Author name: Brome County News

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Lac-Brome Museum is launching a community-based fundraising campaign to raise the more than $1.5 million needed to get its long-planned expansion across the finish line.

The expansion is expected to take the form of a 6,000-square-foot extension to the current reception building, which will hold three galleries (including one featuring a new permanent exhibit on the Abenaki people), an expanded reception area, a collections lab, storage space and “flexible spaces” that can be rented out for events, Denis Piquette, executive director of the Brome Lake Historical Society, which oversees the museum, previously told the BCN. It will also be equipped with an elevator and washrooms accessible for people with reduced mobility, and a heating system which will allow it to stay open year-round.

Earlier this year, the historical society received a $2.21-million grant from the federal government through the Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing and Communities Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) program, focused on developing “community spaces” in official language minority and Indigenous communities using energy-efficient construction techniques. The grant covered 60 per cent of the estimated cost of the project.

After the grant was confirmed, the next step was to get the necessary approvals from the Town of Brome Lake (TOBL), which funded the hiring of a consultant architect to make sure the museum fit in with the town’s wider urban plan. “We met with [the architect] and then met with the town’s consultative committee on urbanism. Council reviewed and approved the project on Sept. 2.

The last major step – before breaking ground on the extension itself – is fundraising to cover the remaining 40 per cent of the costs of the project. The fundraising campaign will be formally launched at a ceremony at 10 a.m. on Oct. 10 on the museum grounds (inside the children’s museum in case of rain).

“We are trying to raise about $2 million, and any donation would get a tax receipt,” Piquette told the BCN last week. “We haven’t worked out all of the details, but key donors will be officially recognized with a wall space or something like that.”

Piquette said the historical society has been assured of “a few good-sized pledges already” and hopes to raise the full amount by the end of the year. Some engineering studies remain to be done before the municipality can issue a building permit. “We don’t really have a deadline, as long as we have enough to start paying for construction costs,” he said. “We hope to start building by early spring of next year.” If all goes according to plan, he expects the annex to open in spring of 2027.  

TOBL spokesperson Ghyslain Forcier confirmed that the town had paid for an architect to review the project, but said any further support, such as a financial contribution, help with the crowdfunding campaign or donations of objects for the exhibits, would be “up to the new council” which will take office after the Nov. 2 election.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS is now offering a new test for human papillomavirus (HPV), one of the leading causes of cervical cancer, public health officials announced last week.

The test replaces the “pap smear” test for HPV and cervical cancer that women are generally advised to get every two to three years between the ages of 21 and 65. Women will now only have to get tested every five years, unless they are at particularly high risk due to a weakened immune system, chronic HPV infections or a history of cancer in the genital area. Regular testing will begin at age 25 instead of 21. The new test is also more precise than its predecessor, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

The new test is not less invasive than the classic “pap smear,” which involves a family doctor or gynecologist inserting a speculum into the patient’s vagina and then using a small brush or spatula to collect a sample of cells. However, patients can now choose to have their doctor do the test or collect the cell sample themselves under a doctor’s supervision. According to the MSSS, studies are also underway to look into the effectiveness of take-home test kits.

Dr. Valérie Carré is a gynecologist at Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins hospital. She explained that the previous test – developed more than 50 years ago, before scientists made the link between HPV and cervical cancer – was designed to detect precancerous cells; by detecting the virus before it can cause cervical cancer, it allows doctors and patients to get ahead of the disease.

“When the HPV test is negative, we are not worried for the next five years. We can space out the tests more, and it’s more reassuring for the patient. It’s also cost- and time-effective because it allows us to focus follow-up testing on those who really need it.”

HPV is a very common sexually transmitted disease – more than 80 per cent of women who are sexually active will be infected at one point in their lives. HPV infections often clear up on their own, especially in younger women. People who test positive may be referred for further testing, although Carré hopes the more precise exam will reduce the need for invasive follow-up testing for patients who ultimately don’t need it.

The new test has been rolled out gradually, region by region; it is now available in 12 of Quebec’s 19 regions. Concurrently, there’s an ongoing provincewide vaccination campaign against HPV; the vaccine – which is injected in the upper arm like most vaccines – is free to anyone under age 46 with a cervix. Appointments can be made via ClicSanté. While getting the vaccine lowers your risk of developing cervical cancer by 90 per cent, it does not remove the need for regular exams, Carré said. 

Carré said social taboos around discussing young people’s sexuality – especially in preadolescence, when the HPV vaccine is recommended – are still causing unnecessary anxiety, and at worst, unnecessary infection. “We need to inform people as early as possible as to what HPV is, what the consequences are, and the importance of vaccination and testing to get ahead of the precancerous cells.” 

“The HPV test is part of the efforts of the MSSS to prioritize cancer prevention,” public health officials said in a statement. “It should be noted that HPV infection is the leading cause of cervical cancer. Early detection of this disease allows for faster action to prevent the health of affected women from deteriorating, which represents a step forward in women’s health. It should be noted that the MSSS is working on implementing the first-ever national health prevention strategy, which will focus in particular on the adoption of healthy lifestyle habits and early screening.”

“”The fight against cervical cancer is crucial. This requires better access to a screening test like this. It’s a major advance in preventive health that can really make a difference. This is very good news for women in the Eastern Townships,” said Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest. “I’m proud that they can now benefit from it, and I encourage them to take advantage of it now.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

More than 100 people attended the town of Bromont’s first Housing Forum (Forum sur l’habitation), held Sept. 20 at the Centre communautaire de Bromont.

In the morning, town officials met with property developers and community organizations working to improve access to housing. In the afternoon, participants had the opportunity to take part in six workshops designed to collect their opinions and impressions about the housing situation in Bromont. The first workshop was focused on the town’s housing report, released in August, which indicated that access to property, access to affordable rental housing and population growth would continue to be major concerns in the coming years. The second, third and fourth workshops dealt with types of housing, regulations around add-on housing units and best practices for integrating new residential building projects into the urban landscape. The fifth session covered affordable housing, and the sixth gave participants the chance to “make a wish” for the future of housing in the municipality.

Access to affordable housing is a major challenge in the municipality, for homeowners and aspiring homeowners as well as renters. The housing report found that a two-person household would have to earn just over $130,000 – $30,000 more than the current median household income – to afford to buy a home, and that the rising cost of home ownership meant people who would otherwise decide to buy a home are renting longer, increasing demand for rental units and pushing rents upward. One in five renters and one in 10 homeowners spend 30 per cent or more of their income to stay in their homes. The majority of people who work in Bromont don’t live there, and the report suggests housing costs are a factor.

Mayor Tatiana Contreras told the BCN the forum was the first of a series of planned consultations about the housing policy and the long-planned revision of the town’s urban plan. The town also recently created a $300,000 affordable housing fund, to incentivize developers to propose affordable housing projects.

“I found it extraordinary that so many people wanted to participate on a beautiful Saturday afternoon,” she added. “People talked about what they were most worried about – densification and preserving the landscape. I really want to thank them for their enthusiasm.”

Those who didn’t attend the in-person event but still want to express their concerns can fill out an online questionnaire on the town website until Oct. 4. The form is available in French only, but answers written in English will be taken into account. After the Oct. 4 deadline, town staff will compile the data and “use it to help us put together a housing policy to make sure projects respond to the needs of the population,” Contreras said.

Contreras said the consultation was “the first step in an ongoing process” of determining the future of residential development in Bromont. “There will be a new council [after the Nov. 2 election] but council will continue to work on this.” She expects the housing policy to be released in January, before the new urban plan.

“This forum marks a significant step in our public participation approach, essential for fueling reflection on the revision of the urban planning scheme and the development of our future housing policy,” communications director Amélie Casaubon said in a statement. “Other discussions with stakeholders will be organized so that we can hear all points of view, in accordance with our public participation policy.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A coroner is calling for better coordination between the Sûreté du Québec and local ambulance services following an investigation into the death of a woman in Stukely-Sud in 2022.

Jocelyne Lessard, 66, lived in Longueuil but had a secondary residence in Stukely-Sud. Shortly after 5:30 p.m. on June 12, 2022, she called 911 to report that an unknown man had broken into her chalet and was chasing her. “While the dispatcher is asking Ms. Lessard various questions, a man demands the car keys,” the report prepared by coroner Kathleen Gélinas goes on. “Ms. Lessard is shouting in pain and no longer responding to the 911 dispatcher’s questions.”

“Without interrupting the call, the dispatcher contacts the Sûreté du Québec. When a man starts speaking to the dispatcher in place of Ms. Lessard, the [911] dispatcher connects him to the Sûreté du Québec dispatcher.”

The call is transferred again, from the main Sûreté du Québec (SQ) dispatch centre to the SQ call centre for the MRC Memphremagog. About 40 minutes after the initial call, an SQ supervisor arrives at the cabin; the supervisor and their colleague search the house and Lessard’s car, which is parked nearby, and find no one. They respond to an apparently unrelated call which turns out to have been made from Lessard’s phone. The officers locate the phone and find Lessard nearby, unresponsive. She was pronounced dead later that evening. According to the coroner’s report, she died due to blunt force trauma to the head.

Three weeks after her death, Jean-Philippe Coutu, a Waterloo man with documented mental health problems, who had been pulled over by the SQ earlier that day for a suspected traffic violation and “made incoherent statements,” was charged with second-degree murder; he was later found not criminally responsible. The Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, the provincial body charged with investigating suspected police misconduct, also investigated, but found no wrongdoing on the part of the SQ officers.

A coroner’s report can only be released once all other investigations surrounding a death are complete, hence the release of Gelinas’ report nearly three years after Lessard’s murder. Coroners can rule on the cause of a person’s death, but cannot assign blame to any one person or institution. However, they can and do make recommendations aimed at avoiding similar tragedies.

In this case, Gélinas recommended that the SQ work with the regional 911 call centre, the Centre d’appels d’urgence de Chaudière-Appalaches (CAUCA), to “review as soon as possible the transfer procedures for a 911 call containing sensitive information taken during the initial call” and “review protocols which link primary 911 call centres to police emergency call centres to allow for a second call to communicate sensitive information, particularly when the speaker changes in a context of presumed violence.” She noted that the 911 dispatcher could have acted to alert police dispatchers that they were not talking to the initial caller. “I recommend that call transfer protocols be reviewed [to account for] cases where the speaker changes, in a context of presumed violence.” She noted that the implantation of long-awaited “next-generation 911” technology, slated for 2027, allowing callers to send text messages, photos and videos to a dispatcher and first responders to access more precise location information, would make emergency services more accessible and help first responders. “However, we can anticipate that situations involving a change of speaker could still happen.”

The Sûreté du Québec did not respond to a request for comment from the BCN by press time.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Brome Lake residents will be able to provide their input on the landmarks that have marked life and history in the community as part of the new civic consultation platform on the town’s website. Town officials intend for the platform, conceived by Joliette-based digital consulting firm Blanko, to be used to collect public input on a variety of public issues in the future, through quick surveys, polls, public consultations and presentations of major projects, they said.

“Included in the 2024-2028 strategic plan, this initiative demonstrates the municipality’s desire to strengthen citizen participation and foster open and constructive dialogue between the public and the municipal administration,” town spokesperson Ghyslain Forcier said in a statement on Sept. 24.

The platform, modelled on a similar project in Rimouski that was also developed by Blanko, was launched along with its first public consultation. “Citizens are invited to identify, on an interactive map, places of interest that, in their view, stand out in the Brome Lake area,” Forcier explained. “This approach helps fuel collective reflection and enrich discussions surrounding the overhaul of the urban plan … We’re very proud to be taking this step and putting in place a digital framework.”

“Residents are invited to submit spots that have had an effect on them, them whether it’s a heritage space or a place that that has a lot of memories for them or a memorable landscape or a cultural space, they can submit it with a photo; my colleague will take the data and it will be taken into account when we remake our urban plan.”

“This new tool reflects our desire to further involve the public in the decisions that shape our living environment. Everyone’s participation is valuable and will help us build projects that reflect the aspirations of our community,” Brome Lake Mayor Richard Burcombe said in a statement.

“Your input will be used, and it will influence certain ‘grandes lignes’ of our urban plan,” said Forcier, adding that the consultation platform was “bilingual, like all our tools.”

He said the platform would cost the municipality an estimated $2,500 annually, and was not covered by a grant.

Brome Lake intends to build on its experience with the digital consultation platform to develop a public consultation policy, along the lines of the policy recently developed in Bromont, over the course of 2026.

Brome Lake residents are invited to discover the platform online for themselves at portail.lacbrome.ca/en.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Starting this fall, COVID-19 booster shots will no longer be offered for free to the general public in Quebec pharmacies. The shots will still be free for members of high-risk groups, namely seniors 65 and older, people living in nursing homes or other shared living environments, health workers, pregnant women, people living in certain remote areas and younger adults with chronic health conditions. Quebecers who are not part of those risk groups will have to pay between $150 and $180 to get a booster shot, according to the Association québécoise des pharmaciens propriétaires.

Dr. Nicholas Brosseau is a public health specialist at the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) and a member of Quebec’s provincial immunization committee, which issues recommendations around vaccination to the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS). “I’m not involved in the decision – the health minister makes the decision – but there’s a Quebec vaccination committee and a pan-Canadian vaccination committee, and they both recommended a targeted vaccination program [focused on] older people,” he said. “That’s where we can make a difference.”

“Among young, healthy people, there is a very low risk of complications,” he said. “Most people have had COVID a few times and been vaccinated a few times. “Your first infection is usually your most severe. Long COVID is still a concern for young people, and we reduce the risk of long COVID [through vaccination] but recent studies have shown that yearly booster shots don’t make that much of a difference. The risk of long COVID is very low [if you don’t already have it after being infected several times].”

However, Brosseau cautioned that the “younger people are at lower risk” rule of thumb doesn’t apply to everyone, and that some young adults should get a booster shot. “Older people are often aware they are at higher risk, but sometimes young people with chronic illnesses – with diabetes or heart problems, for example – aren’t aware they are at risk. They are being targeted by this fall’s campaign.”

As of this writing, it was unclear how young people who were part of higher-risk groups, particularly those without a family doctor, would “prove” their status.

MSSS spokesperson Marie-Pierre Blier said more information about the logistics of the upcoming vaccination campaign would be announced “very soon.” Vaccination campaigns in previous years have typically kicked into high gear in early October.

While Blier said the ministry’s decision was based on “the most recent scientific information about who would draw the most significant benefits from vaccination,” she did note that “in previous years, significant quantities of doses were supplied to Quebec by the federal government, which is no longer the case.” 

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The municipality of Farnham has ordered further tests after higher-than-expected levels of per- and polyfluoroalkylates – more commonly known as PFAS or “forever chemicals” – were found in residue from the town’s water treatment plant.

Water treatment residue, also called sewage sludge or biosolids, is sometimes used as fertilizer for large-scale farming operations, in place of chemical fertilizer or manure. In March, Quebec’s environment ministry imposed PFAS concentration limits for biosolids, beyond which they could not be used for fertilizer. The new norms are scheduled to take effect in November. “When the Quebec government announced new standards [for PFAS levels], we could have waited a year [to test the biosolids], but I’ve always believed you need to be proactive for things like that,” Farnham Mayor Patrick Melchior told the BCN. “It turns out we’re higher than normal. We’ve ordered other tests and we should have the results from one day to the next.”

The town’s priorities are now to find out where the elevated levels are coming from and keep further PFAS contamination from leaching into the town’s drinking water, which is drawn from the Yamaska River, Melchior said. He emphasized that the levels detected were not threatening to human or plant health, but “we need to find out where it’s coming from to keep it from getting in the water. We need to take time to do things right.”

Melchior said local farmers and the Quebec Ministry of Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP) were contacted as soon as the higher PFAS levels were detected. “There have been discussions with [the environment ministry] and they have assured us of their support – they have to help us find a way.”

