the installation of a meter,” the proposed bylaw states.

“The government requires this because we did not meet the objectives,” Lachance said, referring to the Rapport annuel sur la gestion de l’eau potable, which the provincial government issues outlining the levels of water usage within the town.

In 2022, the provincial report that looked at water consumption recorded in 2021 included a clear warning: “If the municipality exceeds one of the objectives in the 2021 balance sheet, the installation of water meters in all non-residential buildings (industries, shops and institutions), targeted mixed buildings, municipal buildings and on a sample of 60 residential buildings will be required progressively by Sept. 1, 2025,” the report stated.

Although measures to reduce water usage, like restricting the washing of driveways and banning car-wash fundraisers, and public awareness campaigns to encourage a reduction in usage have helped reduce the amount of water being consumed on a per-capita basis in the last few years, water use in the town remains above the provincial targets.

In the latest report available, issued in November 2023, water usage in 2022 in St. Lazare was estimated at 194 litres per person per day, 10 litres above the provincial target set at 184 litres.

In 2021, water use in the municipality was 211 litres per person per day, or 27 litres above the provincial target. That follows previous years of even higher water usage.

In 2020, water usage in St. Lazare was estimated at 224 litres per person per day. In 2019, it was 260 litres.

“We are using too much water,” Lachance said, explaining the issue is not strictly a function of water shortage, but of conservation.

Providing potable water is one of the most expensive services provided by the municipality, she said, adding provincial authorities are moving slowly toward imposing a “pay per use” model.

“We are pretty much going that way,” Lachance said, but stressed there is no estimated timeline for when water meters would be required in all homes.

St. Lazare is not the first municipality in Vaudreuil-Soulanges to impose water meters. Residents of Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot are required to submit their water meter readings to the municipality every summer.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

For the second time this year, the Town of Hudson has fired its treasurer.

On Monday, less than two months after hiring Christian Fincu as the director of finance, the town’s municipal council terminated his employment.

“This is not what we were hoping for,” said Mayor Chloe Hutchison in response to a resident’s question about the dismissal.

Fincu, who’s hiring was confirmed by council Sept. 3, was still in his probationary period when he was let go on Oct. 28, based on a recommendation made to council by the municipality’s acting director-general.

Hutchison said the town is currently seeking reimbursement for training expenses paid to Fincu.

Fincu’s hiring in September came following a nine-month search after his predecessor was abruptly fired in January.

Hudson council terminated its previous director of finance, Mario Miller, at a special meeting on Jan. 23. No reason was given for the action. However, in a short public statement in February, Hutchison said the move was “not related to fraud, embezzlement or mismanagement of funds.” Miller had worked for the town for about a year.

Hudson launched a call for candidates to fill the treasurer’s post yesterday. A consultant hired by the town to mentor Fincu will act as interim treasurer on a part-time basis, Hutchison said.

The town’s 2023 financial report, which was due to be filed with the province on June 30, has not yet been completed. Hutchison said it is expected next month.

In the meantime, the town’s director-general, Marie-Jacinthe Roberge, continues to be on medical leave until at least Nov. 20.

Roberge has been off the job since August, on what was originally a three-week leave that has since been extended twice. She was hired in May 2023 as assistant director-general and promoted to director-general earlier this year.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

Rigaud town council ratified the suspension of a top administrator last week for an indetermined period without pay and launched what it termed “an administrative investigation” that will outline next steps.

The move was the subject of a special meeting of council Oct. 30, where, in an awkward attempt to refrain from naming the individual, elected officials voted unanimously to uphold the decision taken Oct. 18 by Mayor Marie-Claude Frigault to suspend the official. Although the individual was not identified, council then proceeded to approve a list of four motions to strip the town’s director-general, Maxime Boissonneault, of a list of responsibilities, naming his assistant, Julie Rivard, as the person who will replace him as he is on an indefinite leave. Rivard was also named assistant treasurer, a title held by Boissonneault up until last week.

