Author name: The Equity

Anxiety growing around province’s yet-to-be-released flood maps: MRC says draft maps are ‘still months out’

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Pontiac’s mayors and MRC staff have been receiving questions from residents about when the province’s new flood maps will be released, and what the implications of these maps will be for people who own property in or near a flood zone.

“We’ve been getting so many calls from people wondering about the maps,” said Kari Richardson, environment manager for the MRC Pontiac. She said the release of draft maps in the Montreal area last summer caused a stir of anxieties around what the maps would look like in the Pontiac.

But the update, from her end, is that there is no update, and the release of the draft maps for this region is expected sometime this summer.

“[The province] is doing a systematic update by region and, as they can, they’re publishing new maps,” she said.

“We’re still months out, and then there will be a public consultation period for those maps,” she said.

For several years now, the Quebec government has been working to overhaul and modernize the mapping of flood zones across the province.

The new maps will update which areas are considered to be at risk of flooding, will change how the flood risk information is presented, and will include new regulations to be implemented by municipalities around how land in flood zones can be used.

“For resilient land use planning, Quebec, like many jurisdictions around the world, will determine flood zones using information on past floods and on the possible evolution of anticipated floods up to the end of the century,” Josée Guimond, a spokesperson for the province’s environment ministry, wrote in an email to THE EQUITY.

“The calculation of future floods is based on simulation tools and greenhouse gas emission projection scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.”

Guimond said it’s estimated the new flood maps will cover between 30 and 40 per cent more ground than the current maps, and that the number of homes that fall within these expanded zones could grow from 22,000 to just over 77,000.

She emphasized this estimate will likely be revised downwards as new knowledge becomes available from the mapping work, and that the number of dwellings affected in a given area will vary according to its occupancy density.

Richardson said the City of Gatineau lead the charge on developing the new maps for the Pontiac region, with contributions from the MRC, but that these maps still need to be approved by the Ministry of Environment before they’re adopted as the new flood zones.

She said if the maps Gatineau submitted are approved, they will offer a far more accurate account of how flooding occurs across the territory. This, she says, is a welcome update to the current maps, which were developed based on the floods of 2017 and 2019, as well as on flood levels indicated the MRC’s current land use plan.

“Because [the current maps] take into consideration several things, that’s why it’s a little bit broad [ . . .]They’re not quite as detailed, which they will be in the coming versions.”

The maps were originally expected to be released last spring, but to date, only maps for the Greater Montreal area have been published.

New regulations for different risk zones

The updated maps will present flooding data in two new ways. First, the assessment of risk in each flood zone will be presented differently. Rather than describing a zone’s likelihood of flooding as a one in twenty year or one in one hundred year chance, a framing of flood probability that is often misunderstood, the new maps will present four different categories of flood zone: very high, high, medium, or low risk.

These categories will detail not only the probability a property will flood, but also the depth at which it will likely flood.

Depending on which category a property falls in, different regulations will apply.

Under the proposed regulations, property owners in all categories can replace a roof, change windows, and do interior renovations. Those who end up in the very high risk category would not be allowed to build a new house or rebuild one that has been destroyed, if the damages cost more than 50 per cent of what it would cost to replace the building. Renovations to make the home more flood resistant, however, would be possible.

Property owners who find themselves in the high-risk category would also not be allowed to erect new buildings, but would be allowed to rebuild after a flood.

Last fall, the province held consultations on these draft regulations, which are now being reviewed, and according to the province, are set to be released this spring, ahead of the maps.

‘A wait-and-see game’

Fort Coulonge mayor Christine Francoeur says she feels the process of rolling out these flood maps has taken too long.

“It’s true that as a municipality we’re very concerned about that,” she said. “We lost 24 houses [in recent floods] – one of them was just a few months ago declared to be destroyed.”

She is anxious to learn what her municipality will be allowed to do with these 24 lots, which the province bought from homeowners and resold to the municipality for the price of one dollar.

“We have the [sewage and water] infrastructure right there. If we can’t rebuild on those lots, it’s wasted for us,” she said.

She’s also been hearing from residents who’ve experienced flooding but haven’t lost their homes, who are anxious about what they will be allowed to do with their property going forward.

“There are a lot of questions going on and nobody’s got the answers yet. It’s just a wait-and-see game,” Francoeur said.

“I feel for the people in town because you don’t know what’s going to happen. Personally I think it’s taking too long for this flood zone map to come out. It just makes people more and more anxious.”

Pontiac MNA André Fortin says he’s just as in the dark as Pontiac residents when it comes to the details of these maps, and echoed Francoeur’s concerns with how these new maps will affect residents’ properties.

“Will it mean they’ll have trouble insuring their home? Will it mean they’ll have trouble selling their home? Will it mean the areas that have been developed will get a greater area in flood maps?” he said.

“It’s almost like there’s a tornado coming through town, but we’re speculating because we don’t know the extent of damage it’s going to cause.”

Anxiety growing around province’s yet-to-be-released flood maps: MRC says draft maps are ‘still months out’ Read More »

New Otter Lake assembly to encourage community cooperation

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Thomas Villeneuve was burnt out.

The 27-year-old Aylmer native had just graduated from McGill’s math and physics program, but didn’t feel so much of an ounce of satisfaction at the accomplishment.

“They did not make that program so that people could function as real humans,” he said, adding that in addition to being stressed he didn’t feel like he had community support around him.

After graduating in 2022, Villeneuve spent some time with his grandmother, who lives in Shawville but travels to her hometown of Otter Lake to play cards once a week.

“The drives gave me a lot of time to talk with her about how she had grown up,” he said. “She knew so many people and everyone she talked about said [ . . . ] if she ever needed help there’s always someone there to step up.”

Villeneuve said he had never had that kind of community around him, and was intrigued by the idea. After talking with his family, who also craved community, they decided to start the process of moving to their old family homestead in Otter Lake.

The family, which consists of Thomas’ father Gilles, his mother Anne and his brother Zac, recently began building a house on the property, and is travelling back and forth from their house in Aylmer.

In preparation for the move, Villeneuve spent hundreds of hours with his nose buried in books about local politics, resource management and models of governance.

His reading has led him to an idea for a new community group, an Otter Lake community assembly, that will begin meeting in April.

Villeneuve said the assembly will be open to any resident of Otter Lake, and will be a place where they can discuss issues going on in the community.

He said he has seen some heated council meetings, particularly during council’s decision to implement clear garbage bags, and thinks the assembly can help give people a space to air their frustrations before bringing them to the council.

“I don’t like all the animosity that I see whenever I go there. I want to make a way that we can talk together without getting into arguments,” he said.

“I think what people wanted was a town hall on the composting project, and that didn’t happen. If you would have let them make that decision together, it would sit better with everyone. It feels good to be included in the decision-making.”

Villeneuve said the assembly is a way to make residents feel like their concerns are being heard in real life, not just online in the Facebook comment section.

“It’s reciprocity. You should be talking to a real person, you need that human connection otherwise you don’t feel like you are implicating yourself in the decisions,” he said, adding that rather than voting he wants to use a process called consensus, which is slightly different.

“It’s not one side versus the other, it’s not majority rules. It’s everyone discusses things and the decisions we make in the end have to be at least okay with everyone.”

Mayor supportive of initiative

Villeneuve said while he believes in the municipal council and council members’ desire to do right by the community, they are also limited in how many residents they can talk to. He hopes that the assembly will allow the community to present council with well-researched ideas that represent the opinions and desires of the community at large.

“If we take [an idea] to council, you won’t have people showing up saying, ‘When did this start? Why should I do that? Why can’t I use these bags?’,” he said. “I find that you take all that heated debate right out of it before you meet with council because this consensus group has made a decision they think is right.”

Otter Lake mayor Jennifer Quaile said she is generally supportive of the idea and looks forward to collaborating with the assembly and even joining in a few meetings.

“Theoretically I think it’s a positive thing to do, to have community groups get together and brainstorm about ideas, about what they’d like to see done, and then bring the ideas forward to council if we in any way can help make things happen,” she said, adding that she likes the idea because it helps council hear from more people.