PFAS have been used for decades in fire retardants, antiadhesive coatings, food wrapping and some cosmetics, to make materials waterproof, stainproof or fire-resistant. According to Health Canada, prolonged PFAS exposure may affect a person’s liver, kidney and thyroid function; metabolism; and immune response. While many once-common uses of PFAS have been phased out since their health effects became apparent, the substances are notoriously hard to break down, hence the name “forever chemicals.”

“Once they’re there, they’re there, although maybe future scientific research will find a way” to remove PFAS from groundwater, Melchior said.

The fact that the chemicals have been so common also makes their sources hard to pinpoint. Farnham is home to a decommissioned military base, and outdated Cold War-era chemical storage practices at CFB Valcartier, near Quebec City, were linked to the contamination of groundwater in a nearby municipality. However, it’s far from clear that the elevated PFAS levels in Farnham are linked to the base. As Melchior pointed out, “these chemicals are in lots of things.” A worldwide study, published in 2024 in the journal Nature Geoscience, found that they were present in 31 per cent of groundwater samples. 

“We will investigate, and all parties need to get involved, because this concerns everybody,” the mayor said.

The Department of National Defence (DND) and the MELCCFP could not comment by the BCN’s deadline, although a DND spokesperson said a response would be provided at a later date.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

About 60,000 ducks were slaughtered in a preventative cull last week at Brome Lake Ducks after a single duck tested positive for H5N1 bird flu (also referred to as highly pathogenic avian influenza or HPAI) at one of the company’s breeding facilities.

For privacy reasons, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) does not reveal the specific locations of bird flu outbreaks at commercial poultry farms, but the company confirmed the outbreak had occurred on its premises in a statement sent to La Voix de l’Est. The company told the paper that it was concentrating on putting in place the disinfection measures mandated by the CFIA, and did not plan to comment further. The company had not responded to requests for comment from the BCN by press time.

Products purchased from Brome Lake Ducks remain safe to eat; according to the CFIA, there is no evidence that eating cooked poultry or eggs can transmit the virus to humans.

However, there have been isolated cases of humans catching the virus through contact with live birds, hence the practice of preventive culls. “A key part of managing HPAI outbreaks is the humane culling of infected domestic flocks,” a CFIA information document states. “Culling methods are quick and humane and aim to minimize suffering and distress. This measure is also extremely important in limiting spread of the virus and its opportunity to amplify, change and infect other species, including humans.”

On Sept. 15, the CFIA designated a large swath of the town of Brome Lake a “primary control zone” for HPAI, requiring all poultry farms operating in the area to conduct certain surveillance operations to detect suspected bird flu cases. Farms in affected areas are also asked not to bring new hens or baby birds onto their premises during this time. Farms where an infection has been detected are required to remove contaminated products through burning, burial or other approved methods; thoroughly clean and disinfect all affected surfaces and equipment, through a six-step process approved by the CFIA, before the measures can be revoked. For two weeks following the disinfection procedure, farms have the option of either implementing strict surveillance measures to ensure the outbreak is over, or letting the facility sit empty for two weeks.

This is the second time Brome Lake Ducks has been faced with a bird flu outbreak since the virus became endemic in Canada in 2022. That year, an outbreak hit four of its production facilities, leading to the culling of 200,000 birds. Three hundred employees were laid off during the time it took for the company to safely restart its operations. At the time, director of operations Angela Anderson told reporters it would take about a year, and several million dollars, for operations to return to normal. Farms are not reimbursed for costs associated with managing a bird flu outbreak; the business must absorb the costs of the cull itself, the disinfection process and any lost earnings.

In a statement, the Town of Brome Lake alerted residents to the outbreak and advised bird owners to disinfect places where birds were kept and limit contact with wild or commercially raised live birds. It advised small-scale poultry producers to limit the number of visitors to their farms and “avoid all contact, for example, personnel sharing” with larger operations.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town of Farnham is building a new community centre with support from a local foundation, officials announced last week.

The facility will feature meeting rooms of various sizes and a gym and be built on vacant land in the Des Braves neighbourhood behind the town’s existing recreation centre, the Centre Romuald-Potvin. It will be funded by the Fondation Farnham-Rainville and the municipality; town officials also plan to request government grants to further offset the cost to taxpayers. The cost, detailed timeline and appearance of the future multipurpose centre remain to be seen; Mayor Patrick Melchior told the BCN the project was “still at the architects’-sketch stage” and details about the cost of the project would become clear in the coming year. The project is expected to be completed sometime in 2027, in partnership with the Fonds de développement Farnham-Rainville (FDFR), which will contribute a yet-to-be-determined amount.

“This ambitious project…will offer practical and accessible installations, including offices and multipurpose spaces for the municipality,” Annie Lévesque, director of communications and citizen relations for the town of Farnham, said in a statement on Sept. 17. “It will allow us to centralize several activities under one roof, favouring the collaborative development of community activities. It will also offer inclusive and adaptable spaces for residents, community organizations and partners, including meeting and training rooms, family and community event spaces and a large gymnasium-type room for various sports activities.”

Melchior said the project had been the subject of discussions for several years. “We have nearly 50 accredited community organizations, and the population is growing fast,” he said. “We’ve had to refuse proposals from community groups for activities because we don’t have the space.”

The FDFR was founded in 1998 by the town of Farnham, the former neighbouring municipality of Rainville and members of the local business community to encourage businesses to set up shop in the area. Melchior said that now that the foundation has achieved its original goal – “the industrial park doesn’t have any vacancies anymore” – it is in a position to help fund community service-centred projects. FDFR board chair Serge Seney said in a statement that the foundation was “proud to contribute to a project that will reinforce the dynamism and vitality of Farnham.”

“This centre represents a major investment in the quality of life of our citizens and the dynamism of our community,’” Melchior said. “Over time, we’d like for the community to take ownership of it and enjoy it.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest was given additional responsibilities when Premier François Legault went ahead with a long-planned Cabinet shuffle on Sept. 10. In addition to her portfolio as minister of sports, recreation and the outdoors, which she has held since 2022, Charest was named minister responsible for the Estrie region.

In that post, Charest succeeded Granby MNA François Bonnardel, who was named transport minister in Legault’s first cabinet in 2018 and was later moved to public safety. Legault chose to remove Bonnardel from Cabinet in a move that was widely interpreted as a response to his handling of the SAAQClic debacle.

In a brief French-language interview while en route to launch the espace konect small business incubator in Bromont, Charest said she was honoured to succeed Bonnardel, a longtime colleague who was “one of the reasons [she] got into politics.”

Charest represented Canada at three Olympic Games in short-track speedskating and remained involved in the Olympic movement in Canada after her retirement; she worked in public relations and communications, co-owned a gym and worked as a sports and nutrition communicator before she was elected in 2018. She was named sports and recreation minister in 2022 after a brief tenure as minister responsible for the status of women; she is taking over the Estrie portfolio for the first time. 

“You never know what’s going to happen when there’s a cabinet shuffle,” she said. “There had been some discussions about reducing the number of ministers. I didn’t really have any expectations around [getting a particular post]. I want to thank Mr. Bonnardel for the work he has done. I accept these responsibilities with a lot of humility.”

Each of Quebec’s 17 regions has a designated cabinet minister, who usually holds another cabinet post at the same time. Charest said that having a regional portfolio was “like being an MNA in a riding” except on a larger scale. “Our role is to ensure that the particularities of the region are taken into account by the government – to bring regional priorities to the table and make sure everyone is well represented.”

Charest noted that the Legault government has designated four broad policy priorities for the coming year – the economy, public safety, state efficiency and identity. “Estrie can position itself well in those four sectors. The question is, how can we take its strengths into account and work on those four priorities in the region in collaboration with other stakeholders?”

She said she is eager to meet with stakeholders and advocacy groups serving the wider region –  “just like we do in Brome-Missisquoi” – including groups serving the English-speaking community, such as Townshippers’, and groups working to promote health care accessibility.

Charest said she did plan to run in the next election despite polls suggesting the CAQ government was headed for a bruising defeat. “This is a very important job, and I take it very seriously, and the experience has been positive over the last few years working with communities.”

Charest reminded constituents that her Brome-Missisquoi riding office is always ready to address their concerns in French or English.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

English-language school boards, parents’ groups and teachers’ unions are reacting with caution and some optimism after former Treasury Board president Sonia LeBel succeeded Bernard Drainville as education minister on Sept. 10.

The long-announced cabinet shuffle saw Drainville move from the education portfolio to environment and former housing minister France-Élaine Duranceau take over LeBel’s old Treasury Board post. Other high-profile moves included Geneviève Guilbault leaving transport for municipal affairs, former infrastructure minister Jonatan Julien – a former Quebec City councillor who’s intimately familiar with the headline-making third link and tramway projects in that region – moving to transport, Pascale Déry – who angered many in the English-speaking community by becoming the face of the government’s restrictions on English universities and out-of-province student enrolment – moving from higher education to employment, and Martine Biron moving from international relations to higher education. Christopher Skeete was named minister responsible for relations for English-speaking Quebecers – a responsibility which he held in Legault’s first cabinet. Ian Lafrenière took over the public safety portfolio from François Bonnardel, under scrutiny for his handling of the SAAQClic debacle as transport minister, who was not named to cabinet. Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest, who keeps her previous portfolio as minister of sport, recreation and leisure, will take over Bonnardel’s former file as minister responsible for Estrie.

The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA), of which the Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB) is a member, welcomed the shift from Drainville to LeBel in education. “We look forward to rebuilding the strong and respectful relationship that once characterized our sector’s collaboration with the ministry,” said QESBA president Joe Ortona. “Our school boards stand ready to propose solutions and innovative approaches to further strengthen an already successful system for our students, staff, and communities.”

In a later interview, Ortona said he knew “very little” about LeBel and didn’t know what to expect from her tenure. “They [the Coalition Avenir Québec government] don’t have a good record in terms of education and an even worse record in terms of English education. We want to meet and build bridges [but] we are being very cautious.” Major priorities for QESBA include securing greater control over school board budgets and dealing with the impacts of the cuts announced earlier this summer.

“The only time we got to meet with Minister Drainville was on Bill 23 [a reform of school board and service centre governance from which English boards were ultimately exempted],” Ortona added. “Other than that, we have been largely ignored by a government which has done the bare minimum to keep dialogue open. I will be pleasantly surprised if things change.”

Major public sector unions have previous experience with LeBel, who led negotiations with teachers and with the Common Front of public sector unions. “I didn’t speak with her, but I believe she spoke with [my counterparts at the two major francophone teachers’ unions],” said Heidi Yetman, president of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers. “I heard that she and her team were respectful and competent, and we came to an agreement. We are pleased but cautious, because it is the CAQ and they are very anti-union.”

Like Ortona, Yetman hopes to have the opportunity to meet with LeBel in the near future. “We are facing a lot of budget cuts that it looks like will harm students, and we hope to have a meeting with her because she needs to hear from us. I’ve already sent a letter to congratulate her and request a meeting.” Yetman said she hopes LeBel will address “systemic underfunding” in the public school system and pay more attention to the specific needs of the English sector. “We’re used to working with few resources, and now we have even less,” she said. “We’re still stuck with a lack of funding for education, and education is the basis of a healthy society.”

Katherine Korakakis, president of the English Parents’ Committee Association of Quebec (EPCQ), is also eager to meet with LeBel to “share the perspectives of English-speaking families and to work together on solutions that ensure every child has the chance to thrive,” she said in a statement.

EPCA is calling on LeBel to “prioritize the success and well-being of students by reinforcing support services, maintaining qualified staff in schools, and engaging directly with parents as active partners in education,” the statement said.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Women without access to a family doctor will have an opportunity to get gynecological exams in a safe and welcoming environment; get tested for cervical cancer, common sexually transmitted and bloodborne diseases; and take long-term contraceptive measures (implant, IUD, prescribed birth control) at the GMF La Pommeraie in Cowansville on Nov. 1. Horizon Pour Elles will also be onsite to offer resources to anyone who might be experiencing domestic violence or concerned about a friend or family member in a dangerous situation.

The clinic is free and open to women from around the Brome-Missisquoi and Haute-Yamaska regions – and anyone who has a uterus, whether or not they use the word “woman” to describe themselves. English service is available on request. However, space is limited and advance reservations are required.

Dr. Anne-Patricia Prévost is a family physician at the GMF La Pommeraie. She started the tradition of the twice-yearly women’s health clinics a few years ago; the Nov. 1 event will be the sixth. She said the clinic is a precious opportunity to help patients who have had trouble accessing reproductive health care while training the next generation of health professionals. “Maybe you don’t have a family doctor, or you haven’t seen one in a while, or your family doctor doesn’t do gynecological exams, or the timing hasn’t worked out.”

“There will be medical students and nursing interns there on the day, and we take the opportunity to train them,” she explained. “It’s good to have a day where we see the same kinds of cases in one block.” 

Prévost and her colleagues will be volunteering their time to run the clinic. For Prévost, the community clinics are part of the GMF’s mission. “We had another respiratory health day last weekend; we took patients who had COPD or asthma and had them see a respiratory therapist, a doctor and a nurse to get evaluated,” she said. “When there’s a multidisciplinary team there, it improves things. The patients learned a lot, they were very happy and they got up-to-date testing. For us, the clinics are motivating; they remind us why we do what we do.”

Prévost has been reaching out to social media bulletin boards, community groups and employers to encourage them to refer their female employees to the clinic. “A lot of the time, as a woman, you’re used to forgetting yourself, thinking of others first, taking the kids to the dentist but not thinking about whether you need to see the dentist,” she said. “There are times when you need to put yourself first.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Budget launch season may be three months away, but Abercorn mayor Guy Favreau is already telling residents of the village of 341 people to prepare for a tax increase.

Favreau presented a “financial resilience update” to citizens over the summer. In it, he stated that based on current average property values, raising the tax rate by one cent would bring an estimated $15,000 in additional revenue to the municipality. “Three cents on the tax rate provides the revenue required to replace a $45,000 culvert ($150 per house),” he explained. “In 2026, $660,000 of roadwork is planned in the three-year capital program. If the village does not obtain significant grants or borrow, it would need to budget 44 cents on the tax bill to pay for this in cash (or $2,200 for a $500,000 residence).” According to the presentation Favreau gave at the time, over $400,000 in additional annual revenue over the next ten years was needed to move forward with basic upgrades to roads and sewage infrastructure.

“We have a financial situation that is precarious,” Favreau acknowledged in a later interview, citing loss of expected provincial grants as one reason the municipality is in difficulty. “We need to invest, and if we do that without grants – or even with grants – we are expecting to have to increase the tax rate, because we have some infrastructures that are in a critical state.”

“Some of our grant requests have been refused, and others have funded 30 or 40 per cent of a project when we were expecting 50 per cent,” he said. “There are also some projects that we can’t keep putting off, for safety reasons – this winter exposed a certain fragility in our water and sewage network, with aging infrastructures and things that break in the middle of winter.”

“We don’t have a Mont Sutton or a Ski Bromont or a big industrial project; these are typical rural problems where the main source of revenue is property taxes.

Favreau said the municipality has two major “residential development opportunities” which would widen the town’s tax base – a development of 30 to 80 homes along Rue Thibault Nord and a proposed apartment complex along Rue Thibault Sud that would include three 12-unit buildings, two eight-unit buildings, 14 triplexes and six townhouses, for a total of 60 to 100 new housing units. If both projects come to fruition, they could double the village’s population, but they would bring a much-needed injection of revenue. He also noted that a third site was being considered for development.

“The two projects have been in the works for four or five years and for all sort of reasons it has not worked,” he said.  “Since I took over one of my objectives has been to get them going and help correct some of that inequity … they are socially, financially and legally complex projects, and navigating all of that has not been easy.” He said the municipality needs to “establish a framework” to allow developers to put forward projects that are realistic, socially acceptable and affordable for young families.

“The housing crisis is serious – to own a home in Abercorn, you need an annual family revenue of $104,000. There are people who have lived all their lives here whose children will be run out of town because they can’t afford to live here, and that’s a real shame.”