The meeting lasted about 15 minutes, with Frigault refusing to answer questions afterward, telling The 1019 Report she did not have time. When pushed for a comment, she retorted she works many hours and would prefer to spend any free moments with her family.

Rigaud’s director of communications, Geneviève Hamel, Monday refused to confirm that Boissonneault was the employee suspended, and said Frigault would not comment.

It is not known what triggered Frigault to suspend the official earlier in the month.

Council has hired consulting firm Relais Expert Conseil, a Montreal-based firm specializing in labour law and human resources issues, to carry out its review of the situation. Hamel said Monday that process has started, but could not confirm how long it would last or if it had been completed.

Bossonneault has been working for the town as its top administrator since August 2022. His arrival was part of a series of new hires in the wake of a spree of resignations at Rigaud town hall earlier that year, months after a new council, including the election of Frigault, took over.

From February to May 2022, 16 civil servants resigned, including many of the town’s top administrators – the director-general, the treasurer, the director of urbanism, the director of recreation and the director of human resources.

• Reporter Joshua Allan contributed to this report.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

Residents of Hudson advocating for the preservation of Sandy Beach as a natural space packed the town’s council chamber on Monday night to express their hope to save the waterfront site from development. The public show of support comes in the wake of the owner of a lot in the area submitting a request to the town last month for a building permit.

Although the request to build a home on the property that fronts on Royalview Street and extends to the shores of the Lake of Two Mountains, including part of the beach area, was refused by Hudson council, the event sparked residents to push council to acquire the property. Residents fear the permit request could be resubmitted at any time, addressing the issues that prompted council to refuse the initial development plan.

In an open letter circulated among the ad hoc coalition known as the Save Sandy Beach group before Monday’s meeting, residents were urged to express their desire to save all of the area surrounding the forested wetlands.

“If we all attend, our combined voices will make it clear that the Sandy Beach complex, including the undeveloped lot, is vital to Hudson and should be preserved,” the note stated.

Several at the meeting expressed their support for the town to attempt to purchase the property, and asked council questions about its support for that option, inquiring whether it has sought grants to offset the cost of acquiring the land and whether it would endorse fundraising efforts initiated by community members.

In response, Hudson Mayor Chloe Hutchison said council is looking at not just the possibility of preserving the lot on Royalview Street, which is currently listed for sale for $1.5 million, but all three lots in the forested wetland area around the beach. The other lots are owned by Nicanco Holdings Ltd., a company that has been stalled by the provincial Environment Ministry in its attempts to move forward with a development plan that would include about 200 housing units at the site.

“We are evaluating this option,” Hutchison said, referring to a proposal to acquire all three lots. “Can we afford the whole set?”

To that end, council is awaiting a cost-benefits analysis it commissioned earlier this year to inform its proposal, which Hutchison said would eventually be put to a referendum, providing all taxpayers a say. The analysis is expected to be completed by mid-November.

Both the owners of the lot on Royalview and Nicanco have expressed a willingness to sell their properties to the town. In the case of Nicanco, the discussions mark the first time in recent years the company would consider the option of selling its lots.

But Hutchison warned all in attendance, the cost of the waterfront properties will be substantial. She would not disclose a figure, however.

“We’d be doubling our debt load,” she said.

Opting to acquire the properties, if that is the eventual choice residents support would have ramifications, Hutchison said, including limiting the town to do other things, explaining how past decisions that have involved long-term borrowing, like investments in the town’s sewer system and the development of Jack Layton Park, are still being paid for by taxpayers.

Members of the Save Sandy Beach group said they are in the process of creating a registered non-profit group to launch a private fundraising campaign with the aim to help finance the acquisition.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

A deal spearheaded by the Nature Conservancy of Canada will protect a six-hectare tract of land made up of woodlands and wetlands from development in perpetuity in Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot, it was announced last week.

The forested natural space was acquired from private owners for $3.5 million.

Financed by a consortium of private agencies and three levels of government, the land will be part of the Boisé de la Pointe du Domaine nature park in the northeast corner of the island, which offers walking trails to the public.