“Members of civil society have a right to participate in decision-making, to influence the decision-makers, such as ourselves at the table of councillors. So, it’s really beneficial to us as their representatives to hear from them and what they would like to see.”

Quaile added that she is looking forward to hopefully having a more productive dialogue between residents and elected officials.

“We can discuss in a safe public space [ . . . ] so that people can understand each other, and I think that will contribute to a much more positive atmosphere. I think we’re living in a particular time period where there is a lack of trust of elected officials, and I think the more open we can be and more inclusive of the people we represent, the more positive it will be.”

Villeneuve said the family has been using community assembly-style meetings to make group decisions, and that they sat down as a group to establish a core set of participation guidelines that all members can agree to.

He hopes to do the same with the Otter Lake group.

“I made a joke out of it, and said there’s 10 commandments. The first time we sat together, I asked them, what are some groups you’ve been in before, and what worked well? We brainstormed some ideas, and at the end we brought them together to make this list of 10 things we think are necessary so we can work together.”

Aside from the decision-making, Villeneuve and family want to encourage the community to be more self-sustainable, and wish to put in a community garden and tool shed.

“You see it in Toronto, you see it in Kingston, the food banks have just gone out of food in no time at all,” said Gilles. “Is it going to come to a point like that in our small community? It would be nice to have that mindset that people know how to plant gardens, know how to can food, know how to process the food, and we have a lot of people with that kind of knowledge in town.”

For the family, there’s a lot of work to be done before the community assembly first meets, and Thomas is trying to spread the word about his new initiative. In the meantime, though, he’s still driving his grandmother to cards in Otter Lake every week, learning everything he can about how the community used to be.

The Otter Lake community assembly will meet Apr. 5 at the Raymond Johnston Community Centre in Otter Lake, and will feature a free potluck. For more information, contact Thomas Villeneuve by email at info@olcac.ca.

New Otter Lake assembly to encourage community cooperation Read More »

‘Services without emergency rooms’: Connexions event highlights Pontiac’s health and social service orgs

Sarah Pledge Dickson, LJI Journalist

Representatives from 30 different health and social service groups from across the Pontiac spent Saturday morning in the Pontiac High School gym sharing information about the many forms of support they make available to residents of the region.

At the gathering – a sort of informal networking event for people looking to learn about what services are available to them – bingo cards were handed out to guests to encourage them to speak with as many service providers as possible. Each visit to an organization’s kiosk was another signature on the bingo card, which could be entered in a draw for a door prize.

“It makes me happy that people are leaving with so much information and saying things like, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t even know this existed,’” said Shelley Heaphy, community engagement and outreach coordinator for Connexions in the Pontiac.

She said that while some people might not need all the information about what services are available to them at this moment, having a sense for the support available could be helpful down the road.

Healthcare hotline how-to

The event also featured two presentations from representatives of the Quebec government’s 8-1-1 healthcare hotline about the many types of services that can be accessed by calling this number.

CISSSO employees Marion Coulombe and Simona Hudema explained option 1 can be used to speak directly to a nurse who can provide medical advice regarding symptoms such as vomiting or a fever and can advise whether or not you should go to the emergency room based on those symptoms.

Option 2 is a social services option, which Hudema and Coulombe said can often be misinterpreted. Hudema explained that option 2 allows people to speak with someone about mental health concerns or for help connecting with other services, such as a pharmacist to refill a prescription. Hudema also explained that the services are local, so you’ll be connected with someone who can help you in the Pontiac.

Option 3 is a new option that allows people without a family doctor or who are on a waiting list for a family doctor to get an appointment in their region.

Nicole Boucher-Larivière, CISSSO’s Pontiac director, said that option 3 can help people avoid unnecessary trips to the emergency room.

“Option 3 is amazing because it allows everybody to have access to a family doctor when it’s medically necessary,” Boucher-Larivière said. “This is a way where people can get services without having to worry about emergency rooms.”

Hudema said that option 3 allows people to connect with the right medical professional.

“The point of 8-1-1 option 3 is to make sure that you have the right professional at the right time, because not every situation needs you to see a doctor or go to the ER,” Hudema said. “If you don’t have a family doctor or you’re on the waiting list, they will put you in contact as soon as possible with the right professional.”

Boucher-Larivière explained that it means everyone can get access to a family doctor.

“Nobody is without access to a family doctor,” Boucher Larivière said. “It might be a different one every time you use the service until you actually get a family doctor, but at least there’s a way to see somebody.”

‘Services without emergency rooms’: Connexions event highlights Pontiac’s health and social service orgs Read More »

Pontiac municipality to introduce countertop composting program

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

A new pilot project the Municipality of Pontiac is hoping to launch next month will make indoor composting machines available to residents who might not have the yard space to process their food waste outdoors.

The machines, called FoodCyclers, are small enough to sit on a countertop, and through a process of drying and grinding, reduce household food waste into an odorless dust that can be added to fertilizer or garden compost.

After a resolution is passed at the March council meeting to purchase the machines, the municipality will order them and make them available to residents in two sizes. Contributions from the municipality, the federal government and the makers of FoodCycler will reduce the cost to $200 for a small machine and $300 for a large one.

Mayor Roger Larose said the initiative is one way the council hopes to encourage residents to deal with food waste, which, if not composted at home, gets thrown in the municipality’s garbage.

He said despite government pressures to do door-to-door collection, this practice would be too expensive for his municipality, a largely rural area with many people who already do backyard composting.

“We would need a special truck with two different compartments on it,” he said. “We can’t afford it, and the second thing is, if I go ask the farmer to put a brown [bin] by the road I don’t think he’d be too impressed.”

The FoodCycler initiative, he said, is meant for anyone, but one advantage is that you don’t need a yard or outdoor space.

“It’s people in town or in the beaches who are close to each other, who don’t have the room to compost outside,” he said. “The houses are so close to each other, the lots are so small, you don’t want to have something in the ground because of the smell.”

According to an estimate from a pilot project document from FoodCycler, the 100 machines will process 200 tonnes of food waste and will allow the municipality to save over $20,000 in garbage shipping fees.

The municipality will purchase 50 small machines and 50 large ones, an order that will total $36,500. If all 100 machines are bought by residents, the total net cost for the municipality would be $11,500, an amount Larose said will come from the recycling and garbage budget.

Sheila McCrindle, who is part of a resident waste committee, said when she attended the program briefing last fall it seemed certain councillors did not appear to be on board with the program.

“I’m really surprised they chose to do this. I don’t know what got to them, or what convinced them. They didn’t seem to think it was a good idea,” she said, adding that those councillors were bringing up the large amount of money the municipality would have to spend on the program.

“I don’t know where this money’s coming from, that concerns me. They’re spending this kind of money on a handful of residents,” she said.

A survey of the municipality conducted in 2017 found that only 46 per cent of the roughly 300 respondents were doing home composting, but 69 per cent of people were open to trying it, and preferred the option instead of door-to-door collection.

Ward 1 councillor Diane Lacasse, who was there for the briefing, said she felt the $36,500 price tag for the program is too high.

“I talked to my constituents, and they weren’t interested in [the program] because they compost in their garden and in their fields,” she said. “The only people I think would be interested are in [Breckenridge] and the ones that live in Quyon.”

Lacasse said she would rather see the money go toward green cone composters, another initiative put out by the municipality last year to encourage at-home composting.

Green cones are in-ground digesters designed for outdoor use that break down all food scraps, ranging from fruit peels to bread to meat and dairy.

According to numbers provided by the municipality, only 25 of the 200 cones the municipality acquired were picked up from the office.

McCrindle and Lacasse agreed they felt the municipality’s communication is lacking about these composting programs.

Larose, who pointed toward the municipality’s most recent online newsletter as a source of information about both programs, said a few people have already expressed interest in the FoodCyclers.