Although some residents have supported the idea of a mobile home park, Favreau said he didn’t see that as a way forward. “Mobile homes depreciate in value. If we want to help people build wealth, that’s not how we’re going to do it. There are other options – condos, tiny houses, accessory dwellings, these are things we will look at…co-ops and nonprofit trusts are other ways to promote access to property. Renting can be a viable long-term option as long as there are not abuses, and there are also federal programs to help first-time homebuyers access housing. There are a lot of interesting possibilities that need to be developed. It’s harder than we think, but you have to start somewhere.” Preserving agricultural and forested land while making room for development is another conundrum, faced by Abercorn and many other smaller rural municipalities.

Favreau said he didn’t believe the “culture of begging for money” by relying on government grants for essential infrastructure was sustainable. “The cost of infrastructure has nearly doubled since 2019, but grants have gone down,” he said. “On paper, [because of the rise in property values], we’re the third richest municipality in the MRC, but we don’t have the means to invest.” He said he plans to consult constituents on various development and forestry issues. “There are a lot of retirees here with expertise, and I want to bring that to the table. We have our work cut out for us for the next ten years.”

Favreau became mayor in November 2022, succeeding Guy Gravel. Gravel and three town councillors dramatically resigned at a council meeting earlier that year, citing an untenable work environment; the town was then placed under temporary administration by the Commission municipale du Québec until a byelection could be held – a byelection which became unnecessary after one of the two candidates dropped out mid-campaign. Favreau, an architect with no prior political experience, was acclaimed. At the time, he told the BCN he planned to finish Gravel’s mandate and then “pass the baton” to someone else. Now he isn’t sure whether to run for re-election this fall. “I think it might be the time to pass the baton, but at the same time, I’m worried that everything we just talked about will just fall in the water.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Bromont unveiled its public consultation policy on Sept. 3, becoming the first city in Estrie and the second in the province to formalize the right to a citizens’ initiative – allowing citizens to order up a public consultation on an issue if their request gets enough signatures.

The policy was developed through a public consultation process of its own in partnership with the Institut du Nouveau Monde and an intergenerational citizens’ committee. Its stated goals are to reinforce transparency, encourage citizen engagement, optimize public consultation and counteract disinformation, and to ensure that citizens receive feedback on their proposals from decision makers.

“The objective of this policy is to ensure that projects submitted for consultation can be discussed and improved through co-development with various stakeholders, in order to foster a shared and comprehensive vision of the issues addressed and better projects,” a city information document reads. The policy does not replace existing urban planning consultation procedures or referendum processes. Any resident 16 or older can submit a project for consultation, although projects can’t be led by a single individual – at least two leaders must take on the project and submit a proposal. The number of signatures required to bring about a public consultation is high – 20 per cent of the town’s population or 15 per cent of the population of any given neighbourhood for a hyperlocal issue – although petition sponsors have six months to gather all of their signatures. The consultation can take a number of different forms depending on the nature of the proposal.

The policy can be used to put forward initiatives around urban planning, sustainable development, housing, land conservation, cultural affairs, parks and public places, transit, community activities and investment priorities. Two calls for proposals for citizens’ initiatives will be launched each year. A permanent citizens’ committee will work with city officials to “evaluate the relevance” of public consultation requests.

“If a citizen wants to address an issue that affects the whole municipality or their neighbourhood there is a process by which they can initiate a public consultation if they gather enough signatures,” Mayor Tatiana Contreras told the BCN. “The objective is to be more efficient and give concrete results. We have people in Bromont with ideas and knowledge, and the objective is to be more efficient and give concrete results. I would like for this experience to bring us closer [as a community] and make people want to get involved.”

Contreras specified that public consultations normally take place in French, but “we’re always able to respond to all of our clientele.”

“The process leading to this adoption was marked by multiple consultations: surveys, a citizen forum during Family Day, publication of reports, and public events, allowing for the collection of 11 contributions from citizens,” the city’s department of communications and citizen experience said in a statement. “While the policy was positively received for its transparency and openness, several citizens also expressed a desire to simplify its access and implementation; this citizen feedback will inspire the drafting of the future implementation guide and municipal action plan in the coming months.”

Further information can be found on the city website at Bromont.net.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Brent Figg and Alice Krips Figg were on their way home from a family visit to Detroit late last month when they handed their passports over to a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) agent in Windsor, Ont. for what they believed would be a routine inspection. Instead, the Bromont couple, who have spent the last 14 years as legal temporary residents in Canada, were told they had two weeks to settle their affairs and leave the country with their six children – four of whom are Canadian-born and two of whom were babies when their parents left the United States. Now, their neighbours are petitioning federal Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab to grant the family a last-minute reprieve.

The family’s work permits expired in July, but they believed, based on past experiences at the border, that the CBSA agent would grant them a grace period. Instead, the agent gave them two weeks to leave, which ended Sept. 8. They are remaining in the country to wait for the outcome of a new application. In the interim, the couple have pulled their two eldest children out of school to respect the conditions of their visitor visas, which state that they aren’t allowed to study – even though provincial regulations in Quebec allow children of parents in irregular migratory situations to attend school. Krips Figg explained that the family “wanted to do everything by the book” to avoid putting their four younger children’s Canadian citizenship at risk.

The family’s love affair with Canada began in 2010 when Brent Figg, a computer engineer and rowing instructor, accepted a job with Manitoba’s elite rowing program. “That

was our pathway towards a dream and a desire for stability for our family. The US had gone through a housing crisis not long before, in 2008. We felt like things were not really certain in that regard on that side of the border of how we would be able to afford a home,” Krips Figg remembered. “That was the beginning of our Canadian dream.”

The Figgs lived in Winnipeg for four years and sprinkle their speech with Manitoban cultural references, referring to provincial elected officials as MLAs and mentioning Louis Riel’s story as something that inspires them in tough situations. Figg’s career as a rowing coach led the family from Winnipeg to London, Ont., where he trained members of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic teams, and then to Knowlton, where he worked with Aviron Québec. Stringing together temporary work permits, the family settled in Bromont and sent their children to French school; the parents brushed up on their own limited French by looking over their children’s homework and chatting with other parents at the hockey rink.

Krips Figg explained that she started working on the family’s permanent residence applications in 2021, but that they ran into delays, caused by the pandemic and by the short-term nature of her husband’s contracts.

“We were in this strange, nebulous, one day to the next space… where we kept thinking we’d be able to ask our employer to support our application,” Figg remembered. “We also see this separation into the gig economy in the cultural sphere, it’s the same thing, right?”

The couple have applied for permanent residence for themselves and their two American-born children four times through the federal Express Entry system. The first application, Krips Figg said, was rejected due to a problem with how Figg’s coaching certification was put in the system. The others expired before a decision was made, apparently due to pandemic-related backlogs. Over the years, the couple has been unable to consult their own immigration file and only rarely able to speak with an immigration agent on the phone. Navigating what Brent Figg calls the “faceless bureaucracy” has been a demoralizing challenge.

“We were not prudent in not applying sooner – no question about that – but it also gives us a great deal of empathy [with other foreign workers],” he said. “We have a level of training, education and stability that others may not have, and we’ve been able to hire a lawyer at different points in this process. We can imagine the situations of leverage and exploitation that others can be placed in because of this, and it’s not funny. The temporary work cycle is something that is very difficult to break out of.”

In the interim, Bromont mayoral candidate Michelle Champagne has launched a petition on the family’s behalf, arguing that their deportation would rip apart an “exemplary, well-integrated, law-abiding family.” Krips Figg said the support the family has received from their neighbours has been “amazing.” The petition has received more than 900 signatures.

The couple are awaiting a decision on an extension to their visitor visas. They have contacted Brome-Missisquoi MP Louis Villeneuve and MPs in ridings they’ve previously lived in to help navigate their file and request ministerial intervention; they’re also in touch with Conservative shadow minister Pierre Paul-Hus through a mutual acquaintance. As of this writing, they’re waiting to hear back.

The online petition in support of the Figg family can be signed at petitionenligne.net/non_a_lexpulsion_famille_figg_bromont.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

On Sept. 3, federal minister of housing, infrastructure and communities Gregor Robertson, Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault, Brome-Missisquoi MP Louis Villeneuve and Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest announced the opening of the last stretch of the planned expansion of Highway 35, between Saint-Sébastien and Saint-Armand. The highway expansion had been in the works for several years, and while several elected officials the BCN has spoken to about the project over the years were worried about its impact on agricultural land and local businesses, they were also eager to welcome the highway.

“With the completion of this important milestone, the mobility of people and goods between Quebec and the United States will be facilitated. In addition, road safety and the quality of life for residents along Route 133 will be improved, as trucks will be able to use this new, faster route,” Guilbault and Robertson said in a joint statement. “Phase III of this major project, which spans 8.9 km, includes numerous road infrastructure projects as well as a major environmental compensation plan. This plan has led to the creation of one hectare of wetlands and four hectares of fish habitat, as well as the reforestation of over 24 hectares of forest, through the planting of 35,000 trees, and the protection of 75 hectares of land of high ecological value. The total cost of its implementation is $222.9 million, which includes a financial contribution of $82.1 million from the federal government through the New Building Canada Fund 2014-2024.”

In terms of infrastructure, the project included the extension of Highway 35 over a distance of 8.9 km between Saint-Sébastien and Saint-Armand, with two lanes in each direction on divided roadways; the construction of a 400-metre bridge over the Pike River;   the construction of an interchange and an overpass at the junction of Highway 35, Champlain Road and Route 133, in Saint-Armand; the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Route 133 and Champlain and du Moulin Roads, in Saint-Armand and the construction of an overpass (extension of Route 202) over Highway 35 in Pike River. The reforestation project is located between the highway right-of-way and the Pike River in the municipalities of Pike River and Saint-Armand.

“The opening of the final section of Highway 35 is a big step for Brome-Missisquoi. It will make our roads smoother and safer, and it will also give a major boost to our local economy and the quality of life of our residents. I’m proud to see our community benefit from a project that’s moving forward while respecting the environment,” Villeneuve said in a statement. “Thank you to all the partners who worked together to make this a reality.”

Pike River mayor Martin Bellefroid and St-Armand mayor Caroline Rosetti had not responded to requests for comment by press time, although the municipality of Pike River celebrated “good news!” on its social media feeds.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town of Dunham is rethinking its water strategy after facing a second exceptionally dry summer in four years.

“Everything is dry everywhere – this is unprecedented,” mayor Pierre Janecek told the BCN late last week. “We saw something like it three years ago, but even then there was water on the bottom of the stream [beds]. There’s nothing whatsoever, even in the big streams that irrigate the farmland. Even in the Yamaska River, you can see the rocks at the bottom. It’s nothing to laugh at.”

Speaking on the eve of Labour Day weekend, he said the town had not received significant rain for at least a month, and that summer heat waves had exacerbated the problem. He said several local businesses and farms have had to have water reserves trucked in; others have asked to use untreated water from Lake Selby for things like handwashing and keeping toilets operational. 

Dunham doesn’t have a water treatment plant, and water from the lake is not safe to drink. The town of 3,600 people is entirely reliant on well water, and on trucking in water when well water becomes insufficient. “In the long term, we’ll eventually need a water network, but we don’t know if citizens want to pay for that,” Janecek said. “A water network or a reservoir, these are things we can envision, but there will be a lot of logistics involved. If a bunch of towns are in the same situation as us, we can get grants and organize something. We’re going to need to do it at some point.”

Along with Sutton, Brome Lake and Frelighsburg, Dunham introduced water conservation guidelines – stopping short of outright restrictions  – this summer, discouraging residents from washing their cars, filling pools and watering their lawns. “We did remind people to be mindful of water use – it’s our blue gold, but it’s their responsibility,” said Janecek. His counterpart in Frelighsburg, Lucie Dagenais, said residents were being asked to “show good citizenship and wait to wash their cars until after we’ve had some rain.”

In Frelighsburg, the centre of the village is served by a water network, but most people are reliant on well water, and the town provides untreated water for cooking and washing in emergencies. Dagenais said the town received fewer requests for emergency water than during the 2022 drought, but in the interim, many people have had deeper wells dug and become more aware of water saving strategies. “We are not worried about the water table in our area, we’re privileged, but everywhere in Quebec, a lot of water goes to waste,” she said. “We need to do more to protect our reservoirs and wetlands.” 

“Back in the spring, we had so much rain we could have grown rice, and now – nothing,” Janecek observed. “It’s like nature is flipped upside down. This is the direction we’re going in.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Nine months after announcing that its on-demand shuttle service in Brome-Missisquoi was here to stay, Transdev has discontinued the service.

The Aug. 25 announcement came the same day the company launched a new bus loop serving Bromont, Cowansville, East Farnham, Granby and Saint-Alphonse on weekdays, in partnership with the MRCs of Haute-Yamaska and Brome-Missisquoi.

The BCN was unable to reach a Transdev representative for comment; however, Émile Cadieux, principal vice-president for Quebec and the Maritimes at Transdev, told La Voix de l’Est that low ridership prompted the decision to discontinue the shuttle service.

The service ran seven days a week and had stops in Cowansville, Dunham, Frelighsburg, Sutton, Brome Lake, Brigham, Ange-Gardien, Farnham, Bedford, Saint-Armand, Stanbridge East, Saint-Ignace-de-Stanbridge, Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge, Stanbridge Station, Sainte-Sabine, Pike River and Abercorn, as well as at the Autoparc 74 park-and-ride in Bromont where riders could catch onward Limocar buses to Sherbrooke or Montreal. Shuttles had to be reserved in advance via a call centre or an app – unlike the new bus loop, which operates on a fixed schedule. The shuttle service was rolled out as a free pilot project in June 2024. In December, the company announced plans to make the service permanent, at a cost of $15 per ride. That lasted just nine months. Cadieux argued that without government assistance and a significant increase in ridership, it was impossible to run the service profitably.

Sutton mayor Robert Benoit said he found out the service was being discontinued from a constituent, who got in touch with him after trying and failing to book a ride through the call centre. “I was very disappointed that the company didn’t let us know, especially since we have been in touch with them for the last two years [to try to make the service work]. They did everything they could to make sure it wouldn’t work.” Benoit, who occasionally used the shuttle service himself, said the service was regularly interrupted for lack of drivers, the initial price of $6 per ride had been raised to $15 without warning, and co-ordination between the shuttle service and onward Limocar service to Sherbrooke and Montreal was lacking, meaning riders sometimes waited an hour or more in Bromont. “It’s the same company [offering the shuttle and the intercity buses] – I don’t understand why it wasn’t better organized.” Despite its flaws, he said the end of the service was “really bad news for us.”

Benoit said the vast majority of people who used the service were from Sutton, and Sutton is not served by the new bus loop. Suttonites who don’t have access to a car and who want to travel within the region or catch an onward bus are now out of options – “unless you get a lift from your friend or a carpool from a Facebook group.”

Sylvie Berthiaume is a spokesperson for Solidarité Environnement Sutton (SES), a climate action group which has lobbied for better public transit to and from Sutton for several years, and a member of the Brome-Missisquoi sustainable mobility committee. She shared many of Benoit’s concerns about the quality and reliability of the shuttle service, and said she sympathized with Suttonites who lost a service they’d come to rely on. She called for a “paradigm shift” toward publicly funded mass transit in the region.

“Private bus transit has no future” in the region, according to Berthiaume. “To bet on that was a mistake. We need to seek out sustainable funding from the public sector. It’s a question of justice for students, seniors and low-wage workers to be able to get around, and the smaller municipalities have to be served. We have businesses that have recruitment issues because it’s hard to find housing and there’s no public transit [to bring workers in from surrounding municipalities].”

In the short term, she said she hoped the schedule and route of the new bus loop could be adjusted to better serve Sutton. In the medium term, she said the province could impose a licence plate tax to fund regional public transit. “It’s essential to have a bus service in the region. Now every household has to have two cars or more … having one car and accepting the tax is better than having two.”