“It’s a legacy for future generations,” said Notre Dame Mayor Danie Deschênes at a press conference last Friday. “It’s a big deal.”

“We are very proud to live in an area that is two-thirds woodland and farmland,” Deschênes added. “With the creation of the parc-nature and the acquisition of lots in Pointe du Domaine, we are continuing to promote access to nature for the whole of the Île Perrot community.”

The town is contributing only $150,000 toward the purchase, an amount Deschênes described as “pocket change” given the scope of the legacy that will be preserved, as the land will link a tract of parkland already owned by the town that will now stretch from the north to the south waterfronts of the Pointe de Domaine area.

The Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal, through its land acquisition fund, La Trame verte et bleue, kicked in $1.4 million, while the federal government pitched in $457,000; the provincial government added $299,000; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, under the guise of the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, provided $256,000; and the private Age of Union Fund headed by environmental activist Dax Dasilva, who is also the CEO of Montreal-based Lightspeed, an e-commerce software provider, contributed $6,000.

The acquisition adds to five hectares previously acquired by the Nature Conservancy of Canada in the same area in 2022 for just over $1 million, which also included $537,000 from the provincial government through its Projet de partenariat pour les milieux naturels; $462,000 from the federal government, through its Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund, and funds from two private foundations – $41,000 from the Age of Union and $40,000 from Echo Foundation.

Vaudreuil-Soulanges MP Peter Schiefke who was on hand for the announcement last Friday said the purchase brings the federal government’s contribution to natural land acquisitions for preservation in Notre Dame to $920,000 in the last two years, and builds on its contributions towards natural space purchases in the area, which includes preserving more than 300 hectares on Mont Rigaud. Other acquisitions are also in the works for the region, he said. The federal government’s financing of green space acquisitions is a unique way the national government can help municipalities directly.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The recently released draft of the new Montreal regional flood map is raising alarm bells across the Greater Montreal area, but nowhere are they sounding louder than in Vaudreuil-Dorion.

The new map almost doubles the number of buildings identified as being in flood risk zones to just over 15,500 – this represents almost 20,000 households – potentially negatively affecting $9.9 billion in property values across the vast territory that is the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal. But about $2 billion worth of that property is located in Vaudreuil-Dorion, says the city’s mayor Guy Pilon.

“It’s major, major for us,” said Pilon in an interview last week with The 1019 Report.

The draft map, which was unveiled Sept. 30, includes a wide swath of properties along the various waterfronts in the CMM’s territory, which includes 82 municipalities on and around the island of Montreal.

In Vaudreuil-Dorion, it now includes areas that encompass not only houses, but schools, municipal water filtrations plants and the entire Cité des Jeunes campus along  St. Charles Avenue.

“Everyone is in a panic,” Pilon said, referring to owners of properties affected by the new flood zone.

The map is based on what that CMM refers to as the “new regulatory framework” that reflects the guidelines dictated by provincial authorities.

Pilon said the impact on his city – about $2 billion – just doesn’t make sense.

Since the draft was unveiled Pilon has been receiving phone calls from homeowners who are slated to possibly be included in zones of flood risk.

Anyone who has a mortgage due for renewal is worried, Pilon said, as he blasted both the CMM and provincial authorities for how the redrawing of the flood zones is being handled. Some homeowners want to know if their mortgages will be cancelled if they cannot get insurance, while others worry that they will be left holding mortgages that end up being much larger than what their properties will be worth.

Pilon said his city is preparing a memorandum to send to the regional authority, and has already spoken to Quebec Municipal Affairs Minister Andrée Laforest, explaining how not only homeowners will be affected but how any drop in property values will affect municipal taxation revenues.

“This is high-level stupidity,” Pilon said of how the redrawing of the map was done without consulting affected municipalities.

If the map is ratified and comes into force next spring, Pilon has suggested that the province establish a new insurance fund for homeowners, similar to its no-fault insurance program for drivers. In this way, owners of properties that will be added to the widening flood zone will be able to obtain insurance coverage in order to protect their assets and secure mortgage renewals and approvals.