“That’s what the 100 machines are for, is to try it out and see if anyone gets involved,” he said, adding that they will re-evaluate the municipality’s participation in the program depending on interest.

He acknowledged the municipality needs to improve communication about the program, and said when communications specialist Natalie Larose comes back from sick leave later this month she will work on a strategy to get the information out there.

“We need to do a campaign to educate the people,” he said. “We’re going to have to spend more time explaining the reason why we have to use it.”

Larose expects the machines to be available for purchase in late May or early June.

Pontiac municipality to introduce countertop composting program Read More »

Campbell’s Bay man’s truck stolen by driver he tried to help

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

A series of three allegedly connected car thefts over a period of 12 hours ended the morning of Feb. 4 when the suspected thief of a truck stolen in Campbell’s Bay crashed it in Blainville, Que. and died soon after, following a police pursuit.

Quebec’s police watchdog, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), is now investigating the incident, as it does in all cases when a person dies or is seriously injured during a police intervention or while in police custody.

According to the BEI, the spree began the evening of Feb. 3, when a stolen vehicle was reported in Sorel-Tracy around 5:30 p.m..

The BEI said Sûreté du Québec (SQ) police intercepted the vehicle near the town of Yamaska, Que., at which point the driver fled on foot and the police lost track of him.

At 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 4, a second stolen vehicle was reported in Yamaska. This vehicle was only found another six hours later, nearly 400 kilometres west, in Campbell’s Bay, after the driver pulled over to deal with a flat tire.

Around 3:30 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 4, Campbell’s Bay resident Maurice Morin was out checking road conditions for his family’s plow business, Morin Sand and Gravel, when he came across a car pulled over with a flat tire on Highway 148, just west of the intersection with the 301.

A fireman for 30 years, Morin said he had developed a habit out of stopping to help cars pulled over on the side of the road, so he pulled over to see if he could help the driver.

After realizing he needed a jack from his garage to do the job, he made a quick trip back to his shop on Front Street to get it.

In the meantime, his grandson Steve, who was running his regular plow route, came across the driver, who had moved his car off the highway into the parking lot at Dean’s Grocer.

Steve said the driver hopped in his truck with him for a brief moment to warm up.

“He had a lot of respect. He was kind, actually, and had good manners,” Steve recalled, noting the man, who he figured to be in his twenties or thirties, told him he was from Laval.

“He was happy that he was getting help, and next thing you know, the strangest thing happened.”

Upon Morin’s return with the jack, he learned he also needed a grinder to loosen the spare tire from under the car. This time, the driver of the car requested to accompany Morin to the shop.

According to Morin’s account, the young man followed Morin into the shop, and as he was getting his grinder out, the man quickly exited again, shutting the door behind him. By the time Morin got the door open again – only seconds later – the man was in the driver’s seat of the truck, backing out of the laneway.

“As soon as I turned my eyes, he was in the driver’s seat and gone with it,” Morin said.

Morin tried to hang onto the mirror, and bang on the window with his hand, but the driver wouldn’t stop.

“I was just a good samaritan trying to give him a hand and that’s when he jumped in and stole the damn truck.”

Morin said he called the police, who met him back at Dean’s where the now-abandoned car was still stationed, and they quickly determined it had also been stolen.

The BEI’s report said Morin’s stolen truck was reported to the police around 6:30 a.m. on Feb. 4, and located driving eastbound on Highway 50 near Lachute. At this point the police launched a pursuit, which included a failed attempt to stop the vehicle using spike strips.

According to the BEI’s account, the fleeing vehicle collided with a patrol car and another vehicle further down Highway 50 around 7 a.m. The police then decided to stop chasing the stolen vehicle. About 10 minutes later, it collided with two other vehicles in Blainville.

The suspect was seriously injured in the crash, and was later reported to have died, according to the BEI. The two other drivers involved in the crash suffered minor injuries.

Why the man, allegedly from Laval, was in the Campbell’s Bay area was not clear to either of the Morins, although when they asked him, he said he was visiting friends to do some snowmobiling, an answer neither found convincing.

Five BEI officers have been assigned to investigate the incident, with assistance from the Montreal police force, which will also be conducting its own investigation into the circumstances that led to the crash.

Campbell’s Bay man’s truck stolen by driver he tried to help Read More »

Shawville looking at affordable housing on John Dale Street

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

The Municipality of Shawville held a public consultation on Monday evening as part of a new affordable housing project a Pontiac construction company is hoping to bring to John Dale Street.

Shawville’s building inspector Charles Gallant said he has received initial plans from Maisons PAJ, the Luskville-based building company that has been erecting apartment buildings across town.

The new plans include four buildings of six units each, with one-bedroom apartments on the ground floor and three-bedroom apartments on the top floor.

Maisons PAJ’s Matthieu Jodoin said up to seven one-bedroom units will rent for $900, an “affordable” rate as defined by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) that the company was able to offer by participating in a CMHC program.

Monday evening’s consultation is part of a provincially mandated process designed to fast-track the rezoning process for certain lots if they are destined for affordable, social or student housing.

“Bill 31 was introduced to help in reducing the delays in making changes to have more density within the territory,” Gallant explained, adding that the lot is currently zoned for single dwelling residential and would have to be rezoned in order to make the construction possible.

“Typically a zoning process could take up to six months, versus this system here within about six weeks we can deliver the permit,” he said.

He said the consultation is needed because it is a part of the process for the new rezoning bill, and is an opportunity for residents to express their opposition or opinions about the project.

Gallant has received the location plan and drafted mock-ups of the building’s facade from Maisons PAJ, but has not received an official permit application yet because the company must first get approval for a CMHC program that would give it certain insurance incentives for building according to specifications including high energy efficiency, accessibility, and affordability.

Once the application with the CMHC is approved, the builders can then submit their plans to the municipality to acquire a permit.

Gallant said these apartments fill a need in the Pontiac for updated housing stock at an affordable rate. “The housing stock is getting old in the Pontiac, so it’s a rare opportunity to have a new building,” he said.

Jodoin said he wanted to offer housing that is cheaper than what can be found in Aylmer or other areas of Gatineau.

“What we’ve done is we’ve tried to make new housing so that it’s as affordable as possible for the sector,” he said, adding that two-bedrooms apartments they can rent for $1,300 in Shawville could rent for over $2,000 in the city.

“Two bedrooms at $1,300, it doesn’t exist even at the North Pole,” he said.

He said the three-bedroom housing would be ideal for families, and the one-bedrooms for seniors, especially because they are located on the ground floor.

Once the construction is complete, Maisons PAJ will sell the building to its eventual landlord.
In order to ensure affordability, Jodoin said in the contract there will be a clause to stipulate that the rent of the affordable units will begin at $900 and that it will only increase by the rent cap or less every year.

Affordable housing needed to fill the gap

Office d’habitation du Pontiac director Sherry-Ann Doyle, who manages nine buildings across the county containing social housing, said more affordable housing is welcome but there is still a large demographic of people who can’t afford to pay.

“One of our criteria is that the person cannot make more than $25,000,” she said, adding that most people housed in her buildings are on welfare, and she is having to turn people away because they don’t meet the criteria.

“The issue I’m seeing a lot is I have people who [ . . . ] will come in, they’re making, let’s say, $26,000, $28,000, even $30,000. It’s not a big income, so they’re not eligible because they make more than what is our maximum allowed income here,” she said, adding that even people working relatively low-wage jobs often cannot afford to pay market rent.

Doyle said an increase in affordable housing availability might begin to help people who don’t meet the criteria for social housing, but who also don’t make enough money to pay market rate for housing in the region.

“There’s a need for it, for that gap of people that are not admissible to our apartments,” she said.

Although Gallant did not know the exact vacancy rate for rentals in the Pontiac, he said “it’s not very high.”

Jodoin acknowledged that low supply also means higher rental costs, and although many people in the Pontiac are in low-income situations he hopes that more construction and investment in the local rental market will help to stabilize rent costs.