Benoit said the municipality was “considering its options,” including appealing to the Quebec Transport Commission and the MRC and looking at other ways to bring transit back to Sutton. He didn’t think a publicly funded transit system, as proposed by SES, was feasible. “Tell me how much that will cost the municipality and where we’re going to get the money.”

No one from the MRC Brome-Missisquoi was immediately available for comment over the Labour Day holiday.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town of Waterloo will get a seed library and a community “food forest” with herbs and fruit trees before the end of the year after the municipality sent out a call for citizen-led, town-funded environment and sustainable development projects.

“The first edition of Waterloo’s environmental participatory budget has reached a new milestone. After analyzing the six projects submitted, the selection committee has selected three ideas that will be implemented by the end of 2025,” Waterloo communications director Marilynn Guay Racicot said in a statement. “Since only three proposals met both the participatory budget criteria and the planned budgetary limits, the city will not use a popular vote [to determine the winning projects] as initially planned. All available funds, $6,000, will be invested in the realization of these three ideas.” Two of the proposals, a community orchard and a “collective urban microforest,” will be fused to form a single community food garden. The third proposal is the seed library, which will be set up at the Town Hall in a specially selected cabinet; gardeners will be able to pick up free seeds and contribute their own seeds after harvest.

Over the past few years, several municipalities in the region have turned to participatory budgets to give citizens a direct role in planning projects; citizens are asked to propose small projects, usually with an environmental, recreational or intergenerational focus, that can be carried out on public land within a specific budget and time frame. A selection committee weeds out projects that don’t meet the criteria, and those that do are usually submitted to a popular vote. Since only three eligible projects were submitted and their combined cost didn’t exceed the $6,000 Waterloo had set aside, the vote wasn’t necessary.  “It’s the first time we’ve done this, and all of the submissions we got were interesting,” said Waterloo director of urban planning Marc Cournoyer. “Even some of the projects that weren’t eligible will be considered in other contexts. We got some good ideas from people.”

Resident Jérémie Byron, a software developer and passionate recreational gardener, proposed the seed library idea after seeing a similar project take root in his old neighbourhood in Montreal. “There will be a cabinet in the Town Hall and people will come to borrow the seeds, take them home, plant them and harvest them,” he said, adding that the range of vegetable, herb and flowering plant seeds on offer is still to be determined. “It’s a great opportunity to raise people’s awareness of urban farming, and buying local, and promoting biodiversity, local plants and pollinators. It’s really good news – it’s a great opportunity to get more citizens involved in gardening. Maybe eventually we’ll have a seed festival around the seed library.”

The two collective gardening projects were proposed by Manon Godard and Laurie Fortin-Magnan. Godard is the co-ordinator of the local Maison de la Famille, the mother of four children – including one who is now a biologist and another a nature technician – and a passionate gardening advocate. She said she hopes the garden, the exact location of which hasn’t been determined, will help cut down on heat islands, serve as a hub for environmental education workshops and provide an oasis of calm in the centre of town – in addition to an oasis of fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. “Maybe it will also inspire people to [start gardening] on their balcony or in their homes – you don’t need a huge space to garden,” she said.  “I want it to be possible to duplicate [the garden] elsewhere, and to create an image of our city as a green, eco-responsible city.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Quebec’s Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) confirmed last week that a case of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) – a rare, tick-borne bacterial infection almost unknown in the province until now – had been detected in the Estrie region.

The infection is spread by a bite from the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) – a tick common in the U.S. midwest that is larger than the black-legged tick which causes Lyme disease. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, nausea, stomach pain, muscle pain and the distinctive rash which gives it its name; severe cases can lead to permanent brain damage, hearing loss or death. Early treatment with the antibiotic doxycycline can prevent severe illness. The disease cannot spread from one person to another.

The MSSS “is aware of the situation and is closely monitoring it to obtain further details on the presence of this disease in Quebec,” MSSS media relations co-ordinator Marie-Claude Lacasse told the BCN. “Generally speaking, mosquito- and tick-borne diseases are on the rise. This is an expected consequence of climate change.” She referred requests for further comment to the CIUSSS de l’Estrie–CHUS, which did not respond by press time.

Dr. Alex Carignan, a microbiologist and infectious diseases specialist at the CIUSSS, commented on the case on social media, noting that the patient was responding well to doxycycline treatment. “This infection causes high fevers, a distinctive rash, and can lead to death if not properly managed,” he wrote. “We knew this bacterium would arrive in the coming years, but unfortunately, it has arrived a little earlier than expected.”

Jade Savage is a professor of entomology at Bishop’s University and the creator of the eTick portal, which aggregates crowd-sourced tick data across Canada. She said the recent case of RMSF in Estrie was the first known human case in Quebec in many years, but that cases were not unheard of in Ontario. The eTick portal has recorded 100 to 200 sightings of dog ticks per year in Quebec over the past few years, Savage said.

Savage said RMSF is spread in the same way as Lyme disease, when a tick bites an infected animal – often a rodent – and then bites a human. Ticks need to latch on to their hosts for about 24 hours in order to spread infection. “Dog ticks are big and kind of flashy, and people tend to notice them more readily than the black-legged tick,” Savage said. “They prefer grassy, open areas and can withstand drought better than black-legged ticks.” The two tick species “are very different, but both will readily bite you.”

Savage is a Gen-Xer who grew up on the West Island of Montreal at a time when ticks were not a concern in Quebec. She said the prevalence of different species of ticks – and different, unfamiliar types of tick-borne infections – is an “evolving situation” in light of climate change. 

“For a human, a tick bite itself is no big deal, but the concern is the pathogens,” she said. “Different types of pathogens will arise; some will get more common and some less common. Climate change and environmental changes have a quick impact on distribution, and the proportions of different ticks will change over time. There’s absolutely a climate connection, because they’re very adaptable. Most of the species have recently arrived from the U.S. and they just climb their way up.”

Savage advised people who are worried about tick-borne infections or who spend a lot of time outside to cover up well, wear closed-toed shoes, use DEET- or icaridin-based insect repellents and take precautions to keep rodents away from their property. Further tick bite prevention strategies can be found on the eTick portal at ticktool.etick.ca.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Legault government is betting on preventive health care to ease the burden on the province’s health care system, as regional health authorities navigate budget cuts, stubbornly long emergency room wait times, ongoing labour force challenges and an aging population.

Surrounded by local and regional health officials at the Frederic Back Tree Pavilion of the Montreal Botanical Garden, Health Minister Christian Dubé; minister responsible for social services Lionel Carmant; minister responsible for sports, leisure and the outdoors and MNA for Brome-Missisiquoi Isabelle Charest; minister for seniors Sonia Bélanger and director of public health Dr. Luc Boileau launched what they described as a ten-year preventive health care strategy on Aug. 21.

Over the next year, the government plans to invest $15 million in a series of preventive health care strategies, including scaling up testing for diabetes, heart disease risks and certain types of cancer ($5 million); supporting programs run by local health authorities that help people quit smoking ($4 million); increasing the accessibility and visibility of recreation programs for children, adults and seniors who aren’t already physically active ($5 million); encouraging research and innovation in health monitoring and fighting online disinformation  ($800,000); and encouraging public buy-in ($200,000). Over the long term, the strategy’s stated goals are reducing by 10 per cent the rate of premature deaths due to socioeconomic inequality and the impact of chronic illnesses on the health system.

“Our commitment has always been to address what is urgent while also ensuring we act on what is important. This is why health prevention is at the heart of our government’s strategic vision for a healthy Quebec. By adopting an ambitious national strategy today, we are ensuring greater consistency between government actions and those of our partners … to better respond to current and future health challenges,” Dubé said. “We need to act at the source to ensure the sustainability of our health system and thus prevent [illness and injury] today to protect all future generations. Prevention is part of the solution to release the pressure on our health network…and if we reduce the pressure, we will ensure access for those who need it. We’re encouraging people to take their own health in hand.”

Carmant, a pediatric neurologist before he entered politics, said he was happy to see the government investing in preventive health care. “Prevention has always been a priority for me. As soon as I entered politics, I implemented Agir tôt, which involves early screening for our little ones – and it works! I’m very pleased that our government is taking this direction because prevention is the foundation of good physical and mental health.”

“Obviously, we will always have to act curatively, but acting upstream, in prevention, obviously, is super important. And that of course involves good lifestyle habits, it involves physical activity, it involves access to these activities for all clienteles, young people, the less young, those with disabilities, for all socioeconomic classes,” Charest said, adding that a new call for submissions for a sports infrastructure grant program would be announced in the coming weeks.

Ministers did not take questions from the floor at the announcement. In a brief media scrum outside the venue, Dubé told reporters that more concrete measures would be announced over the next few months.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Geneviève Carter was on vacation in the Laurentians when the life she knew was ripped out from under her. The Plastube plastic tubing plant in Granby, where she had worked as a machine operator for 23 years, had closed overnight after a sudden bankruptcy. “People showed up for work and saw a sign saying the plant had ceased its activity,” Carter said. As the union president, she began fielding calls and emails from frantic colleagues, while trying to reconcile with the impact of the closure on her own life.

“There had been highs and lows [over the last few months], we saw a dip in orders, but we’d been through that before, so we didn’t ask ourselves all that many questions,” she said, recalling that as late as July 18, she had been told at a company dinner that there were major projects in the pipeline, but by the second week of August, her colleagues were meeting with bankruptcy trustees. About 100 people, including 77 unionized staff, knew each other.

“There were people with 44 years of seniority, and we were very united. It was a hard pill to swallow, a wildcat closure (fermeture sauvage) like that.”

Julie Bolduc is president of the CSN union federation, of which the Plastube union was a member, for the Estrie region. She said overnight closures like that of Plastube are “fortunately not that common.”

“In my experience, Plastube is the first time this kind of closure has happened. There was a lack of transparency about how things were going before they declared bankruptcy, which is why it was a surprise,” Bolduc said. The company’s books are now being handled by Raymond Chabot, and the province’s bankruptcy register indicates it had debts of more than $12 million at the time it closed.

The union is now helping former employees sign up for the federal Employment Insurance (EI) and Wage Earner Protection (WEP) programs. Bolduc said employees are eligible for a minimum payout of about $8,900 under WEP, but she has no idea when the money might be distributed. “In the interim, some employees have turned to food banks. The workers have not received anything since their last paycheque in early August,” she said. “Fortunately, the federal government has suspended the weeklong waiting period for EI, and we have a Service Canada contact helping make sure everything is going correctly. There’s not only the financial aspect, there’s also the psychological aspect – a period of mourning you have to go through – and we can’t neglect that. We don’t want people to just scatter everywhere.”

The union is also working with Emploi Québec to help employees – many of whom have not had to fill out a job application for decades – find new jobs. “We’re helping people redo their CVs, decide if they want to go back to school, if they want to retire,” said Bolduc. “If you’re over 50, it won’t be easy [to find something new].” About ten temporary foreign workers with closed work permits have been left in the lurch by the closure of the plant and may have to return to their home countries. 

Carter, for her part, said she hasn’t had time to sit down and think about her own future. “I thought I would finish my career at Plastube, but now I have to go back to doing CVs… and I have to keep helping my members. It will be hard, but I think everyone will find something.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A busy few weeks are ahead in Sutton as the municipality moves ahead with consultations on its draft urban plan, tabled at the Aug. 6 council meeting. The plan aims to thread the needle between encouraging residential development; taking measures to protect agricultural, recreational and environmentally sensitive land; and protecting the area’s fragile water table – tested earlier this month when a water shortage forced town staff to truck water to the Mountain sector.

The new draft urban plan, the product of about four years of consultation and preparation, would set aside an additional 1,864 hectares of land for conservation, create a new protected agroforestry designation covering the existing agricultural zone, and set aside forested land adjacent to the Villa Châteauneuf for conservation – a move that Mayor Robert Benoit acknowledged was not only to preserve the land itself, but to put to rest rumours that his administration wanted to use it for a housing development.

The plan would maintain the existing moratorium on new builds in the Mountain sector due to ongoing problems with drinking water provision, which the mayor said would not improve anytime soon. “This year was the worst year – it’s getting worse because of climate change,” he said. “The only solution is really to pump water from the water in the valley, in the village. But that … was evaluated at about $20 million. How do you finance this investment of $20 million with an operating budget of $16 million per year? That’s quite a challenge for the city.”

“Following the identification of optimal solutions [to the drinking water problem in the Mountain sector], the implementation plan provides for the establishment of a specific urban plan, in

consultation with the public, that will define residential projects and related activities, while preserving the mountainsides and landscapes in compliance with the characteristics of natural and built environments and the capacity of public utility and road infrastructures,” town officials said in a statement.

The draft plan prioritizes new builds in the Village sector, where the water table is in better shape, including on the former Vieux-Verger property. In 2023, an affordable housing project heavily promoted by Mayor Robert Benoit’s administration on the site of a former vineyard hit a roadblock when voters rejected a $1.57 million borrowing bylaw through a register. Benoit explained that after the register, the land’s current owners decided to keep it – rather than ceding it to the city – and move ahead with a housing development project of their own, which will be presented to residents at a public consultation on Aug. 28. He had few details about the project, but said it would most likely involve more housing units than the project pitched by the city, and that construction could begin as early as this October if there was sufficient public buy-in.

Vieux-Verger is among several “priority lots” held in reserve by the municipality for future residential construction; according to the draft plan, 70 per cent of land on those priority lots needs to be set aside for residential development before development outside the priority lots can be considered.

With a view toward scaling up residential construction, the town has created three subcategories of residential zoning based on density – “discrete densification” aims to add accessory housing units to existing residential buildings without changing the volume of the

Buildings; “gentle densification” encourages a slight increase in current density in

certain sectors while preserving their architectural character; and “moderate densification” allows for the addition of multi-residential buildings with the aim of increasing housing

supply, particularly affordable housing.

The town also plans to expand the existing industrial zone at the intersection of Principale, Schweizer and Scenic Streets and encourage the arrival of businesses “in harmony with Sutton’s economic identity,” focused on recreation or agriculture, Benoit explained. A new recreational tourism zoning designation will be created for Mont Sutton and the Huttopia campground, allowing further development under certain conditions. A creation and innovation hub focused on agriculture, food security and energy independence initiatives will also be set up on the grounds of the former Golf des Rochers Bleus.

Residents can consult the draft urban plan on the city website or access a paper copy in English or French at the town hall or the public library. They can submit written feedback to urbanisme@sutton.ca until Sept. 10 or make an appointment to discuss the plan in person. An official in-person public consultation will be held Sept. 11. From Sept. 12-19, adjustments may be made to the plan following public comments. The finalized plan is expected to be adopted at the Oct. 1 council meeting.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Bedford Pole Community Health Committee (CCSPB) is organizing the first edition of Parlons Santé/Let’s Talk Health, a health fair to be held on Saturday, Aug. 23 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., in front of the entrance to the Bedford CLSC/CHSLD. The event is organized in partnership with the CIUSSS de L’Estrie-CHUS. Participants will have the chance to discover services offered by several nonprofits working with seniors and other vulnerable populations, and by the CLSC itself. Health professionals and CIUSSS personnel will be onsite to answer people’s questions and give guided tours of the CLSC. A dozen community organizations will have kiosks onsite, and tours in English will be available if there is demand. The event is open to all.

“This project has the potential not only to promote the longevity of the Bedford CLSC, but also to strengthen the links between the population and our region’s healthcare resources,” said CCSPB president Pierrette Messier-Peet. She said she hoped the event would make people more familiar with services available onsite in Bedford.

In light of service cuts at the CLSCs in Knowlton and Sutton, the CCPSB wanted to make sure that the services offered by the CLSC in Bedford are known and used. “We thought, if people use these services, they’re less likely to close,” Messier-Peet said. “There are a lot of services available that the population is not aware of, and the CIUSSS has not done a lot of promotion in the past. We have a walk-in clinic and an X-ray service in Bedford, but people don’t know that, so when something happens, they go to the ER in Cowansville and wait 12 hours and come out frustrated. We want to show people, ‘This is what you have within reach in Bedford.’ The guided tours will not only describe the services but explain how to access them.”