The proposed draft of the map is based on guidelines set out by the province. In June public consultations were launched on the map, which includes four zones of flood risk – from low to moderate, to high and very high risk. In unveiling the map, the CMM also released a memo that calls on the provincial government to change its flood-management regulations, which outline what can or cannot be built in the various flood zones as well as what types of renovations property owners in those zones can undertake.

Among the changes the CMM is calling for is a reassessment of the standards of how a residential building can be changed in order to provide greater flexibility, in particular in moderate- and high-risk zones. The regional authority is also calling for the creation of management plans for flood-prone areas.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The Nature Conservancy of Canada’s announcement last week of its $500,000 pledge to help acquire 28 acres of woodland in Vaudreuil sur le Lac is the latest grant in its growing list of financial aid to help preserve undeveloped spaces in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area.

Next week, that list will get a little bit longer, as the organization is set to unveil another grant to acquire a woodland in the Pointe du Domaine area of Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot, located in the northeastern tip of the island of Île Perrot.

The details of the financial aid for the parcel of forested land in Notre Dame will be unveiled Oct. 11, including the size of the tract of land that will be acquired.

All that is known as of this week is that the deal includes a collection of partners, including the town of Notre Dame; the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal’s greenspace preservation fund, the Trame Verte et bleue; both the federal and provincial governments; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the auspices of the North American Wetlands Conservation Act; the Age of Union foundation, a conservation agency founded by Canadian tech entrepreneur Dax Dasilva; and the Echo Foundation, a private Montreal-based charity that provides environment grants to support the protection of natural spaces of ecological importance in eastern Canada.

Both recent grants for forested wetlands in Vaudreuil sur le Lac and Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot are perfect examples of preservation projects pushed forward by municipal councils that the Nature Conservancy is proud to support, said Joë Bonin, the vice-president of development for the Nature Conservancy in Quebec, in an interview with The 1019 Report last week.

The national preservation foundation is keenly aware of all the areas highlighted by the CMM in 2022 when the regional authority imposed a development freeze on several tracts of land. The Nature Conservancy, Bonin said, aims to protect as much land deemed to have ecological value, and is committed to preserving areas in and around the Lake of Two Mountains and the Ottawa River.

Since the early 2000s, the Nature Conservancy has signed about 50 grant agreements with groups and municipalities, including several in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area. These grants include support for purchases of land on Île Claude, on Mont Rigaud, at the site of Le Nichoir bird sanctuary in Hudson and a private land trust in Hudson known as Creek 53, which preserved a 250-hectare ­territory – or more than 600 acres – of wetlands, field, meadows and woodlands in the west end of the municipality.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The town of Vaudreuil sur le Lac has struck a deal to buy more than half of a 50.5-acre forest residents have long been pushing to save from development, putting together a financing plan that will see grants cover two-thirds of the $2.8-million price tag for the land.

Before a packed house at town hall last Wednesday evening, the proposal was outlined to residents for the first time. The plan to purchase 28 acres of woodland owned by Planimax D.S.F. Inc. includes a $1.34-million subsidy from the Commaunauté métropolitaine de Montréal and a $500,000 grant from the Nature Conservancy of Canada, leaving less than $1 million for taxpayers to shoulder.

And without wasting any time, the town’s municipal council will tonight take the next step by adopting a loan bylaw for $961,500 to cover its share. The expenditure, according to municipal officials, represents an annual increase in taxes of $165 per year for the owners of an average house in the municipality, which is valued at $547,000. This estimate, based on a 30-year amortization period, is the worse-case scenario, according to town consultant Jean-François Vachon, as it has been calculated using a 5-per-cent interest rate. If interest rates continue to fall, the cost of the loan will drop as well, Vachon said.

Vaudreuil sur le Lac has only 1,361 residents and 494 private dwellings, according to the 2021 Census.

“It’s the best offer that can be presented to citizens,” said resident Geneviève Roy, a spokesperson for the Regroupement pour la protection du Boisé de Vaudreuil-sur-le-Lac, a grassroots group that has been lobbying for the preservation of the woodland.