“The fact of building more [ . . . ] even if it’s high-end, it tends to increase the offer and stabilize the local market,” he said, adding that he hopes to break ground on the new housing project sometime this year.

Gallant said he has been in contact with other prospective builders who might wish to build affordable housing in Shawville, but none have formally presented him with plans.

“Until it’s in my hand, it’s just a dream.”

Shawville looking at affordable housing on John Dale Street Read More »

Parking, paddock location top concerns with Quyon park reno plans

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

The Municipality of Pontiac presented its new plans for upgrades to its major parks in Quyon and Luskville on Jan, 28 to a small crowd gathered at the Quyon Community Centre.

A majority of the evening was spent discussing plans for the Quyon park, which runs the length of the town’s Ferry Road and hosts a wide range of activities including soccer and baseball throughout the summer, a truck and tractor pull, equestrian events, and Canada Day celebrations.

The proposal, based on community consultations and a survey conducted last year, suggests dividing the park into areas designated for specific activities, such as a campground with electrical hookups, an outdoor entertainment area, a horse paddock, as well as the existing two baseball diamonds and soccer field, and an additional skating rink.

The plans also include the creation of a hill for tobogganing in the northwest corner of the park, the installation of a small dock on the Quyon River to create an access point for non-motorized boaters, and the construction of a new service building near the baseball diamonds that would host a canteen, an activities room, and showers for campers, among other features.

Parking for people using the park would remain at the community centre, where it is now, and a small one-way road accessible from Ferry Road would loop through the park to allow maintenance crews access to park facilities, allow campers to drive into their camp sites, and potentially allow parents to drop off their young athletes with their sports equipment at their respective fields before parking at the community centre.

Quyon business owner Isabelle Lajoie was among those offering feedback on the plans Tuesday evening. She and her husband Marc Bergeron bought the town’s old Egan Mill in 2022, with plans to restore it and open it as a flour mill, which she anticipates will happen this summer. Their kids also participate in sporting events at the park.

“I think as a Municipality, the Pontiac has only one village and that’s Quyon, so it needs to be attractive, and needs to be efficient, and if they want to develop Quyon, [this park] is the best way to start,” she said.

“I think it’s good to have this vision, it’s good to be attractive. [ . . . ] Yes it will add more maintenance, but if we want Quyon to be more active, they will have to invest more time and money.”

Parking, paddock concerns

While reception of the plans was generally positive, concerns were raised with whether they included enough parking for the larger events hosted at the park, whether the parking was close enough to the sports fields, as well as with the proximity of the horse paddock to the road.

Matt Curley, volunteer member with the Quyon Sports and Recreation group that runs the ball leagues through the summer, explained that current practice is for parents to park on the grass next to fields where their kids are playing.

Asking parents to park at the community centre and lug the sports bags to the game fields might be a big ask, he told THE EQUITY following Tuesday’s presentation.

“This wouldn’t be ideal or practical for a family of a few kids who you’re dropping off at the soccer field and then relocate your vehicle and walk all the way back across, especially given that there is space in the fairgrounds, it just needs to be accounted for to provide that parking,” Curley said, suggesting some of the designated multi-purpose areas, identified on the map with a light yellow colour, could be used for parking closer to the sports fields.

Several in attendance Tuesday, including Pontiac Equestrian Association president Andrea Goffart, also noted the proximity of the horse paddock to Ferry Road was not practical for safety reasons, did not leave enough space for parking large horse trailers, and did not provide enough shade for the horses.

Municipality of Pontiac mayor Roger Larose said he had predicted this would be an issue, but wanted to hear from those who run equestrian activities before relocating the paddock. It was suggested the paddock be moved to green space in the eastern side of the park, closer to the Quyon River.

The presentation of updates to the Luskville park on Highway 148 was brief, making mention of highlights including a new fenced dog park, as well as new walking paths and increased lighting throughout the park.

A more thorough presentation will be given in Luskville in the coming weeks.

Aiming for March council approval

Larose said he’s hoping to get these plans approved by council in March so the team leading this project can begin applying for grants that will be needed to fund the proposed changes.

Before bringing the plans to council, however, the municipality will need adapt the plans to receive some of the feedback received, and lay out the details of each phase of the project, including budgets for each phase.

“For us this is a big project, we’re talking millions of dollars. But at the end we have to realize how much we can pay. The goal is to have something we can afford,” Larose said, noting small changes can be made even after the plans are adopted.

He said while phases two and three of the project remain somewhat undefined, he’s hoping to secure $250,000 from MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais to begin phase one this year, which will focus on installing a net around the ballfield and a shelter for ball players not on the pitch, as well as upgrades to the current washrooms.

Curley said he was happy to see the municipality had received the feedback provided by residents last spring that the original plans were too extravagant and that more attention needed to be given to upgrading the existing infrastructure, including increasing security and accessibility of the park.

“I don’t want to put a tarnish on the efforts that the municipality is proposing because I think it’s great [ . . . ] that there’s some sort of plan being put in place to spend money on the park,” Curley said. “But it’s certainly something worth questioning how they plan to put that plan into fruition.”

Parking, paddock location top concerns with Quyon park reno plans Read More »

School board pinches pennies to save $1M, as per province’s demand: Says this round won’t affect students

Sarah Pledge Dickson, LJI Journalist

The Western Quebec School Board (WQSB) has clarified how it plans to handle the province’s demand it cut $906,000 from its budget by the end of this fiscal year, now about a month away.

In December the Quebec government announced that school boards across the province would have to cut millions in spending by March.

At the WQSB’s Jan. 28 meeting, assistant director general Pascal Proulx announced the board will cut just over $1.1 million from its spending this year in response to this demand, which amounts to less than one per cent of the year’s budget.

Proulx said after some serious penny-pinching, including the cancellation of tiny budget items like a principal’s breakfast and free use of a public workplace coffee machine, he believed the cuts would not affect student services.

“We worked with the Resource Allocation Committee, and with these first cuts we were able to do it without impacting the schools,” he said.

The board plans to save money by not filling four positions that were vacant – including that of a psychologist – and pointed to the late hiring of six new employees as having already saved the board almost $300,000.

About $250,000 will be saved in caretaking and maintenance fees, through measures such as reducing an annual window cleaning service to a bi-annual service.

Many of these changes will only help the school board meet this budget requirement this year and will not be recurring.

Joanne Labadie, chair of the WQSB, said she was pleased with how the cuts were handled this time around but warned that even if these cuts are not supposed to affect students, everything the board does has an impact.

“I think the team did an exceptional job in identifying areas that could be cut without impacting student services and with having minimal impact on staff,” Labadie said. “But we are a school board. It’s impossible not to impact student services somewhere, but we’ve done it in a way that hopefully won’t. Any further cuts would make it impossible not to impact students.”

Proulx said it looks like more cuts are on the horizon.

“We know almost for certain now that we’re going to have more cuts in April when the new budget appears,” he said. “So we’re working with the schools and the principals to prepare for that.”

Labadie echoed this concern for the greater budget cuts anticipated this spring.

“When the government brings forward the 2025 budget, [cuts are] going to be a lot harder.”

School board pinches pennies to save $1M, as per province’s demand: Says this round won’t affect students Read More »

Pontiac family doctor spots to become available

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

The Pontiac’s family medicine group is urging residents to get on the waitlist for a family doctor if they don’t already have one.

The Groupe de médecine de famille du Pontiac (GMF Pontiac) has taken to the internet and the airwaves over the past few weeks to advise Pontiac residents that some doctors will soon be accepting new patients, and is encouraging people without a doctor to get on the list.

“Our doctors are looking at increasing their caseloads, all the while considering that two colleagues will retire this summer,” said Danielle Romain, coordinator for the GMF Pontiac, in a message.

“We are urging residents of the Pontiac to sign up on the registry list if they are still without a family physician.”

As of last Thursday, Pontiac director for the Outaouais’ public healthcare authority (CISSSO) Nicole Boucher-Larivière said only 17 patients are on the waitlist for a family doctor in the region, which includes the MRC Pontiac and the Municipality of Pontiac.