Messier-Peet said the idea came from her experience opening schools in rural francophone communities in Alberta. “We filled the schools when we held open houses and parents could see what kinds of resources were available.” The CCSPB approached the local GMF with the project and doctors and managers there were eager to get involved. The CIUSSS also got on board with what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind collaboration between a community organization and public health. 

The CCSPB, which recently became a nonprofit, is focused on maintaining and developing health services for residents of the eight municipalities of the Bedford pole. It was founded in response to the abandonment of the CHSLD expansion project, and it continues to mobilize community stakeholders to improve access to care.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

If you’re struggling to find an affordable place to live in Bromont, you’re not alone, a new report suggests.

Earlier this year, the municipality commissioned a consulting firm to produce an assessment of its housing market. The report, tabled Aug. 5, found that access to property, access to affordable rental housing and population growth were major concerns.

The report cited data from the Institut de la statistique de Québec, indicating that the city’s population was expected to grow 57 per cent by 2041 – an increase of more than 2,900 people –  putting further pressure on housing stock. Between 2014 and 2024, the city added an average of 196 housing units – homes or apartments – per year; 2021 was a banner year with 374 new units, although construction dropped off in 2022 and 2023.

The report’s authors predict that access to property will continue to be a struggle for young families, as house prices continue to rise – the average price of a single-family home rose more than eight per cent between 2021 and 2024 alone, from $580,500 to $731,250. For co-owned properties, the rise was five per cent. The report states that the median combined income of Bromont households in 2020 was $100,000, but a household would now have to earn a combined $130,262 to reach the recommended threshold for being able to buy a single-family home; to buy a property as co-owners, a household would have to earn $112,596.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the cost of buying a home, the report showed that home ownership decreased by five per cent between 2011 and 2021, even before the post-pandemic price spike.

“Due to rising property prices in Bromont, households tend to stay in the rental market longer, increasing demand for rental housing,” the report’s authors observed. About one in four households in Bromont rented in 2021, compared to just under one in five in 2011. Of those who were renting, one in five spent more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, and about one in 25 was living in a unit that was too small or too costly for their needs. The rental market in Bromont is overwhelmingly made up of privately owned units – only one per cent, or 71 units, were owned by a public housing authority, housing trust or co-op; the provincial average is 3.5 per cent. 

Buying a home, the authors observed, does not necessarily mean a family is more financially secure; ten per cent of homeowners spend more than 30 per cent of their income to stay in their homes.

The report suggests high rents and housing prices are a disincentive for job seekers looking for work in the city. “The few housing units that are advertised are offered at prices that are too high for the majority of workers in Bromont’s businesses, services, and companies,” the authors write. More than three-quarters of workers in Bromont live outside of town.

Bromont began reviewing its urban plan at the end of 2022. At the time, city council identified housing as one of the five major themes of this review. To help clarify the affordable housing objectives for the urban plan and address the housing crisis, the city of Bromont created an ad hoc committee on affordable housing in 2023, made up of representatives from a variety of economic sectors.  The committee identified a need for affordable housing for families aspiring to homeownership, seniors and low- and middle-income workers.

When the report was tabled, Bromont mayor Tatiana Contreras told reporters a public consultation on housing was planned for Sept. 20. “We know that, in our deepest values, we want an inclusive Bromont. So, in the spirit of the public consultation, we are meeting on September 20 at the community centre for a day of exchange and reflection to put ourselves in solution mode.”  Contreras was not available for a follow-up interview.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Bromont residents may have access to a new permanent recycling centre in the near future, La Voix de l’Est reported late last week. The paper reported that discussions are underway between the municipality and Écotri Désourdy to explore the feasibility of building a new écocentre as a public-private partnership.

“For the citizens of Bromont, having a local écocentre is a must,” Bromont mayor Tatiana Contreras told the BCN.

There is only one permanent recycling centre in Brome-Missisquoi, the Écocentre régional in Cowansville, administered by the MRC of Brome-Missisquoi (MRCBM). Several years ago, the MRC had a network of six “non-permanent” recycling centres open one Saturday a month; several of the centres closed during the COVID-19 pandemic due to safety and staff availability concerns. The last such centre, in Bedford, closed last year “for budgetary reasons,” Nathalie Grimard, director general of the MRCBM, told the BCN. She said the system of non-permanent centres “ran out of breath,” unable to keep up with increasing demand. “The mayors decided to concentrate on the Écocentre régional,” Grimard said.

Ecotri Désourdy CEO Louis Désourdy has said he is prepared to offer a full-service recycling centre inside the company’s existing sorting centre for construction and demolition waste, near the scientific park, in partnership with the municipality, although it remains to be seen how much the project would cost and what exactly would need to be done to bring the centre into compliance with environment ministry regulations. He said the setup could be completed “inside two or three months” once the necessary approvals have been secured.

Grimard said several questions remain to be answered before the project can move forward. “We have not had those discussions yet, to say what materials [the écocentre] would receive, how much it would cost, who it would be open to – just Bromont residents or people from other municipalities in the MRC? – and what the impact on taxes would be.” The role of the MRC in administering the project, she added, would depend on whether it served a regional or strictly local clientele.

If the project goes ahead, it will be the first recycling centre in the region run by a public-private partnership – the first time such an opportunity has presented itself.  Grimard said it remained to be seen whether that was possible under current regulations. “We are bound by contractual rules and we have to see what kind of partnerships we can have – we have not verified that yet,” she said. She said the MRC’s council of mayors would decide whether to approve the project in collaboration with the city of Bromont.

Neither Contreras nor deputy mayor Nicolas Robillard was available for a follow-up interview. Écotri Désourdy staff referred a request for comment to director general Richard Caron, who was also unable to comment before press time.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

City officials in Bromont say the “chaucidou” pilot project along Chemin de Lotbinière is achieving its objectives, a year after it was put in place.

A “chaucidou” (the name is an abbreviation for the French term chaussée à circulation douce, or gentle-traffic highway, also known as a bidirectional central lane) is a stretch of road where car traffic is reduced to a single lane where vehicles travel in both directions, with bike and pedestrian lanes on either side. Cars pull to the side when necessary to let those travelling in the opposite direction pass. To allow cars to pull over and stop safely, the speed limit is reduced – in the case of the Bromont “chaucidou,” from 70 to 50 km/hr. The main objective is to slow the speed of car traffic. The Bromont “chaucidou,” which was approved last June by the Quebec transport ministry, is the first of its kind in Quebec. It covers the stretch of Chemin de Lotbinière between Rue Sheffington and Chemin Laporte.

On July 25, the city shared an assessment of the project’s first year. Officials said the average speed measured decreased by 14 per cent in the “chaucidou” zone, compared to an 8 per cent decrease in an area without this facility. “The reduction in illegal passing, from 11 per cent to 1 per cent, reflects a significant improvement in road behaviour, despite a reduced passing distance. No accidents or incidents have been reported, and feedback from pedestrians and cyclists is positive,” they said in a statement. “These indicators suggest that the Chaucidou system is indeed improving the safety and flow of our road network. This initiative has also attracted the interest of several other municipalities and organizations, such as Gatineau, Rimouski, Stoneham, Quebec City, as well as Mont-Orford National Park.

“Seeing the project inspire other municipalities is a source of great pride for Bromont,”  said Mayor Tatiana Contreras. “This first year of testing confirms that our commitment to safety and innovation is paying off, both for all road users and for the quality of life in our community.”

The city “remains committed to the ongoing collection and analysis of data to ensure that positive behaviours are sustained,” the statement said. “This rigorous monitoring is aligned with our desire to inspire action through innovative and effective solutions.”

The city’s communications department did not respond to a follow-up interview request from the BCN.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A Brome-Missisquoi group which supports caregivers has received a $50,000 grant from the MRC Brome-Missisquoi (MRCBM) to extend its “social geriatrics” program around the region.

The grant to the Regroupement Soutien aux aidants de Brome-Missisquoi (RSABM) came from the MRC’s Pacte fund, a $100,000 fund dedicated to addressing food security, homelessness, transportation issues, access to community services, mental health and inclusive access to services for English speakers and immigrants.

“This [grant] marks the return of the Pacte after a hiatus of more than a year, but in a new form with new objectives focused on the fight against poverty, social inclusion and the factors of vulnerability of citizens,” said MRCBM communications advisor Isabelle Paquette. “The MRC is delighted to support such a mobilizing and impactful project for local communities. Brome-Missisquoi is part of a movement to transform care and services for seniors, focused on kindness, proximity, and prevention.”

According to an announcement from the MRC, social geriatrics is “an innovative approach that aims to promote healthy aging among older adults by considering not only their physical and medical condition, but also their social, environmental, and psychological realities. It is based on a community-based and preventive approach focused on comprehensive support for older adults in their living environment.”

Frédérique Dorais is a patient navigator at the RSABM. She said the goal of the social geriatrics program, established in January, is to help vulnerable seniors stay at home for as long as possible. She and her colleagues do this by training caregivers to recognize the signs of accelerated aging. “People can recognize the signs and call the navigator and explain what the person is experiencing” so the senior can receive support adapted to their needs and wants, to help them stay in their homes. “For example, if someone loves to cook but is having trouble cutting vegetables, we can send someone over to help them cook. We can help people prepare for their doctors’ appointments, refer them for home care, help them fill out insurance applications, sign them up for the [family doctor access portal] if they don’t have a family doctor. We build connections with them [and their caregivers] so their status staying at home is not precarious.”

Dorais said the Pacte funding would allow the program to keep assisting seniors and caregivers around the region for the next three years. “There are social geriatrics programs in 25 MRCs, and most are funded by the government, but we missed that opportunity, so we had to find other sources, and that is what the Pacte came to do.”

She said one significant goal of the program is to reduce the burden on the health care system. “There are a lot of community organizations that can offer support outside of the health system. There are some issues you don’t need the health system to fix.”

RSABM services are offered in English and French across the MRC. If you are a senior in need or a caregiver, or if you know someone who could benefit from these services, call 450-263-4236 and press 3.   

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Rainbow flags and banners will be held high in downtown Cowansville on Aug. 16 as a citizens’ group hosts the city’s first-ever LGBTQ+ Pride march.

The Marche des Fiertés Brome-MissisQueer Pride March will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the corner of South St./Rue du Sud and Rue Léopold and proceed to Parc Centre-Ville for a Pride fair, dubbed the Queer Village, where local LGBTQ+ community organizations will set up information kiosks. Live music, colouring activities, “conversation spaces” and cake will be offered; participants are encouraged to pack a picnic. Trained volunteers will monitor the march and the festival to make sure everyone feels safe.

The event arose out of discussions on social media between five members of the queer community from around the region, said Syn Moreau, a founding member of the Brome-MissisQueer collective. Moreau lives in Bedford and their fellow organizers live in Frelighsburg, Sutton, Saint-Armand and Stanbridge East; Cowansville was chosen for the event because of its central location.

“I grew up here, and I’m part of the generation – people in their 30s and 40s now – who were told that no matter what letter [in the LGBTQ+ acronym] you represent, to live out your identity, you have to go to Montreal,” they said. “A lot of people moved to Montreal or some other big city, and we all decided to move back after a while – we wanted to be closer to nature, closer to our families, some of us are farmers… for various reasons, it made sense for us to come back. For a while, we were all living in our little bubbles with family, friends and allies. I don’t know how exactly it happened, but last year, someone [on social media] mentioned that there were few events created for the queer community, to show that we are a big community, we’re here and we want to live in the countryside and feel free to express our identity. And so we decided to do the march.”

Moreau said the goal of the march was “to show that it’s safe and joyful to be part of the LGBTQ+ community in a rural area, that we can thrive here.”

“We’re not naive – we know there are homophobic and transphobic people in the community, just like there are homophobic and transphobic people everywhere – but most people in the region are very strong allies and they support our existence,” Moreau added. “We do our thing, they respect it and life goes on.” Moreau said they expect that a visible, public LGBTQ+ event will bring more queer and allied people out of the woodwork and help the community grow.

Béatrice Touchette is the community life co-ordinator at Divers-Gens, a Granby-based nonprofit which supports LGBTQ+ and questioning youth and young adults; amid a recent rise in homophobic and transphobic sentiment in the province, they are working on expanding counselling and other services to a larger age group. The organization plans to have a kiosk at the Pride fair. They said they believe bringing a Pride march and fair to Cowansville is a great idea.

“We go to the Montreal Pride parade every year, and that’s really important for us, but we always felt there was something missing,” Touchette said. “Transportation is a challenge, and people might not relate as much to big, urban marches. [Holding a march in Cowansville] is a great way to show that we exist, and help local queer people connect with other queer people.”   

“I hope it will come back year after year and show that yes, there are queer people everywhere, not just in big cities, and that allies can be everywhere too,” Touchette concluded.

The Brome-MissisQueer Pride march and Queer Village Pride fair are free and open to all. To learn more, search for “1ère Marche des Fiertés Brome-MissisQueer 1st Pride March” on Facebook.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Sean Gauthier-Neilson was one of hundreds of thousands of Montreal renters who suddenly became much more familiar with the four walls of their apartments – and he wasn’t thrilled with what he saw.

Gauthier-Neilson is originally from Rimouski, and was missing the wide open spaces and riverside landscapes he grew up with in the Lower St. Lawrence, but didn’t want to move too far away from his professional contacts in Montreal. He and his partner dreamed of becoming homeowners and moving out of the city. They ultimately bought a house in Brigham, which he describes as a “magnificent little village,” and moved in four years ago.

When Gauthier-Neilson, who runs a business in the audiovisual sector, moved in, there was a single shop in the centre of town – “a dépanneur that was run by two people who did an extraordinary job.” When the owners announced they were planning to close the store, Gauthier-Neilson and his friend Benjamin Bleuez – also a pandemic-era transplant – got a group of neighbours together with the goal of purchasing the store and turning it into a co-op where local businesses could sell their products. Although they were ultimately unable to buy the store, the experience led them to realize “that there were people around who were interested in getting things moving a bit more, in revitalizing the village.” The Fondation de révitalisation de Brigham was born. “We thought, is there anywhere else in the village that we could use to house a co-op?” said Gauthier-Neilson, now the foundation’s president.

The group, now a registered nonprofit, turned its attention to Église Sainte-Marie-Médiatrice de Brigham, the village’s francophone Catholic church, built in a former hotel, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary this year. Although the church still holds regular services, discussions have been underway for the past several years with a view to finding it a new long-term vocation. “It’s a big project. There’s a triangle – there’s us, the municipality, and the parish – and it’s a lot of work, especially for a group of volunteers who can’t give 100 per cent of their time to it. We want to make sure we’re doing things right.”

Eventually acquiring the church would be costly – “It’s still a real estate transaction; we have to talk about money and conditions,” Gauthier-Neilson said. The group envisions turning the church into a community space, with concerts, movie nights, children’s activities and room rentals, in addition to moving the thrift store there and perhaps adding a café and community kitchen. “We do have a lot of cyclists who come through here, and we’re on the Route des Vins, so offering services to people passing through, having a little tourist attraction value, that could be interesting.” A full business plan is still in development.

In the interim, as a sort of proof of concept, the group has been renting the former dépanneur since late last year. They now run a thrift store, café and ice cream shop (Le Voisin Général), with support from about 30 volunteers and an employee hired through a federal youth employment grant. They also hold free arts and crafts activities for kids in the summer.

The group’s long-term goal is to establish a permanent co-op which would create jobs, offer a space for local businesses to sell their products, provide more local entertainment and recreation options, make more products and services available locally and “keep more of Brighamites’ money in Brigham.”

“If we can be self-sufficient, if we don’t have to go visit the neighbours for every little thing, then we go see our neighbours for the right reasons, to help out, to talk, to understand each other, for solidarity,” Gauthier-Neilson said. “It’s one part of the solution to world peace, when you look at it that way.”