Roy said she is optimistic taxpayers in the little town will support the deal.

“There is a value for citizens, not just of Vaudreuil sur le Lac, but for the Montérégie,” Roy added, pointing to the ecological value and the importance of preserving biodiversity in the region.

“This is a real opportunity,” said Mayor Mario Tremblay in an interview on Monday, pointing out that the woods will be preserved in perpetuity. “We are convinced this project is positive for everyone.”

The remaining portion of the forest – 22.5 acres – is currently owned by a family and is not under immediate threat of development, Tremblay said last Wednesday evening. But the long-range plan would be for the town to acquire that land as well, he said.

In an interview with The 1019 Report last weekend, Roy said her group continues to lobby for the protection of the remaining part of the forest, but explained that given the fact that much of that section of the forest is wetlands, the current owner cannot develop much of it.

Once council adopts the loan bylaw tonight, the town will hold a register, providing citizens who are against the expenditure to voice their opposition. If enough residents sign the register, the town would be forced to either withdraw the loan bylaw or hold a referendum on the issue. Although no exact date has been set as of yesterday, a register would be held some time this month, town officials said. Tremblay said it would take slightly more than 100 signatures on the register to force the issue to a town-wide vote.

Although the town is moving quickly after having struck a deal with one of the two owners of the forest, the fate of the woodland, one of the last undeveloped areas in the municipality, has been on the public’s radar for almost two decades.

According to the town’s last urban development plan adopted in 2007, the tract of land was slated for residential development, with zoning bylaws permitting it to be subdivided into about 45 lots for single-family homes.

In 2016, the town approved a conservation plan aimed at protecting wetlands within its territory. This plan identified part of the woodland as having a high ecological value as it contained wetlands and old-growth trees.

The following year, the council, which represented the previous administration, adopted a development freeze on the forest, putting on hold any subdivision and construction in the area.

In 2020, a group of citizens advocating for the preservation of the forest began lobbying to save the woodland, which has several walking trails that are enjoyed by many residents.

In October of 2021, the current council submitted a request for funding to the CMM’s greenspace preservation fund known as the Trame Verte et bleue to help finance the acquisition of the land.

Then, in April 2022, the CMM imposed its own interim control bylaw that put a stop to all construction projects on a vast tapestry of undeveloped spaces across its territory in the Greater Montreal region, including the forest in Vaudreuil sur le Lac and other areas in Vaudrueil-Soulanges, like the area surrounding Sandy Beach on the shores of the Lake of Two Mountains in Hudson.

In July 2022, Planimax D.S.F. filed a lawsuit against the CMM over the development freeze, naming the town as a party to the action. But the company agreed to put its legal action on hold in early 2023 pending negotiations with the town to see if a deal to sell the land could be struck.

In January 2024, Planimax offered to sell its holdings to the town. And in June a deal was agreed upon.

The fate of the deal now rests with the town’s taxpayers, who will decide if they support the plan put together to acquire the forest. If they support it, the deal is expected to be finalized in early 2025.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The town of Hudson has denied The 1019 Report’s access-to-information request seeking the amount the municipality has paid in legal fees related to its interactions with a resident at the centre of a 10-year fight over a fence.

Citing a section of the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and three sections of the provincial Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information, the town refused a request for the amounts it has dispersed in legal fees between 2014 and August 2024 in the decade-old fight with resident Trevor Smith, who last month was refused a minor derogation to allow the six-foot wooden fence that runs the width of his property in front of his house on Côte St. Charles to stand. According to town bylaws, a fence along the front of a property cannot be more than four feet in height.

In a three-page letter sent to The 1019 Report last week, assistant town clerk Renée Huneault pointed to Section 9 of the charter of rights that claims “every person has a right to non-disclosure of confidential information.”

This despite the fact that every month, Hudson council approves a list of expenditures, including legal fees that are listed by specific amounts paid to a variety of legal firms with each payment broken down by file number.

The letter goes on to state, ironically: “The information contained in the list of payments approved by the council is the only information that we can disclose.”