While Boucher-Larivière is happy to see the doctor waitlist shrinking, in part due to the recruitment of four new doctors to the area in the past 15 months, she believes there are still thousands of people in the region without a family doctor.

According to statistics provided by CISSSO, 18,064 patients benefited from the care of a family doctor in the Pontiac network in 2024 — 17,546 with a regular family physician and another 518 under group care.

According to the most recent census data, the MRC Pontiac (14,764) and the Municipality of Pontiac (6,142) combine for 20,906 residents. If 18,064 had a family physician, and only 17 were on a waitlist, that leaves up to 2,825 people unaccounted for.

Boucher-Larivière said they are encouraging people to get on the waitlist because it helps them know how many doctors would be required to ensure all Pontiac residents have a family physician.

More immediately, the existing doctors will soon begin taking on more patients and will quickly eat through the current list of 17 people. The health authority is hoping to find out why those remaining people don’t have a family doctor.

“Is it because they have a family doctor in Ontario? Is it that they have a family doctor from Aylmer that they want to keep?” she said.

Boucher-Larivière said CISSSO has been able to increase family doctor services, especially over the last 18 months, in large part because of strong recruitment efforts across the network.

“When we had a doctor show interest in our area, we went into great seduction mode,” she said, adding that various people across the network would pick the doctors up at the airport, invite them to dinners in their homes, and help them get settled.

“We told them what we could offer if they were to come to our area, and how we could help them integrate, and we were successful on pretty much every candidate that was interested in coming,” she said.

She noted that with some of the region’s older doctors possibly looking to retire soon, the health network is trying to get a better picture of what the need is for primary care in the region.

“Do I keep recruiting? Or am I okay for a while? So we’re kind of asking our doctors what their intentions are.

We want to know those [ . . . ] people that are accounted for, do they have family doctors elsewhere? Or do they need one in Quebec?” she said.

To get on the waitlist for a family doctor, interested parties can call the Shawville CLSC at 819-647-3553, ext. 252510 or 1-888-747-2211 ext. 252510. You may also register online by googling “Guichet d’accès à un médecin de famille.”

Pontiac family doctor spots to become available Read More »

As Shawville Lions celebrate 75 years, club tries new ways to bring in younger members

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Outside Shawville’s Valu-Mart, Steve Sutton hauls a pair of signs out of the back of his truck and stands them next to the store’s main entrance.

Sutton, a member of the Shawville Lions Club, steps aside to reveal the signs, which celebrate the 75th year of the club and include a list of all the causes it has helped raise money for over its decades serving the community. These signs have been visible outside Valu-Mart and Giant Tiger locations in Shawville over the past few weeks.

Over its three-quarters of a century, the club has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for people in the community, via fundraisers at the Shawville Fair, the annual Country Jamboree, Canada Day breakfasts, as well as countless barbecues and other events.

But the milestone comes with a flip side. The Lions, like many other community service organizations in this country, are losing members or even folding altogether. The Quyon Lionettes decided to call it quits in the fall.

The previous decade saw the dissolution of clubs like the Shawville Kinsmen and the Fort Coulonge Lions.
Even many of the clubs still alive now are hurting for members. 

The Bryson Lions Club is below 10 full-time members, while the Renfrew and Pontiac Lions clubs are both hovering around 15 members.

With 27 full-time members, the Shawville Lions’ situation isn’t quite as dire, but Sutton’s signs are just one example of how the club is trying to integrate a younger crowd into their ranks. By sharing what the club has done for the community, it hopes these successes will prompt a younger generation to join.

Lions club member James Howard said he recalls the Shawville club having as many as 32 members, so being down to 27 isn’t that much of a dip.

“The trouble is, you’re talking to a crew that is probably not going to be here in 15 years, and if we don’t get somebody younger in the club to run it, then we have troubles,” he said, highlighting the importance of the recruitment effort.“We just need to get some people with coloured hair in here.”

Member Eric Smith agreed. “The signs show what money we brought in,” he said, adding that people don’t necessarily realize what the Lions Club does. “We raise money to help people that are less fortunate, and we do community service.”

The signs are only one way the Lions are trying to increase membership. At the club’s upcoming dinner on Feb. 13, members are being encouraged to invite whoever they would like as guests in an effort to increase visibility.

“Then it makes [guests] more aware if they want to be a part of this community and give back to it,” said member Jerry Callaghan.

“I think what would be really important to come out of this would be if we could get three or four or five, or even one younger member bringing in a bunch of younger members,” added Howard.

He said the club hasn’t traditionally invited women because for a long time Shawville had a successful Lionettes club, but in the past few years they have opened their doors to more women and are open to continue doing so.

Shawville Lions not only victim of waning volunteerism

Terry Frost, president of the Pontiac Lions Club in Campbell’s Bay, said membership is down to around 15 members this year. He said although numbers are low, there is still hope in the form of three younger members, in their 40s and 50s, who will decide at this month’s meeting whether or not to become full-time members of the club.

Nevertheless they are lowering the barrier to entry by reducing mandatory meeting attendance to twice a month, as well as extending open invitations to anyone who wants to come to a dinner.

“When I first joined, you had to come and ask the members if it was alright to invite somebody to come to your meeting. And now we just threw that out the door,” he said.

Frost said it has been hard to attract members because the Lions club has to compete with other activities for people’s attention.

“It was hard to get people interested,” he said. “They all have families, and nowadays they’re skating, there’s dancing, there’s gymnastics, so the younger ones didn’t want to commit to it.”

He said he believes the club has been in existence since 1937, and that it has been a staple in the community ever since. He said the community would definitely be worse off without the Lions.

“It’d be a lot less donations given around. St. John’s school, we really donate a lot there, Bouffe Pontiac, wheelchairs, anything to do with medical. If people need stuff, they give us a call, like wheelchairs, walkers, we’re always willing to help there,” he said.

Marc Latreille, Shawville Rotary’s secretary for over a decade, said last year the club raised over $30,000 for the community. Despite this success, the average age is getting older.

He said due to lack of numbers the club currently has no sitting president, and the role is being filled by various executive members, including himself.

Like the Pontiac Lions Club, in an effort to attract new members the Rotary is trying to reduce the number of monthly meetings, a decision he said was made because young people don’t seem to have the time they used to.

“Today people seem so busy, everybody’s busy,” he said.

Latreille said the club was able to find two younger members that have joined in recent years, including real estate agent Jarod Croghan and PHS French teacher Lindsay Woodman, and he hopes they can begin to give the club some visibility with the next generation.

“When we had a member like Lindsay, she’s a teacher at the high school, and she’s very well connected with the kids, and she seems to have a lot of energy,” he added.

For her part, Woodman underlined the importance of keeping service clubs like the Rotary alive.

“We need to make sure that we have people there [ . . . ] If the worst were to happen and all the clubs were to go away, then we would have a lot more noticeable hardships in the Pontiac,” she said, encouraging anyone who is interested to get involved.

“I think the best thing for people to do is if they want to get out and help, they are more than welcome to come join or audit to see what it’s about.”

‘We’re open to anyone’

Smith said that anyone who wants to come out to a meeting should get in touch with the club.

“We are wide open to anyone that wants to learn about Lionism or join the Lions Club, and there’s no pressure
[ . . . ] it’s a volunteer thing and you can put in as little or as much effort as you want,” he said.

Howard said despite the relative dip in numbers in recent years he is not worried the Lions club will fold anytime soon. “I’m very hopeful [ . . . ] But I’m also not sure what is going to happen 15 years from now,” he said, underlining the importance of getting young people involved.

Smith was equally optimistic. “This is a great community for people helping people – that’s what we do.”

As Shawville Lions celebrate 75 years, club tries new ways to bring in younger members Read More »

Campbell’s Bay to develop plan for protecting town from climate change

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Residents and elected officials from the Municipality of Campbell’s Bay gathered at the town’s RA centre on Thursday evening to participate in a public consultation on how to make the town more resilient to climate change.