To learn more about the Co-op de Brigham or to volunteer, email coopbrigham@gmail.com or contact the organization on Facebook (Voisin Général – Un projet de COOP Brigham)

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A coroner is recommending that the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS “put the necessary measures in place” to improve emergency room intake procedures following the death of a cardiac patient who was sent home from the Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Hospital emergency room in late December.

Coroners investigate accidental deaths, deaths that occur due to violence or suspected negligence and deaths that occur in public facilities such as prisons and rehabilitation centres; they also investigate deaths where the circumstances are not immediately clear. The patient, a 50-year-old man who lived with his partner in Brigham, died at home on Dec. 30, 2024. Coroner Dr. Yves Lambert investigated the man’s death.

In his report, Lambert describes the patient as suffering from type 2 diabetes, morbid obesity and dyslipidemia, a metabolic disorder characterized by abnormally high levels of fat in the bloodstream. “These are all risk factors for cardiovascular disease,” observes the coroner, adding that the patient had a family history of heart disease and had stopped taking medication prescribed to treat high cholesterol in the months before his death. However, the report goes on to say that the patient himself had no known heart problems.

On Dec. 26, the patient went to the BMP emergency room complaining of a fever and tightness in the chest; after tests, which included a chest x-ray and an EKG, he was diagnosed with pneumonia, prescribed antibiotics and told to return if his situation worsened.

Early in the morning of Dec. 30, the patient went to the emergency room again after he was woken up by acute chest pain. On the basis of an EKG, without seeing the patient, a doctor prescribed an antacid and further tests; two hours later, a doctor saw the patient, wrote that the pain had cleared up and prescribed two new medications. “The doctor released [the patient] from the emergency room without noting what follow-up would be done or what [the patient] should do if the pain worsens,” Lambert wrote.

The patient and his partner then drove home, although the report noted that his “partner was driving because he was still experiencing chest pain.” The pain continued throughout the morning, although the patient preferred to wait and see if the new medication would help rather than go to the ER a third time. He suffered a sudden cardiac arrest shortly before noon and couldn’t be revived. An autopsy found a blood clot in the right coronary artery as well as atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), the combination of which, in Lambert’s estimation, led to his death.

Lambert noted that coroners did not have the power to attribute responsibility for a death to any one person or institution, nor to analyze the work of a health professional. He recommended that the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS “review the quality of intake and care provided to the deceased person in the ER between Dec. 26 and 30, 2024, and if needed, put in place appropriate measures to improve intake of patients in similar circumstances.”

In an unsigned statement, the CIUSSS said the patient’s case was still being evaluated but that the agency was committed to implementing Lambert’s recommendation. “First of all, we would like to offer our sincere condolences to the [patient’s] loved ones and family. Our teams are committed to ensuring access, quality and continuity of care and services, while effectively responding to the needs of the population,” they said. “It is in this spirit that we have reviewed the coroner’s report and are committed to implementing all of the recommendations. The file was submitted on July 14 for an analysis of the quality of the care and treatment provided. We will not comment further as we are still awaiting the evaluation by the responsible committee.”

The Collège des médecins du Québec, Association des médecins urgentistes du Québec and Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec, which have all raised concerns about ER physicians’ workload in recent years, have not commented publicly on the case.

Courtesy

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Bedford Pole Economic Relaunch Committee (Comité de relance économique du Pôle de Bedford) is betting on tourism to give the area a boost.

In 2022, as the region recovered from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the town of Bedford and five surrounding municipalities –  Bedford Canton, Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge, Pike River, Saint-Armand and Saint-Ignace-de-Stanbridge  – agreed on a collaborative economic development and recovery plan. The groundwork for the committee was laid before the pandemic, when data showed that the Bedford area was the only region of Brome-Missisquoi with a decreasing population.  When the committee was formally launched, committee president and mayor of Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge Daniel Tétreault told the BCN the initiative would involve a collaborative rethink of tourism, lifestyle, governance, urban planning, agriculture and industry in the eight municipalities – which have a combined population of about 7,500. The committee structure also makes it easier to coordinate action on shared political priorities – such as maintaining government services, protecting bodies of water and caring for heritage buildings – and let residents know about events in neighbouring municipalities, committee vice president and Saint-Armand mayor Caroline Rosetti explained.

The committee has recently released a tourist guide for the region – a single double-sided page with a map of the eight municipalities and contact information for dozens of motels and campgrounds, restaurants, farms, vineyards and distilleries, specialty shops, museums, parks, service stations, facilities for cyclists and other attractions. There’s also an interactive online version made with Google Maps. In total, more than 75 attractions are featured. The guide has very little text – it’s essentially a phone directory with a map – so it can be accessed by speakers of any language.

Rosetti said the guide is the first Bedford-specific tourist guide created since at least 2017. “We aren’t reinventing the wheel here. I think there is a tourist guide that exists for the whole MRC, but we decided to focus on our region,” she said.  “We didn’t want to encroach on the territory of our small business owners either; the goal is to bring people here from outside the region and not just to promote businesses to those who are already here.”

In light of the rising cost of travel and the political situation in the United States, committee members figured would-be travellers from surrounding regions would be interested in destinations a little closer to home, which was one reason they wanted to publish the first edition of the guide before the end of this season. “This [tourist guide] is a first-time initiative, we can change it, it’s going to keep moving.”

Rosetti said she believes promoting tourism and emphasizing the area’s natural beauty have the potential to boost long–term development. “I think people come as tourists, a little lighthearted, a little in vacation mode… and that’s how we can perhaps succeed in promoting our region and attracting people who will come to settle here long-term or as a primary residence.” She said the area’s bike paths, vineyards, breweries and picturesque landscapes were becoming more popular with tourists and day trippers.

Bedford Pole project manager Samantha Medellin Morin grew up in a bicultural Mexican-Québécois family in Mexico City, but spent summers with relatives in Bedford and now lives there full-time. “I’ve long understood that tourism is important to us. The guide wasn’t my idea, but [until I was hired], no one really had time to do it.” She said she’s enjoyed the experience of doing research for the guide and helping introduce outsiders to the region she’s grown to love and to its attractions. For her, the perfect “staycation” in the region would involve packing a picnic, getting ice cream and spending the  “It’s so nice and calm and quiet here…and you have everything you need.”

Access the interactive online guide to Bedford Pole attractions (and download a printable PDF) at sites.google.com/view/guidetouristiquepoledebedford/pagina-principal.

Courtesy of Town of Bedford
Claude Dubois

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Bedford Mayor Claude Dubois has confirmed he plans to seek another term. “The projects we started aren’t quite finished, and my wife is OK with [my decision], and I feel like it,” he told the BCN.

Dubois was first elected mayor of the town of 2,600 people in 2003; he was defeated in the 2013 election, but ran again in 2021 and easily regained his seat. Since assuming office, he has made opening a new fire station and moving the town hall two of his top priorities.

He said the fire station was essentially finished, and it would be formally inaugurated later this fall. “The fire safety standards are getting more and more strict – eventually, they might make us have firefighters on call full time. Before I came in in 2021, the city was planning an enlargement of the old fire station; I thought that was like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound. We got a grant to cover 80 per cent of the cost of a new fire station, and now we have a nice fire station in a new building that respects our architectural traditions, meets safety standards, will improve response time by five or six minutes and is set up in a way where fire trucks don’t have to back up into traffic. Everything has been thought of.”

The municipality also plans to inaugurate the new town hall this October, in a building purchased from Desjardins. The credit union will now rent offices in the back half of the building and the municipality will use the rest. Dubois said Desjardins approached the municipality last year and “said they wanted to manage money, not buildings.” The town purchased the former caisse pop for $800,000. Dubois said the new town hall, which has a parking lot, a charge point for electric vehicles, and wheelchair access, unlike its predecessor, would be much more accessible and provide the town’s growing staff with more office space. According to the town’s three-year infrastructure plan released at the end of last year, buying and renovating the building will cost the town about $1.37 million in total. The mayor plans to sell the current town hall, and said it could potentially be turned into a multi-use building with one or two businesses and a few apartments. He said demolishing the building is “out of the question” and any buyer would have to preserve its 19th-century exterior facade.

If Dubois is re-elected, he said the next item on his to-do list would be getting a new municipal garage built. “Our current garage is not up to modern standards – there are trucks sitting outside, which is not always good for the trucks… with the new garage, the trucks and tractors are going to be inside and we are going to have additional space to store things like gravel and sand.” He said the plans for the garage have already been drawn up and the municipality plans to apply for a grant to fund the project later this year. He said he would like for the garage to be built next year, although he couldn’t guarantee it would.

He said “a few residential developments” were also in the cards in Bedford, including on land ceded to the municipality by the Graymont quarry.

Tourism – particularly bike and outdoor tourism – is also something he hopes to encourage. The Parc Héritage – a nature park featuring a jungle gym, splash pad and sliding hill for kids and hiking trails for all ages, built atop artificial hills made from waste stone which the quarry couldn’t otherwise store – opened in 2023. “It’s becoming a major tourist attraction. We have more and more cyclists [coming to explore the hiking trails], we have a bike repair station in the parking lot, a splash pad and washrooms…they made hiking trails that go high up, and you can get a great view of the hills. It’s worth the trip.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The MRCs of Brome-Missisquoi and Haute-Yamaska will launch a long-awaited intermunicipal bus service pilot project on Aug. 25, just in time for the new school year.

The service, offered in partnership with Transdev and the Régions et Ruralité fund of the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, will run on a loop – with one bus running clockwise and the other counterclockwise – from 6 a.m. to about 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, with departures, approximately every 30 minutes during peak hours. Complete information about the route and stop locations was not available at press time, but a partial list of stops provided by the MRC of Brome-Missisquoi (MRCBM) includes the Cégep de Granby, the Granby industrial park, Massey-Vanier High School, the Cowansville Hospital, the Bromont CLSC and yet-to-be-determined stops in East Farnham and Saint-Alphonse de Granby. MRCBM transit co-ordinator Khalil El Fatmi said there would also be a stop at Autoparc 74, allowing riders to catch onward buses to Sherbrooke and Montreal.

The final list of 14 stops will be determined after a road testing phase, according to the MRCBM. Once the testing is complete, an interactive map will be posted on the websites of both MRCs and accessible via a mobile app. The bilingual online tool will allow users to locate stops, view detailed schedules and track their bus in real time. Since the bus runs on a regular schedule, reservations will not need to be made in advance. 

A single ticket will cost $5 and can be bought on board the bus. Single tickets and booklets of ten tickets ($40) will be on sale at the Brome-Missisquoi and Haute-Yamaska MRC offices, adapted transit offices and the co-op store at the Cégep de Granby. The buses will be equipped with bike racks.

The pilot project will be reevaluated after a year, according to the MRCBM.

MRCBM prefect Patrick Melchior and his counterpart in Haute-Yamaska, Paul Sarrazin, have been vocal supporters of the project. “We are very proud of this historic agreement, which connects the two territories of our MRCs. Finally, the population will be able to count on a sustainable and practical mode of transportation to get to school, to work, or simply to discover the tourist attractions specific to each of our regions,” said Sarrazin in a statement.

El Fatmi said the MRC had no specific expectations or targets in terms of ridership. “This is a brand new service that we have never done before; we need to monitor it, see the response and adjust it in function to how it is used,” he said. “For example, if we see that a stop isn’t being used, we’ll move it.”

“Our target audience is workers, students, people going onward to Sherbrooke or Montreal and pretty much anyone who needs to get from one place to another,” El Fatmi said. “We’d like to invite everyone to give it a try and tell us about your experience.”

Bromont, Farnham on-demand taxi service free this summer

In other transit news, residents of Bromont and Farnham who need to travel within their respective municipalities will have access to free on-demand taxi service to and from a series of set stops this summer. The taxi-on-demand pilot project was launched in February and normally costs $4 per trip. The MRCBM has made the service free until Sept. 15 in hopes more people will give it a try. The service runs from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Riders must reserve their trip at least 30 minutes in advance by calling 450-263-7010, and arrive at their chosen stop five minutes before their reservation time.

“Our target audience for this service is workers and students, but it’s also for seniors and tourists and anyone who needs to get around within their municipality,” El Fatmi said.

Since the service was established five months ago, El Fatmi said uptake had been good in Bromont. “The response…hasn’t been excellent, but it is there,” he told the BCN. In Farnham, on the other hand, he said the service was “underused.”

“It’s a bit too early to say why,” he added. “We’re hoping that now that it’s free, more people will use it.”

To learn more about the taxi-on-demand program in Farnham and Bromont, call 450-263-7010 during business hours.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Weeks after asking school boards and service centres to slash their budgets by as much as $570 million, Education Minister Bernard Drainville has walked back those cuts. On July 16, in a Facebook post, he announced that the ministry would set aside up to $540 million to fund student services. “The last few months have allowed us to consult school organizations and listen to what’s going on on the ground,” he wrote. “We heard the worries and the needs. Today, we’re taking action for students.”

“Over the last seven years, our education budget has risen by 58 per cent. These are historic investments, but every school service centre is responsible for managing this money rigorously,” he wrote, adding that school service centres had been subjected to an “expense review exercise” over the last few weeks. 

Although Drainville’s announcement made no mention of English-language school boards, officials from the Ministry of Education and the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) both later confirmed that the announcement also applied to school boards.

Boards and service centres will still have to find up to $30 million in savings, and work within spending restrictions imposed by the ministry. “Let’s be clear, this is not an open bar,” Drainville wrote. “Of the $540 million announced today, $425 million will go into a dedicated fund. To have the right [to receive money from this fund], every school service centre must show that it is making efforts to reduce administrative costs, as well as ensuring that the money goes to fund student services only. Accountability will be demanded.”

This is not the first time over the past year the ministry has required school boards and service centres to make sweeping cuts before restoring funding at the eleventh hour. Several boards and service centres, including the Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB) and the Centre des services scolaire Val-des-Cerfs (CSSVDC), were forced to freeze enrolment to French-as-a-second-language courses for adults in fall 2024 after funding – pro-rated according to student numbers from three years prior – turned out to be insufficient to meet vastly increased demand. A wave of protests from teachers’ unions, community groups and adult students that autumn did not appear to move the needle; at the time, 20 CSSVDC teachers and 26 ETSB teachers stood to lose their jobs, and hundreds of students lost access to courses. However, in May, Drainville announced the government would invest $119.3 million in adult francisation for the 2025-26 school year; the ETSB now expects to partially reopen the program if demand is sufficient and enough teachers can be found.

The July 16 announcement has once again left school boards and unions rushing to adapt to a radical funding overhaul.

“Everyone’s on vacation, everyone’s scrambling and making a plan to fill these positions [that were cut last month when cuts were first announced],” said Steven Le Sueur, president of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT), the union federation representing teachers at English-language public schools across the province. “Some cuts are still going to happen. I’d like to say we’ll know more before the start of the school year, but we don’t have that information.”

“We’re happy [the cuts initially announced] have been retracted, but we’re not jumping up and down about it,” he added. “There are still so many issues with workload and class size, and it’s definitely not helping [from a recruitment standpoint] when it’s in the news that they’re cutting $570 million.” 

ETSB board chair Michael Murray told the BCN via text message on Friday that he had “very few facts” concerning the impact of Drainville’s announcement.

“The recent ‘reinvestment’ is less than the original cuts and comes with conditions,” he said. “We intend to let our hardworking administrators enjoy their summer break before considering which services they can restore and by how much.”

QESBA communications director Kim Hamilton said the school boards’ association would know more later this summer about how the funding would be distributed between boards and service centres.

Drainville’s reversal came a week after a National Assembly petition calling on the government to retract the cuts, sponsored by Parti Québecois MNA Pascal Bérubé and heavily promoted by QESBA and by unions and parents’ groups on both sides of the language barrier, began making headlines. As of this writing, it had received nearly 159,000 signatures. It can be signed on the National Assembly website until Sept. 15. “We’re pleasantly pleased the public outrage worked, but there are still cuts to be made and services will still be affected,” said Le Sueur.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Town of Brome Lake formally opened the long-awaited Carke Terrace locker room block in a ceremony on July 9.