In response, The 1019 Report filed a second request with the town last week asking for the list of payments made to legal firms for the same 10-year period, from January 2014 to Sept. 1, 2024, as presented at the monthly meetings on the “Liste de paiements,” which council approves, that includes a breakdown of the amounts for each firm identified by its file number.

The 1019 Report has also filed a request to have the town’s denial of its original request reviewed by the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec.

The town also denied the newspaper’s request to know how many fines Smith has been issued between 2014, when the fence was installed, and August 2024, and how much these fines totalled.

The battle over the fence dates back to 2014, when Smith install a six-foot-high wooden privacy fence across the front of his property after claiming snow-clearing operations and the excessive use of salt on the roads in winter damaged the 18-foot cedar hedge that acted as a visual barrier between his house and the street.

The situation has resulted in municipal fines issued to Smith, who, in turn, filed a lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court, which he lost and subsequently appealed to the Court of Appeals, which upheld the original judgment. Now, the battle appears poised to continue if not escalate, as the homeowner last week filed a complaint with the Commission Municipal du Québec and claims to be preparing to seek leave to have his case heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in the wake of being denied a minor derogation that would allow his fence to stay in place.

In the meantime, the town is weighing its option to proceed with a court-backed mandate to remove the fence.

Smith had previously filed two other complaints over the fence – one with the MRC Vaudreuil-Soulanges claiming discrimination and denial of his rights, and another separate complaint with the CMQ.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The Île aux Tourtes Bridge will be closed in both directions again this coming weekend.

The span will close completely in both directions at midnight the night of Friday, Sept. 20, and reopen in the early morning hours of Monday, Sept. 23.

This is the second full-weekend closure of the bridge so far this month. The span was closed two weekends ago, from Friday, Sept. 6, to Monday, Sept. 9.

The closures are deemed necessary to advance work in the installation of steel structures under a portion of the east end of the bridge. These structures are designed to provide additional support to the span.

To accommodate this phase of the work, crews will be extending two jetties into the lake from the eastern shores in Senneville. These jetties have been serving as work areas, allowing workers to install piles. The new steel structures will eventually rest on the piles and provide additional support for the old bridge’s main beams.

Once the steel structures are in place, Transport Quebec said it may be able to open more lanes across the span. No timeline for that, however, has been put forward.

Earlier this summer, work to build the jetties forced Transport Quebec to bring in a team of biologists to relocated more than 33,000 freshwater mussels from the site. It is believed that this move is a first for a construction site in the province given its scope.

The mussels that inhabit the floor of the Lake of Two Mountains were deemed to be at risk of being crushed by the construction of the jetties.

The mussels, which can live up to 30 years, are considered an endangered species that mature slowly, thus making them slower to reproduce. If the mussels had not been moved, biologists believe it would have taken decades for the population in the lake to recover.

The mussels were moved to another areas in the lake, away from the construction zone.

Transport Quebec has committed that the mussels in the Lake of Two Mountains will be observed until 2026 to ensure their survival.

Since the beginning of 2024, the bridge has seen five complete closures in both directions, including the weekend shutdown two weeks ago.

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

In its ongoing efforts to foster support for the merger of the towns on Île Perrot, representatives of the grassroots group Avenir Île Perrot – Becoming Île Perrot began meeting with elected officials on the island this week to gauge support for municipal fusion.

The members of the group met with the municipal council of Pincourt on Monday, the first of what the group’s representatives are hoping will be a series of sessions with the elected delegations in Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot, L’Île Perrot and Terrasse Vaudreuil. The goal is to outline the group’s objective and seek the support of the councillors and mayors of all four towns to request the provincial government conduct a feasibility study that will outline the pros and cons of merging.

The group has scheduled meetings with the councils of L’Île Perrot and Terrasse Vaudreuil and is awaiting confirmation from Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot.

“The goal of the meeting with the councils and mayors is to have them say it’s a good idea to do a study,” said Avenir Île Perrot – Becoming Île Perrot spokesman Gérard Farmer.