The consultation is one of the first phases in a project called “My municipality is going green,” which is funded by the provincial government’s environment ministry and administered by Outaouais environmental agency CREDDO.

The municipality received a $70,000 grant from the province in June 2024 to participate in this program, which aims to support greenery projects focused on reducing the impact of climate change on towns, particularly heat waves and torrential rains.

“It’s a program that CREDDO put in place to help municipalities get the help and accompaniment that they need for them to [ . . . ] be more resilient to climate change,” said Anta Diama Kama, co-project lead with CREDDO.

Kama and her co-lead Alan Dabrowski presented eight months of research they did on the impact of climate change on Campbell’s Bay, which found among other things that by the year 2050, there could be as many as 20 days at 30 degrees Celsius or hotter every year, as opposed to just six on average over the past few years.

The project’s website states that it will focus on reducing the number of pavement surfaces and increasing the amount of green spaces, which “encourage the creation of urban heat islands during heat waves and cause health issues.”

Pavement surfaces also prevent water from soaking into the ground during periods of strong rain, potentially causing overflows, floods and backflows of water and damaging buildings.

“The installation or improvement of green infrastructure can respond to these issues by creating ‘cooling islands’ and allowing the infiltration of rainwater,” reads the website. “By greening our town centres, we are ensuring a better quality of life for our residents and a healthy environment.

The pair said that planting more trees and creating more green spaces in the downtown core could reduce the number of hot days while also bringing other benefits, including a better quality of life, increased property values and beautification of the town.

After Kama and Dabrowski presented their research, they also showed the crowd examples of what green spaces could be added to the town, including planting trees in the downtown core as well as on residential streets, and separating the sidewalks from the road by a tree-lined strip.

Then, the pair asked attendees to gather around table-sized maps of the town and place sticky notes on the areas they thought needed greening, as well as areas of the town they liked and thought should be highlighted with beautification efforts.

“We chose the area from Front Street going toward the church,” said resident and councillor Jean-Pierre Landry on behalf of his group. The crowd agreed this stretch was one of the town’s biggest selling points among locals and tourists alike, and that it should be prioritized when it comes to greening efforts.

Campbell’s Bay mayor Raymond Pilon said the town council wanted to get involved in this project to improve its resilience to climate change, while also making the town more attractive to residents and visitors.

“Global warming is a real thing, so by planting different trees of different species at different locations, this should help to cool down the downtown core,” he said.

Pilon added that there are secondary benefits to the greening project as well, including making the streets cooler and more comfortable to walk on for residents, including seniors, who are more vulnerable.

“Also, for the capture of the rainwater, and for the safety of pedestrians,” he said, adding that the area of Leslie Street and south is the area they will be focusing on.

The council hasn’t decided exactly which solutions it wants to pursue, but Pilon likes the idea of narrowing areas of Leslie Street by expanding the green space on either side, as this would help slow traffic on a busy school road.

“We want to make it safe for the students,” he said. “We have the speed limit set to 30 kilometres an hour, but there have been two accidents in the last couple of years that just show a lot of people don’t respect that speed limit, and we want to make it safer for everybody.”

As part of its participation in this greening initiative, Campbell’s Bay must contribute 20 per cent toward the costs of the project. Pilon said council has yet to decide how much it will contribute, but will discuss it at future meetings.

“We went through different scenarios and it’s still to be determined depending on our budget,” he said.
Kama and Dabrowski will take the town’s feedback into consideration and will come up with concepts, to be presented to the town in the spring and summer of this year.

Campbell’s Bay to develop plan for protecting town from climate change Read More »

MRC taking legal action to collect Alleyn and Cawood’s unpaid shares

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

A majority of Pontiac’s mayors have voted in favour of pursuing legal action to collect the municipal shares the MRC is still owed by the Municipality of Alleyn and Cawood for 2024.

At the council of mayors’ monthly meeting on Jan. 22, a motion was passed to mandate law firm Deveau Dufour Mottet Avocats to begin legal proceedings to recover the $289,148 owed in shares, as well as the interest accumulated over the past year at a rate of two per cent a month, and costs the MRC will accrue through this legal action, at a rate of about $200 an hour.

Municipal shares, paid by municipalities to the MRC for shared services like animal control, public security, public transit services and the MRC’s property assessment department, are determined by each municipality’s assessed property value in a given year.

In the first of every three years of the property assessment cycle, an in-depth evaluation determines accurate values of properties depending on whether they are residential, forestry, vacant, or cottage lots. In years two and three of the cycle however, these categories are ignored and a generalized evaluation produces a standardized value, based on all sales across the municipality.

Alleyn and Cawood’s standardized value increased by over 200 per cent in 2024, after a collection of empty lots were sold at about four times their assessed value. This inflated standardized value caused its municipal shares to increase from $112,539 in 2023 to $289,148 in 2024.

But this spike, says Alleyn and Cawood’s director general Isabelle Cardinal, was based on a flawed evaluation system, which is why her municipality has refused to pay the full sum of last year’s shares.

“How can a small municipality like Alleyn and Cawood have one of the biggest bills for shares in the Pontiac [ . . . ] a bill similar to [Pontiac’s] big municipalities?” Cardinal asked.

“We were charged on a flawed, exaggerated number. [ . . . ] You can see, just by comparing the shares of Alleyn and Cawood for the last three years,” she said, noting the shares owed for 2025 are back down to $147,126, much closer to what they were for 2023.

“So it’s pretty clear that something wrong happened,” she said.

In the fall, the municipality passed a resolution, sent to the MRC for consideration, that offered to pay just over half of the amount owed for its 2024 shares – a number based on the more accurate property assessment it received in the fall of 2024 – on the condition the MRC cover the remaining amount using its budget surplus. The municipality did not receive a response from the MRC regarding this proposal, so it did not follow through on paying a portion of the money owed.

But from the MRC’s perspective, this money has already been spoken for, as allocated in the 2024 budget which was approved by Alleyn and Cawood mayor Carl Mayer in Nov. 2023.

“Unfortunately the mayor of Alleyn and Cawood supported it, and his DG also knew that’s how much [their share] was,” said MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller.

“They’ve had ample time to pay, as they’ve paid every other year. [ . . . ] We’ve tried to have conversations directly, and I personally reached out to them the last week of December, knowing the 31st was the deadline we’d imposed [on payment].”

She said her attempts to get the municipality to pay a portion of their shares were not successful.

On the question of using a portion of the MRC’s surplus to help Alleyn and Cawood pay its share, Toller said the MRC had been advised by its accountant to keep a surplus of at least $2 million.

“We made a decision that it would not come from the surplus, but we are in agreement that this money, if it comes from anywhere to help Alleyn and Cawood, it should come from the provincial government,” Toller said.

‘Somebody’s got to fight them’

At Wednesday evening’s council meeting, most mayors voted in favour of the motion to pursue legal action to collect the money owed, while Otter Lake mayor Jennifer Quaile, Thorne pro-mayor Robert Wills and Alleyn and Cawood mayor Carl Mayer voted against it.

“If we lose, we lose. We’ll pay it all,” Mayer told THE EQUITY following the meeting, noting the municipality has the money and could pay the sum of its 2024 shares today if needed. But for Mayer and the council, the refusal to do so is one based in principle.

Since the summer, the municipality has been advocating the MRC change how it calculates its municipal shares so that municipalities aren’t charged based on generalized property valuations produced in years two and three of the evaluation cycle, and base shares instead on the detailed evaluations done in year one.

In December the MRC adopted a new bylaw that modified the way shares are calculated, basing 50 per cent of the total on year one evaluations, and 50 per cent on a municipality’s standardized value. But this bylaw did not change what Alleyn and Cawood owes the MRC for 2024.

“Somebody’s got to fight them to get them to make change,” Mayer said. “Even though we’re a small municipality, we’re going to fight it.”

He said the municipality has set money aside in its 2025 budget for legal fees in anticipation of this potential legal challenge, which means this year’s budget includes less money for road maintenance and upgrades to the community’s Henry Heeney Memorial Park. Mayer said the residents are backing the municipality in this decision, a point Cardinal echoed.