The 13-acre plot of land around Carke Terrace, where the landmark Terrace Inn stood until the 1970s, was purchased from the Poulin family – heirs of the inn’s former owner – by the Carke Foundation in 2019; the foundation donated the land to the Town of Brome Lake for use as a public park.

Last fall, the municipality installed a small dock for non-motorized boats and picnic area on the site, creating a third public access point to Brome Lake for visitors and residents without lakefront property. The 900-square-foot “sanitary block,” which includes washrooms, locker rooms, outdoor showers, a public rooftop terrasse with a view of the lake and a 20-space parking lot, was initially expected to open last fall. It is the main element of the second phase of the long-planned upgrade. In the near future, as a final touch, the town plans to develop walking trails on the property, Mayor Richard Burcombe told the BCN. The Poulin family contributed $250,000 toward the cost of the project, and the town took out a $1.3-million loan last year to pay for the rest; Burcombe estimated the project’s total cost to the town at $1.1 million.

“This project reflects the town’s ongoing commitment to designing accessible, user-friendly spaces that are in harmony with the local heritage,” Burcombe said. “The public is invited to make this new space their own and create unforgettable memories here.” He said he was “very happy” to be able to inaugurate the new facilities, although some work remained to be done on the parking lot. 

“It’s getting to the point where it’s very hard for people to access the lake,” he said in a later interview. “Our two other access points at Douglass Beach and Tiffany Park were full yesterday. It’s very nice to have another access point.”

Created in the 1970s, the CARKE Foundation is a non-profit organization which raises funds and awareness for specific community infrastructure projects in Brome Lake, West Bolton and Brome Village. “The CARKE Foundation is proud to have supported the creation of Carke Terrace, a beautiful new space that gives the community better access to the lake for quiet, non-motorized activities,” the foundation said in a statement. “This project reflects our mission of enhancing the social and recreational life of Brome Lake, and we’re thrilled to see it come to life for everyone to enjoy.”

“We’re very thankful to the CARKE Foundation; they gave us this and many other projects over the years,” said Burcombe, a third-term mayor who announced last November that he wouldn’t seek a fourth term. “They bought it and transferred it to the town on the same day. It’s getting to the end now for [my administration], but this is a project that has been in our strategic plan, along with making a bigger green space along Mill Pond, and the dam, and the sidewalk the full length of Victoria St. which we are completing … it’s another fait accompli, and I’m happy about it.” 

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Longtime Brigham mayor Steven Neil stepped down earlier this summer, four months before the end of his mandate and more than six months after telling reporters he didn’t plan to seek reelection later this year. Former councillor Philippe Dunn succeeded Neil and will serve at least until the Nov. 2 election. When Neil resigned with less than a year left before the election, councillors had the option of scheduling a byelection or of voting to choose a mayor among themselves; they chose the latter option. Dunn, a lifelong Brighamite and son of a former mayor who has served on council since 2013, was the only councillor to put his name forward.

Neil was first elected mayor in 1999 and served until 2013, when he decided not to run; in 2017, he ran again and was re-elected. In the last election in 2021, he was acclaimed. In addition to his political involvement, Neil runs a farm and works as a corporate jet pilot; he told the BCN he decided to step down as mayor because he no longer had any work-life balance to speak of.

“The people close to me have known for three years that I wasn’t running again,” he said. “I’ve been balancing the town, the farm and my job since 1999. I’m away as a pilot for days or weeks at a time, and when I get back I’m always swamped with meetings. I would show up to meetings in my pilot’s uniform or do Zooms from the cockpit. I was stretched thin and I wasn’t able to give 100 per cent to anything. A lot of my colleagues, who are retired, semi-retired or work locally, may be able to balance things a little more easily, but the transfer of responsibilities from the government to towns is increasing and I just didn’t have time anymore.”

He said he waited to step down until the 2025 budget and audit of the town’s finances were completed. “My biggest pride is our finances – we went from high debt to no debt to having everything in place to maximize grant requests.”

He looked back proudly on the town’s recycling program, which was launched on his watch; getting a functional running water system installed in the Guay sector; working with the Granby Zoo and local private landowners on a riverbank conservation project; refurbishing a bedraggled park into a popular baseball and soccer field; overseeing the creation of a town forest on a former tree plantation; and the “green fridge” food sharing project, for which he still plans to volunteer.

He expressed frustration at the provincial government progressively passing more responsibilities onto municipalities, where they usually – at least in the case of smaller towns like Brigham – fall onto the shoulders of part-time elected officials and small teams of civil servants.

“When the [Coalition Avenir Québec] government first got elected, I was apprehensive, and then I was quite content, but then they changed direction again and lost control of their financial vision. Now, they’ve passed responsibilities on to us because they can’t afford to do certain things, [which creates] more meetings, more committees, more red tape,” he said. As examples, he cited recent requirements for towns to establish demolition committees and carry out building-by-building audits for asbestos and sources of soil contamination. “That’s a lot of money for a small municipality, it’s a big job and we can’t be endlessly hiring staff.”

“It’s wonderful not having to worry about every single thing, not having to worry about flooding or about downed trees every time we get high winds, not having to answer 25 emails, knowing that when I get home I can really be home and spend time with my family,” said the now former mayor, speaking with the BCN in a brief phone interview between two flights.   

Neil has joined a growing list of more than 800 mayors and councillors across the province who have headed for the exit, for various reasons, between the 2021 election and the planned end of their mandates this fall. While he’s conscious of the difficulties that municipal elected officials face, he encourages those considering running for office later this year to take the plunge. “It’s a very big commitment, and it is at times unrewarding, because people tend to not understand the sacrifice. If you are someone who takes things personally, it’s probably not a job for you, but if you’re able to roll with the punches, then go for it, because the towns need it,” he said.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Hydro-Québec officials have decided to continue moving forward with plans to build a new substation in a rural area straddling the boundaries of Brome Lake, Brome village and Sutton, rejecting a proposal championed by Sutton Mayor Robert Benoit which proponents say would have avoided the need for a new structure.

Hydro-Québec representatives held a closed-door meeting with elected officials and representatives of the MRC Brome-Missisquoi and the Union des producteurs agricoles farmers’ union on July 11 in Bromont to explain their decision and chart a way forward.

Maxime Lajoie, the director of integrated design and asset management at Hydro-Québec, represented the public utility at the meeting. “We’ve had a lot of outages in the past few years, and the existing network has reached the end of its useful life,” he told the BCN. “It’s time to rebuild it… while responding to the needs of a growing population. We looked at a number of different scenarios, including the one proposed by the mayor of Sutton.”

Hydro-Québec currently plans to construct a 120kV substation and transmission line in or near Brome and dismantle existing substations in Sutton, Knowlton and Eastman. The alternative proposal developed by Benoit and consulting engineer Daniel Vaillant would enlarge the four substations in Sutton, Knowlton, Cowansville and Stukely; it would replace existing 49kV transmission lines in the area with 69kV lines, which Benoit and Vaillant argue would have less impact on the landscape than the 120kV lines proposed by Hydro-Québec.

In a presentation given at the meeting and later partially shared with the BCN, Hydro-Québec conceded that the pylons in the Sutton proposal would have less impact on the landscape than those currently planned, but said other aspects of the proposal would have a larger environmental impact.

For example, according to the presentation, the Sutton proposal would require the construction of around 440 “new structures,” compared to 50 to 60 for the current plan, and the acquisition of at least 107.5 km3 of land, compared to 62.5 km3 for the current plan. Hydro-Québec also argued that the 69kV network would be operating at 90 per cent capacity as soon as it was built, meaning that one or two additional substations would likely have to be built in the area within 20 years. Lajoie also said the Sutton proposal would involve making agreements with more than 400 private landowners, compared to 50 for the current 120kV plan.”

For those reasons, he said, “we are going with the 120kV scenario, and our goal is to work with the community [to implement it].”

“The big issues are land use and the landscape, and we understand that very well,” Lajoie said. “For the next steps, we want to go see the population to find the best means to reduce the impact of the transmission lines on the visual aspect. We will do consultation and simulation [to] determine the route the lines will follow, and keep working with the community to do that.”

Cowansville Mayor Sylvie Beauregard, who attended the meeting, said it was “interesting” to hear Hydro-Québec’s analysis of the two proposals.

“I was kind of expecting [that Hydro-Québec would choose the 120kV option], because in spring there were already discussions about it, but they said they needed to analyze it further,” she said, praising Hydro-Québec’s “openness.”

Beauregard said her biggest concern was the route the transmission line would follow through Cowansville, particularly in light of a proposed new hotel to be built on formerly city-owned land. “We can’t put [the new hotel] at risk … and we have to respect our residential and corporate citizens.” She said she expected to know more about the proposed transmission line route sometime this fall, at the earliest. “We’ll let Hydro continue their evaluation and see what they propose.”

She said the power station was “a necessary project, but no one wants it in their backyard.”

“We have to work together to find a solution with the least negative impact,” she said. “A lot of people were mobilized behind [the Sutton proposal]. People will be disappointed, worried and angry. How can we get all those people behind a positive project? Maybe something positive will come out of this.”

Benoit told the BCN on Monday that he wanted to wait for additional documentation from Hydro-Québec before commenting.

Lajoie said Hydro-Québec hopes to have an “optimized scenario” for the construction of the new substation by the beginning of next year, and start construction in 2027. 

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Six heritage preservation projects from around the Townships are among 15 from around the province that will receive funding from the Sherbrooke-based Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) as part of the SHARE grant program, a Canadian Heritage-supported initiative to make the history of the province’s diverse anglophone communities more visible.

The Eastern Townships Resource Centre at Bishop’s University will get funding to preserve the archives of Townshippers’ cofounder Marjorie Goodfellow, explained QAHN SHARE grant program co-ordinator Julie Miller. The Société d’histoire de Haute-Yamaska will run an outreach project with members of the local English-speaking community, and anglophones around the country with roots in the area, aimed at making the society’s archives better reflect the region’s anglophone history. Richmond Histoire & Coopération will produce and screen a documentary about a local business. The Stanstead Historical Society will use the support to digitize its collections and improve its visibility. The Sherbrooke-based monthly Townships Sun received funding for a writing project encouraging teens and young adults to write about local history in English, for publication, emphasizing outreach to English language learners in schools with mostly francophone student bodies, including Drummondville Elementary School and the Cégep de Granby. Miller said the Townships Sun project was “a great way to make second-language learners feel like they were not just learning a language, but becoming part of a community.”

In Brome-Missisquoi, the Musée des communications et d’histoire de Sutton will create bilingual, web-based educational materials for local primary and secondary schools, aimed at showing the varied contributions of anglophones to Quebec society, through the life stories of real people featured in local archives, explained museologist Michel Harnois. Among the people Harnois plans to feature will be a pioneering journalist who became the first woman to edit the Stanstead Journal; a small-town hairdresser who became an acclaimed photographer; a family doctor turned wartime conscientious objector; and a teenage orphan who was one of the tens of thousands of impoverished “home children” shipped to Canada by the British government in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. “He had gotten off to a bad start in life and the U.K. got rid of him with a one-way ticket to the colonies, where he was placed with a farm family and put to work,” Harnois said. “In the end, he became an artisan carpenter and built houses.”

“By design, we wanted to talk about ordinary people,” Harnois said. “They are easier for teenagers to identify with than, say, premiers. [Telling ordinary people’s stories] creates a sense of closeness – maybe there are kids in these classes who want to become carpenters, or who know someone who is a hairdresser or a journalist. QAHN wants to move away from stereotypes, and we agree with that. The rich merchants who exploited their francophone staff, we know they existed, but we don’t want to glorify it.” Harnois said he hoped the tools would be in classrooms for the 2026-27 school year, after consultation with local school service centres.

“We’re at the beginning of the process and we’re very enthusiastic,” Harnois said, adding that the museum may organize meetings with members of the local English-speaking community to get suggestions about who to feature.

Miller said there will be a third round of SHARE grant funding distributed to heritage projects in February 2026. Organizations must be members of QAHN to apply for funding. To learn more, contact her directly at julie@qahn.org.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Since mid-June, the 50 firefighters of the Service de sécurité incendie de Bromont/Brigham/Saint-Alphonse de Granby have had a place to store equipment, rest and fix their meals between calls, and shower and clean equipment after calls. The long-awaited new fire station in Bromont held an open house last weekend and a formal ribbon cutting on June 25. The station was built at a cost of $12.1 million, with $4.6 million covered by a grant from the provincial government’s PRACIM program for environmentally friendly municipal infrastructure, Mayor Tatiana Contreras told the BCN. The towns of Brigham and Saint-Alphonse, which are also served by the Bromont fire department, paid a combined 26 per cent of the remaining cost, and Bromont financed the rest through a $7.5 million long-term loan. The money was first allocated in the city’s 2022 budget.

“The firefighters have been waiting for this for years,” said fire chief Jocelyn Danis, who was named fire chief two years ago, around the time construction began on the new building. “I wouldn’t even call the old fire station a fire station; it was more of a garage.” The closest thing to a break room in the old building, he said, was a worktable wedged between two fire trucks. The new facility has a break room with a kitchen, a dormitory, a workout room, changing rooms, offices and meeting rooms and a terrasse. It also has an equipment decontamination room, in line with new workplace health and safety norms around cancer prevention. Contreras said the central location of the fire station and the fact that the garage is on the premises will lead to improved response times.

Bromont is one of several municipalities in the region with new fire stations planned or under construction – the towns of Dunham, Frelighsburg and Brome Lake have all announced plans to open new fire stations in 2026, citing the opportunity for significant support from the province and the need to replace aging buildings and modernize decontamination procedures.

Danis said the June 21 open house was a “great event” that helped citizens young and old – and firefighters, who led guided tours – get to know the new building. “We do open doors as often as we can – it’s taxpayer money that paid for the building, so people have the right to come and see it. The kids played in the trucks and the adults visited the offices, and we talked to everyone about fire safety. It’s really important for us to keep that link with the population.”

MNA Isabelle Charest, Contreras, Brigham Mayor Philippe Dunn and Saint-Alphonse de Granby Mayor Marcel Gaudreau attended the formal inauguration on June 25. “This new fire station is the result of an exemplary intermunicipal agreement between the City of Bromont and the municipalities of Brigham and Saint-Alphonse-de-Granby,” Charest said. “I would like to commend the leadership of the City of Bromont, which has carried out this important project. Thanks to this collective effort, firefighters will benefit from a modern, safe and functional work environment, and the community will benefit from services better adapted to its needs.”

“It’s a great intermunicipal project – the safety of citizens is improved, and so is the safety of the [fire department] employees,” Contreras said. “Thanks to the government’s financial support … and the valuable collaboration of our partner towns, we are taking concrete action for the future.” Contreras said no decision had been made about what to do with the site of the former fire station.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Administrators from the Commission municipale du Québec (CMQ) will oversee day-to-day affairs in the village of Stukely-Sud until the fall after four of the municipality’s six councillors resigned in recent weeks. Councillors Véronique Papineau, Joël Chagnon and Julie Royer stepped down in mid-May; at the June 9 council meeting, Coun. René Pepin also tendered his resignation, citing a “work climate that has become toxic and incompatible with my values.” The four councillors added their names to the growing list of town councillors electing not to complete their terms across the province – at the beginning of this year, La Presse reported that more than 10 per cent of municipal councillors elected in 2021 had already stepped down. On June 13, with only two councillors remaining in their posts, the village was placed under temporary administration.

Mayor François Rhéaume acknowledged at the June 9 meeting that “important differences of viewpoint,” had led to division on council. “My role is to ensure that the agenda is respected, that people don’t speak out of turn and that no one is spreading falsehoods,” he said. “I’m dealing with a council that often doesn’t read their documents, and trying to have constructive discussions with people who aren’t always aware of what they were talking about.”