According to Farmer, the provincial Municipal Affairs Ministry would conduct the study at no cost to the towns. It would outline the economic impacts of consolidating the administrations of the four towns and well as the service implications, both in the short and long term, and the significance on cultural, sporting and leisure services that could be offered to residents into the future.

“There would be no loss of jobs,” Farmer said, explaining the framework of any eventual merger would not result in layoffs. Municipal workforces, he added, could be reorganized, with some personnel possibly reassigned.

The most important next step, Farmer said, is to conduct the feasibility study so that both elected officials and residents can make an informed decision.

Once the study would be completed, the findings would be shared publicly, he said.

The group is hoping that all four municipalities will come together to formally ask Quebec to conduct the study. The group cannot request the move without the support of the elected councils. The study does not commit the municipalities to an eventual merger, Farmer stressed. It is merely a diagnostic tool to see if enough benefit exists in the concept of municipal fusion. The study would take up to three months to complete, he added.

“If the towns do not ask for the study, we will not have a study,” Farmer continue, adding that it would be reckless to not take advantage of what the provincial government is offering.

“We can’t say we don’t want to know. That is not good management,” he said.

If the four towns on Île Perrot merged, the new entity would be the second largest municipality in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region, with a population of about 40,600, only slightly smaller than Vaudreuil-Dorion. The new town would be the 35^th largest municipality in Quebec and the fourth largest in the greater Suroît region, which includes Valleyfield, Châteauguay and Vaudreuil-Soulanges.

The new municipality would be better able to afford to build venues like arenas and cultural event spaces, the group contends, and give residents of the island more clout within the MRC of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the larger Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal and with the provincial government, which provides a number of grants and subsidies for municipal projects, many of which are prioritized based, in part, on the number of residents these projects will benefit.

Avenir Île Perrot – Becoming Île Perrot was formed earlier this year, created by a group of residents who believe that the time has come to launch a public conversation about creating a shared vision of how the island should be development and provide a broad range of cultural and sports services to its growing population.

In 1854, the island of Île Perrot consisted of one municipality, the group points out. In the middle of the last century, from 1948 to 1958, it was divided into five municipalities. In 1984, that dropped to four with the merger of the towns of Pointe du Moulin with the parish of Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot.

The 1019 Report

After an almost nine-month search, the town of Hudson earlier this month hired a new treasurer. But as that key administrative post is finally filled, town hall continues to operate with a musical-chairs-type of approach to staffing as its director-general has extended her medical leave.

The hiring of Cristian Frincu as director of finance was confirmed by council Sept. 3. Among his first tasks will be to finalize the municipality’s finance report for 2023, which was due to be submitted to the provincial government by June 30. So far, no timeline has been offered as to when Hudson will file its financial report.

Frincu will be helped by what municipal officials are calling a coach, a consultant contracted last month to support his integration into the administration. The move was deemed necessary as Frincu lacks experience in the municipal field. His experience stems from a variety of posts in the private sector.

Meanwhile, Hudson’s director-general, Marie-Jacinthe Roberge, has extended her medical leave, and is not expected to return to work until the end of September.

Roberge’s sudden leave of absence last month, prompted council to name an interim director-general. Veteran municipal administrator Martin Houde, who was first contracted by Hudson in September 2022 on a temporary basis to serve as interim director-general, resumed the role in August, when Roberge took a three-week leave. That leave has now been extended to Sept. 27, Mayor Chloe Hutchison confirmed Monday.

Roberge was hired by the town in May 2023 as assistant director-general. Although she lacked experience as a top municipal administrator, Houde’s contract as interim-director-general was extended at that time to assist the transition. Earlier this year, Roberge was promoted to director-general, prompting Houde to take a step back. But council opted to extend him a new contract as special projects co-ordinator on a part-time basis.

Last month, when Houde was tapped to take on the role as interim director-general, he also assumed the role of interim treasurer. Although he now relinquished his responsibilities as interim treasurer, he will continue as interim director-general on a part-time basis.