“We’ve been transparent with our ratepayers, we’ve been transparent throughout this whole thing,” she said.

“They know, they’re supporting us, we’re really lucky to have the community we have.”

MRC taking legal action to collect Alleyn and Cawood’s unpaid shares Read More »

Shawville, Otter Lake take a crack at cutting back trash

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

“They’re obscene,” said Shawville resident Mary McDowell Wood, describing the new large, wheeled garbage bins the town is asking residents to use to get their trash to the curb.

“It’s my height, my weight. Do you think I fill this every week? Half a plastic bag every week is my garbage,” she laughs, attributing her low trash footprint to her backyard composter and her rigorous recycling habits.

The size of the new bins is of concern to her for two reasons. First, she says there are many people in town who, like her, live alone and with limited mobility. She gets help from her neighbour to get her trash to the end of her laneway, but she’s worried for those who don’t have this kind of support.

Beyond this, she believes the large bins will encourage people to send more trash to the landfill.

In fact, quite the opposite, says Shawville councillor Richard Armitage, also chair of the town’s environment and waste management committee.

He said he realizes the bins, which Shawville distributed to residents over the last month, may seem large now, while the town is still collecting garbage every week, but their rollout is one of the first steps in moving the town towards a rotating collection system that will pick up garbage and recycling on alternating weeks, while picking up compost every week.

Half an hour north, Otter Lake has also soft-launched a new garbage policy this month that requires the use of clear plastic bags instead of black garbage bags for all household waste that isn’t compostable or recyclable. Robin Zacharias, councillor and member of the town’s waste committee, said the policy is designed to promote the proper sorting of garbage, recycling and compost.

While both Armitage and Zacharias acknowledged the transition to new sorting systems may take time, they were adamant their towns’ new policies were critical steps in reducing the amount of garbage they each send to landfill and would eventually save taxpayers on their annual waste management bill.

Trucking garbage costs municipalities $300 per tonne, while compost costs about $200 per tonne, and recycling is free. Separating trash at the source will save taxpayers money down the road.

Armitage explained that when MRC Pontiac switched from using Shawville’s McGrimmon Cartage transfer station to Litchfield’s FilloGreen processing centre last year, Shawville had to buy a new truck to get its garbage to the new location. It’s this new truck, Armitage said, that is now leading the town’s transition to a more efficient and less wasteful collection system.

Shawville’s vision is to use the one garbage truck to collect garbage, recycling and compost. To do this efficiently, residents need to dispose of each type of waste in specific bins that the truck’s arm can grab and dump into its appropriate chamber.

Getting residents using the new garbage bins is the first step in this process. Armitage said the bins need to be of the large size so they can hold two weeks’ worth of garbage, which they’ll need to do once the town reduces garbage collection to every other week.

Eventually, Shawville will also be giving out new recycling bins of equal size, paid for by the Quebec government, as well as smaller sidewalk compost bins, all compatible with the town’s new truck.

Armitage figures 30 per cent of the town’s total garbage is from food waste. He said the goal is to use weekly compost collection to reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfill.

Trash-parency in Otter Lake

In Otter Lake, where residents take all household waste to a transfer station, the municipality is trying a different approach to encouraging proper sorting of compost and recycling from garbage.

A bylaw passed at Otter Lake’s December council meeting requires residents to use clear plastic bags to dispose of all non-recyclable, non-compostable garbage. There is no limit on the number of bags that can be disposed of, and each bag can contain one smaller black shopping bag for items residents would like to keep private.

“This year will be a transition year,” assured Zacharias, explaining the municipality will use the next year or so to help residents adjust to this new garbage policy.

“We’re not doing this just to be difficult,” he said. “It’s good for [residents’] tax dollars. It’s good for the environment. And the [Lachute] landfill site is filling up. To the extent that we reduce the garbage, it will extend the life of the dump.”

After residents drop off their waste at the transfer station, their garbage gets trucked to the FilloGreen sorting centre at the Pontiac Industrial Park in Litchfield, from where it is then transported over 200 kilometres, along with all of MRC Pontiac’s other garbage, to the Lachute landfill near Montreal, which is running out of space.
Zacharias said the clear-bag policy is one of the last steps in the town’s efforts to reduce the amount of garbage it’s sending to Lachute.

Before implementing this latest policy, the municipality had to ensure it had established effective systems for disposing of compost, recycling, and other materials like electronics at its transfer station.

The municipality began rethinking its garbage strategy in 2022, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused a surge in year-round residents and as a result, a spike in garbage costs.

One of the first steps was to find a place to dispose of its compost, so it could encourage residents to separate heavy food waste from the garbage being sent to landfill. It organized for Alleyn and Cawood to transport its compost to a processing site in Kazabazua.

Last summer, Otter Lake handed out kitchen counter compost bins to make it easier for residents to keep their food waste out of the garbage bin, and increased the number of compost collection bins at the transfer station so each day had a fresh bin. And all of this, Zacharias says, has paid off.

The municipality’s compost tonnage has increased from 350 kilograms in August of 2024, to 550 kilograms in December, when the population was half what it was in the summer months, a clear indication for Zacharias that the town is getting on board with keeping food waste out of the garbage.

“Now we’re saying, ‘We want you to sort your garbage. We want to make sure there’s no compost in the garbage, and there’s no recycling in the garbage’,” Zacharias said.

Shawville and Otter Lake are not alone in their efforts to reduce their garbage tonnage.

A report produced by MRC Pontiac in 2024 found the total garbage tonnage from all 18 of the county’s municipalities decreased from 5813 tonnes in 2021 to 5288 tonnes in 2023. These numbers do not include the MRC’s total recycling tonnage which, over the same three years, increased from 1143 tonnes to 1236 tonnes.

Municipalities across the county have been working to contribute to this effort. Between 2021 and 2023, the municipalities of Shawville, Clarendon, Mansfield, and Rapides des Joachims all reduced their garbage output by at least 50 kilograms per person, per year.

For Armitage, this is a trend he hopes to continue.

“But the ratepayers need to be patient with us while we do this,” Armitage said, noting it will be sometime next year before all three collection systems are in place.

Shawville, Otter Lake take a crack at cutting back trash Read More »

Chatel elaborates on Carney endorsement: Says former banker is ‘iron fist in velvet glove’

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Pontiac’s Liberal Member of Parliament Sophie Chatel announced Jan. 15 she is throwing her support behind former central banker Mark Carney in his bid to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party.

“His exceptional mind, character, and record of leadership are what Canada needs and draw a sharp contrast with the empty slogans, mean-spirited political games, and simplistic solutions, devoid of scientific rigor, that have taken hold of the Conservative Party,” Chatel’s statement read.

Her Wednesday announcement came less than a week after she suggested, in a phone call with THE EQUITY, that she was still considering multiple candidates but would be looking for somebody with a strong economic vision.

On Friday of last week, Chatel said after some reflection and receiving about 50 emails from constituents, she decided to endorse Carney.

“For me and for many Liberals in the riding, Carney brings a renewed sense of hope,” Chatel said. She cited an email she received from a constituent who described Carney as an iron fist in a velvet glove. Chatel said she agrees with this description.

“That means you need somebody who is solid, but has the diplomacy to work the network and negotiate smoothly, but with determination, and ready to defend Canadian interest and sovereignty,” Chatel said. “That’s exactly what Mark Carney is.”

Chatel pointed to Carney’s handling of the 2008 financial recession as governor of the Bank of Canada and to his work as governor of the Bank of England through Brexit as examples of his success in managing economic crises.

She said she’s also worked with Carney in developing motions for various parliamentary committees.

“In finance committee I presented a motion on sustainable finance, and I worked on a similar one in the environment committee, and so we were in touch on that and we had a long discussion about how to lever the global investment pool that is ready to be invested in clean energy and other industries that will help the country decarbonize,” Chatel said.