Rhéaume is the municipality’s third mayor since 2021. That year, nine months before the scheduled municipal elections, then-mayor Patrick Leblond, who had previously been suspended by the CMQ in 2019 over conflict of interest allegations, announced that he was moving out of the municipality, making him ineligible to serve. Councillors elected then-councillor Véronique Stock interim mayor. Stock was elected to a full term in 2021 but resigned in 2023; according to her message to colleagues at the time, she also planned to leave the village. Rhéaume succeeded Stock after a byelection in July 2023.

Under the temporary administration, Rhéaume remains mayor and retains certain emergency management powers; however, a mayor can’t pass bylaws or allocate funds without approval from the town council, and a town council needs a quorum of at least five people (a mayor and four councillors) to function. Director general Jean-Marie Beaupré will now manage the town’s day-to-day affairs with oversight from two CMQ commissioners. However, as Beaupré explained, “political decisions” can’t be made without a functioning council.

“If there are day-to-day decisions that are not political, the CMQ [commissioners] will come to me and I’ll recommend what to do; they will adopt a resolution and have it signed,” he said. “It is actually faster [than the usual process] because they will give me a decision in a day or two, instead of having to wait for the next council meeting.”

Beaupré said residents wouldn’t see any difference in the town’s day-to-day operations. “The objective of the CMQ is to maintain services – everything that is already planned in the budget, administration, taxation, road work, will go on as scheduled. We can replace things that break down, and I can replace an employee who resigns, but if I wanted to add a new truck to improve services… or create a new position, for example, that would be more complicated.”

Citing documentation from the CMQ seen by the BCN, Beaupré clarified that there’s a difference between being placed under guardianship (tutelle) by the provincial government and being placed under temporary administration. “There are a lot of rumours that we are under guardianship, and that’s not what’s happening. Guardianship is only done in the case of fraud or financial impropriety. Temporary administration is what happens when you lack councillors.”

No byelection is planned because the next municipal election is scheduled for later this year. The temporary administration will stay in place until the village has at least four elected councillors – either at the end of the candidacy submission period in October, if at least four councillors are acclaimed, or after the election in November, the moment the new mayor and council are sworn in.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Officials from Santé Québec, the crown corporation established late last year to manage the province’s public health system, presented its overarching, provincewide plan to avoid summer service interruptions at a news conference in Montreal on June 17.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the public health system has struggled with a chronic labour shortage and changing guidance around when public health institutions could use personnel from third-party agencies; those difficulties are generally exacerbated during the summer when many health care workers go on vacation, leading to temporary service cuts, known as breaks of service.

“During the summer, well-deserved vacations for various teams in the health and social services network, as well as significant fluctuations in traffic, add pressure in several regions,” Santé Québec officials said in a statement, adding that the agency had begun planning as early as March to reduce summer service cuts to a minimum.

Robin Marie Coleman, deputy vice president of coordination of access to care and care trajectory, and Véronique Wilson, assistant director general of network coordination and operational support, explained that the agency had put in place a dashboard that allowed them to follow staffing fluctuations and potential breaks of service in near-real time and identify sectors and regions at particular risk. They announced that the agency had put in place a provincewide rotating team (known in French as an équipe volante or flying team) of 246 people – nurses, nursing assistants, care assistants and educators, along with one social worker, two social work technicians, one psychoeducator and four “human relations technicians”  to prevent region-wide service breakdowns like the one that occurred last year in the Côte-Nord region. A mechanism for reassigning employees on a voluntary basis to cover for others in the same facility or other facilities was also put in place.

Across the network, they said, local health authorities reported a total of 480 situations where breaks of service were a possibility. “Thanks to these efforts, 384 of these situations have been avoided to date. Of the remaining 96 service disruptions, measures have been implemented for 83. Teams are still working on solutions for 13 situations,” they said in a statement.

A Powerpoint presented by Coleman and Wilson appeared to indicate that the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS service area was at risk of service breaks in the emergency, obstetrics and medical imaging sectors. Beyond that, the news conference was conspicuously light on information specific to different regions of the province, and Coleman said during the question period that she could not comment further on regional specifics, leading to several frustrated outbursts from reporters, one of whom asked, “What are we doing here, then?”

Coleman referred a request for further comment to the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS. “As announced a few weeks ago, the obstetrics department at Hôpital du Granit will be closed for the summer. A delivery plan has been developed with each expectant mother in this department,” CIUSSS spokesperson Nancy Corriveau said in an email. “As was the case last year, the emergency department at Val-des-Sources presents some risk of service disruptions. However, we are optimistic that we will be able to fill the unfilled shifts during the summer, as was the case last year.”

As the BCN previously reported, one operating room at Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Hospital will be shuttered this summer. Nursing services will be unavailable and lab services reduced at the CLSC in Sutton from June 16 to Aug. 24. Lab services will also be reduced at the Bromont CLSC. Nursing services at the CLSC Lac-Brome, suspended at the beginning of last summer, have still not resumed.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Sutton Mayor Robert Benoit has put forward a proposal that would hypothetically eliminate the need for a new Hydro-Québec substation in Brome. The proposal, which Benoit presented at a public meeting in Sutton earlier this month, would require enlarging the existing substations in Sutton, Cowansville, Knowlton and Stukely. According to the presentation, electricity would run mainly along existing transmission corridors, although the lines linking Cowansville and Sutton would have to be rerouted. The existing 49kV lines would be gradually replaced with 69kV lines – not the 120kV lines currently proposed by Hydro-Québec – and Benoit said those lines would require single poles about 20 metres high, rather than the 40-metre-plus pylons required for the 120kV lines.

“The current 49kV line would be dismantled once the new 69kV line is built and operational;

similarly, the existing portion of the Knowlton and Sutton substations would be dismantled once the new 69kV equipment is operational,” Benoit explained. No new substation would be needed. “This proposal has a lot of advantages and very few drawbacks for us. … it minimizes the impacts not only for Sutton, but for the surrounding municipalities.”

Daniel Vaillant, a Québécois electrical engineer based in Lima, Peru and a former colleague of Benoit’s at Hydro-Québec, worked with Benoit as a volunteer consultant to develop the proposal over the past six months. “Hydro-Québec was saying there was only one possible solution, but [in fact] Hydro-Québec had figured out what was the best solution for them, and they wanted to see how they could implant it,” he said. 

Vaillant told the BCN the corridors and substations used for the existing lines “could easily be scaled up…without creating new scars on the land.” He alleged that the utility was trying to “impose” new 120kV lines around the province, without taking into account local particularities.

Two of Benoit’s counterparts have expressed reservations about the proposal. “We thought they had the solution,” said Dunham mayor Pierre Janecek, who attended the June 6 meeting. “We saw the presentation and we were enthusiastic – if it can work, if we don’t have to have any high-voltage lines [running through Dunham], then that’s great, but we do have some doubts.” Janecek alleged that some of the measurements provided were off and some of the land proposed for the Sutton substation expansion is on a wetland; Benoit later said he didn’t know what Janecek was referring to. Cowansville Mayor Sylvie Beauregard told the BCN she would wait for further information from Hydro-Québec before commenting in detail, but the enlargement of the Cowansville substation laid out in the proposal was “not a simple thing.”

Hydro-Québec regional affairs advisor Ève-Marie Jodoin confirmed that Hydro-Québec representatives had met with officials from the town of Sutton, the MRC Brome-Missisquoi and the Union des producteurs agricoles on June 16 to formally receive the Sutton proposal. Jodoin said Hydro-Québec was analyzing the proposal and would be able to comment in more detail in a few weeks. “It’s very well-thought-out and was obviously done by conscientious people,” she said. “There have been a lot of public comments [on the proposed substation] but this is the only fleshed-out proposal for an alternative that we have received so far.”

Hydro-Québec currently plans to build a new substation to replace the existing Sutton and Knowlton substations and provide electricity to Sutton, Brome Lake and Cowansville. The location has not yet been pinpointed, but is expected to be somewhere on a section of rural land straddling the boundaries of Brome Lake, Brome village and Sutton. Construction is expected to begin in 2027. Jodoin said area residents are still welcome to submit questions, comments and suggestions in English or French via the Hydro-Québec website.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

If you “made the move” from Montreal or another major city to the Eastern Townships during the COVID-19 pandemic, a film crew is potentially interested in hearing your story.

As rural communities across the region continue to grow, a new documentary project entitled Back to the Land, produced by a woman-led crew, is exploring the motivations and stories behind the migration. Produced by Kimchi Productions and developed through the CBC Absolutely Canadian strand, the documentary explores the wave of Montrealers who left the city during and after the COVID-19 crisis to start anew in the countryside.

Producer and co-writer Rebecca Rowley has lived in Dunham for nearly 20 years and seen the town’s transformation firsthand. “I saw a lot of people move our way during the pandemic, and I thought it would be interesting to see whether those moves met their objective,” she told the BCN. “Even though there were horrendous difficulties during that time, for a lot of people there was a benefit…I see so many people who have made the move and who are very happy.”

She noted that the wave of migration to the area has apparently spurred long-term growth, with new primary schools opening in Farnham, Cowansville and Shefford and the student body at Massey-Vanier High School increasing by several hundred. “The countryside is definitely not for retired couples anymore!”  

“We are excited to meet people who have moved and hear their stories,” she said. “Everyone can relate to a moment when they had to stop because life forced them to stop, and to think, ‘Am I aligned with my best life? Am I doing what resonates?’”

Rowley says she has spoken to several recent arrivals who “are loving having this slower life, working remote and enjoying being at home more and spending time with their kids, stepping out of the house and hearing lots of birds.”

However, for some, moving to the Townships has not been the solution they were hoping for, at least not yet. “In the case of a separation, you kind of idealize this family project, and it might not be enough to keep a family together. Not everyone likes to go talk to strangers, and some people feel their social life has gotten smaller… but I only know the people I know, and I’d like to know other people’s stories.” 

Rowley and director Miranda Handford want to explore how where people live shapes their sense of identity and the pace of their lives. They also plan to make the film a “love letter to the Eastern Townships” where the area’s landscapes play a starring role.

Rowley hopes to secure funding for the film from a variety of sources over the next few months and begin filming next year. Rowley is inviting families who are interested in participating to fill out a form on the production company website, kimchiproductions.com. They are looking for a diverse range of stories, from families with children to new retirees and single telecommuters, homebuyers and renters, from a range of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, living in the country and in larger towns like Bromont. Both anglophone and francophone families and those from other backgrounds are welcome to participate, although the current plan is to conduct interviews in English only – to facilitate distribution to English Canada and internationally, but also to encourage anglophone participation and reflect the area’s anglophone history. “We are fine with accents; you just need to be comfortable speaking English in front of a camera and having a film crew invade your home,” she said.

“We are aware that moving to rural areas [during the pandemic] was a global phenomenon, and  [the film] would speak to people around the world about how the pandemic sent a lot of people on a wild goose chase” leading them to rethink many aspects of their lives, she said.

To learn more about the film or to fill out an expression-of-interest survey if you’d like to be interviewed, visit kimchiproductions.com.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Cantons-de-l’Est Regional Airport Authority (Régie Aéroportuaire Régionale des Cantons de l’Est; RARCE) broke ground last week on a $10-million renovation of the single runway at Roland Désourdy Regional Airport in Bromont.

The airport has been in service for about 50 years and about 12,000 planes take off and land in Bromont every year, according to Simon Villeneuve, general manager of the airport. The airport is not equipped for large commercial flights, but it is used by corporate jets, private jets, “high-end tourist flights,” a flight school and an air ambulance service, Villeneuve told the BCN. 

The renovations involve completely rebuilding the airport’s single runway “down to the foundation,” redoing the apron, adding two taxiways for safer and more efficient takeoff and landing and bringing the airport into compliance with provincial regulations on rainwater runoff. “As it stands now, we have a single taxiway and there’s only one way for planes to take off,” said Villeneuve. “The idea is to improve the safety and fluidity of the operation and clear the runway much faster.” He said he believed the new runway offered “potential for new revenue down the road.”

“The first [step] would be to have more secure operations [thanks to the new taxiways], and then potentially we’ll have potential for growth,” he said. “We have about 25 private owners of aircraft and they have been saying for a long time that they would like for there to be hangars … to give people a place to park their jet. We are trying to facilitate this, and then we’ll extend the Rue du Ciel.”

Half of the cost of the runway revamp will be paid by the Quebec government through the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility regional airport infrastructure assistance program (PAQIAR) The other half will be paid jointly by the cities of Bromont, Cowansville and Granby. Contracts to work on the project have gone to local companies, Villeneuve said, with Granby-based Allaire et Gince the main construction contractor, Bromont-based Eurovia Québec supplying an estimated 20,000 tons of asphalt and Sherbrooke-based Ace Electric handling the electrical systems; in total, according to Villeneuve, the project will employ about 50 local workers. “It’s a regional airport, and we have people from around the region pitching in.”

Villeneuve explained that the first phase of construction began in May and the project is expected to kick into high gear over the summer. The airport will be closed for construction from Aug. 11 to Sept. 19, and full operations are expected to resume in late September or early October, Villeneuve said.

“Regional infrastructure, such as Roland-Désourdy Airport, is an essential economic driver, particularly when connected to our industrial parks, which are home to cutting-edge sectors such as industry, science, and technology. The Innovation Zone designation has reinforced the strategic role of this airport,” said Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest in a statement. “We are modernizing this key infrastructure to improve safety, support its development and enhance the attractiveness of the entire region.”

“I am proud to see this structuring project take shape, the result of rigorous work carried out with dedication by the RARCE team and numerous partners. The airport is much more than an infrastructure: it is a lever for our collective future,” said Cowansville Mayor Sylvie Beauregard, who is also president of the RARCE. 

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Employees and visitors to the town hall in Bedford Township have a little more breathing room. The new town hall, with a meeting room/reception hall, a full kitchen and private offices, was officially opened during a brief ceremony on June 14. Mayor Gilles St-Jean and MNA Isabelle Charest spoke, the ribbon was cut and town councillors gave guided tours of the new building.

The new building, built from the ground up, is adjacent to the former town hall and fire station, which will be converted into a new municipal garage. In the old town hall, “It was difficult to organize activities for citizens since only a very limited number of people could access them. We also didn’t meet universal accessibility standards, not to mention that the term ‘confidentiality’ lost its meaning given the cramped, multi-purpose spaces,” director general and town clerk Manon Blanchet said in a statement announcing the opening of the new building. Citizens who attended council meetings had to leave the building – and brave the weather – whenever council went in camera.

 “The old building was part town hall and part fire station, it was very small and it wasn’t private – the director general always had someone else in her office,” explained St-Jean in a brief English-language interview. “We could only receive 30 people [for meetings]. Now we can receive 70 or 80, and we have a kitchen, so if someone wants to hold a wedding reception or a Christmas party, they can do that.” The director general, assistant director general and administrator – a job filled by two part-time staff members –  all have office space of their own. People who attend council meetings will be able to wait indoors. There is no mayor’s office – “I haven’t needed an office in the last 20 years and I don’t expect to need one in the next eight,” St-Jean said – but there is shared workspace in the meeting room. The new building also has a 36-car parking lot. The conversion of the old town hall into a garage is well underway, also largely funded by a government grant; the fire trucks will be moved to the fire station in the town of Bedford.

“Now, we can welcome citizens with dignity in beautiful offices and rent out our large community hall and terrasse,” Blanchet added.

The municipality bought the land where the new town hall now stands in 2019, and started working toward the project in earnest in 2022 when they got a provincial grant equivalent to 78 per cent of the estimated cost of $2.8 million. “The province paid $2,152,020, so we were left with $656,839 that we had to pay,” Saint-Jean said. “Given that we sold a piece of land two years ago that covered that amount, the building will not show up on people’s tax bills. I didn’t want people to have an extra tax – I wanted the building paid for, and that’s what happened.”

“I’m very pleased that the government of Quebec has contributed to the construction of this essential infrastructure for Bedford Township. This new municipal office will not only allow municipal staff to work in modern, well-adapted premises, but it will also provide residents with a welcoming space for the entire community,” Charest said in a statement.