Carney launched his leadership campaign at an Edmonton hockey rink on Thursday, a few days before both former Liberal finance minister Chrystia Freeland and Liberal House leader Karina Gould launched their bids over the weekend.

At his campaign launch event, Carney made a point of distancing himself from the governing Liberal Party.

“I know I’m not the only Liberal in Canada who believes that the Prime Minister and his team let their attention wander from the economy too often,” he said.

When asked whether she felt this was a fair assessment of the party she represents, Chatel dodged the question.

“It was a time where you needed to step up to prevent our economy from collapsing, when the covid crisis happened. So I do believe that the government had to spend in order to preserve the economic infrastructure from collapsing,” she said.

“But I do believe it’s important to focus now on the economy, and really restore fiscal prudence in the government.”

Chatel elaborates on Carney endorsement: Says former banker is ‘iron fist in velvet glove’ Read More »

Pontiac MP endorses Quebec Liberal leadership candidate tours PontiacPontiac MP endorses

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Pontiac’s Liberal MNA André Fortin and Quebec Liberal Party leadership hopeful Charles Milliard toured the Pontiac on Wednesday to kick off Milliard’s campaign for the party’s top seat.

Milliard, who received Fortin’s endorsement last fall and now has the support of three other MNAs, was previously head of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of Quebec, as well as pharmacist and executive vice-president of Uniprix.

So far, three other candidates have entered the race, which officially kicked off Jan. 13: former federal cabinet minister Pablo Rodriguez, former Montreal mayor and Liberal MP Denis Coderre, and international tax lawyer Marc Bélanger.

On Wednesday, Milliard and Fortin made stops in Waltham, Campbell’s Bay, Fort Coulonge and Shawville, discussing issues such as healthcare, housing, agriculture and language rights.

Milliard said with his medical background he is well-attuned to the healthcare challenges in the Outaouais. If elected premier, he said he would be committed to passing a law to bring Outaouais healthcare workers’ salaries on par with those offered in Ontario.

“I think it’s a way of recognizing that the region has a particular need, because in the rest of Quebec we don’t have that issue. So if we can redefine work conditions so they are similar to those in Ontario, I think we will re-absorb that labour,” Milliard said.

In previous interviews with media Milliard has also stated his intention to re-invest $200 million into Outaouais healthcare, to bring the region on par with per-person healthcare spending across the province.

“The baseline in Quebec is that you pay your taxes and you get services, no matter where you live,” he said, emphasizing his intention to prioritize rural regions.

“The regions of Quebec, it’s not a one-size-fits-all, there are precise solutions for certain regions, and I am committed to do that in government.”

Milliard, who comes from a francophone family in Lévis but who learned English working as a historical interpreter in Ottawa, said he is committed to honouring the rights of anglophones across the province.

“The contribution of anglophones to life in Quebec is a richness, and mastering English is a ticket to success in business and many other areas. So we must protect the rights of the anglophone community, and I think it’s important that someone like me who comes from a francophone background explains that reality to francophones,” he said.

Fortin said he is endorsing Milliard for leader because he is in touch with issues people in the Pontiac are concerned about.

“He wants to run a bread-and-butter campaign about issues that I hear about here in this region. Healthcare, education, areas in which the CAQ is cutting right now, but that should be our number one priority,” he said.

“People pay taxes for healthcare, and they pay taxes expecting quality education for their children. So having somebody who’s focused on those issues, I think will reach a lot of the aspirations of people in this region.”

The next leader of the Quebec Liberal Party will be elected on June 14.

Pontiac MP endorses Quebec Liberal leadership candidate tours PontiacPontiac MP endorses Read More »

Chatel proud of Trudeau’s reign, endorses Carney as next leader

Sophie Kuijper Dickson and Sarah Pledge Dickson, LJI Journalist

Pontiac’s Liberal Member of Parliament Sophie Chatel announced today, Jan. 15, she is throwing her support behind Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, in his bid to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party, which he is expected to announce on Thursday. 

“His exceptional mind, character, and record of leadership are what Canada needs and draw a sharp contrast with the empty slogans, mean-spirited political games, and simplistic solutions, devoid of scientific rigor, that have taken hold of the Conservative Party,” Chatel’s statement read. 

In a phone call with THE EQUITY on Jan. 9, before she had announced her endorsement for Carney, Chatel said while she wished Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation announcement would have come sooner, she was proud of what the party has accomplished under his leadership. 

“I was of the same view, that after nine years, it was important to offer Liberals and Canadians a real choice for change,” Chatel told THE EQUITY following Trudeau’s announcement last Monday of his intention to resign as Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader once a new candidate had been chosen.

Chatel was reported to have signed a letter along with a group of MPs calling for Trudeau to resign in October. While she did not confirm whether or not this was true, she said she did raise the matter with the Prime Minister in caucus several times since the summer, after hearing from her constituents that they wanted to see a change in leadership.

“It seems to be a cycle in democracy that after a certain number of years in power people want a change in leadership,” she said.

She cited the Canada Child Benefit, financial supports for seniors, Trudeau’s work advancing environment and Indigenous reconciliation files, her party’s managing of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the recent drop in inflation, as some of her party’s accomplishments of which she’s proud.

She noted, however, that recently she felt the Prime Minister was lacking a strong economic vision for the country.

“I think he has a great level of empathy and wants to do great things for the Canadians, great things for the middle class, but I think what I will be looking for in the next leader is somebody that is perhaps more successful in voicing a very strong economic plan and a very strong environmental plan,” she said.

On Jan. 9, Chatel said she was looking for a candidate with a strong vision for building a green economy. 

“I think the world is changing, priorities are changing, investments in a green and clean technology is available globally,” she said. “I think that I’m looking forward for a leader that will be able to position Canada for success into this new economy.”

In terms of who this “somebody” might be, she did not give any endorsements at the time, but did say both Chrystia Freeland, Mark Carney and François-Philippe Champagne, who has since stated he will not be running, had all caught her eye. 

The next party leader will be elected by members on Mar. 9.

Regarding Trudeau’s prorogation of Parliament until Mar. 24 – which will effectively pause all parliamentary work including the passing of bills and the meeting of committees – Chatel said she believes it will allow “the government to focus on the threat of tariffs.”

“I think democracy has to work all the time, even during an election,” Chatel said. “We have very strong senior public servants and a very strong diplomatic network. I can tell you, no matter what is going on in the political sphere, a lot of people are working on this file, very competently and with a lot of experience.”

Pontiac federal candidates ‘disappointed’ by resignation timing

Brian Nolan, Pontiac’s newly elected candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), said he’s disappointed by the suspension of Parliament given what’s happening south of the border.

“If [Donald Trump] moves forward with the tariffs, we will be in no position to respond,” Nolan said. “He’s always saying that he cares about Canadians, and by doing this, I don’t think it was reflecting that.”

Nolan also questioned Trudeau’s motivation to delay a confidence vote until the end of March, given that the CPC is leading in the polls.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to have a vote of no confidence,” he said. “We’re just wasting three months when I think we should have launched an election right away.”

Gilbert Whiteduck, Pontiac’s federal candidate for New Democratic Party (NDP), said he too was disappointed by how long it took Trudeau to resign and by the decision to prorogue the government until March.

“He held on too long and in reality he should have left much sooner,” Whiteduck told THE EQUITY. In the meantime, call an election, let’s get this thing going. We can’t wait.”

Whiteduck said he was disappointed with what he deemed to be slow progress when it came to reconciliation with Indigenous communities across the country.

“You had the opportunity to make important changes and movements in regards to the 94 calls to action,” Whiteduck asked. “You work at a turtle’s pace with many promises and great words but no action behind them.”

As he gears up for the election, Whiteduck plans to hold what he calls “circles” for people to share their thoughts and get to know him.

People’s Party of Canada candidate Todd Hoffman said he believed Trudeau’s resignation was overdue, and his leadership of the party hurt the country.

“His days were numbered and it’s just unfortunate that he was the last person in the room to recognize that,” Hoffman said, noting he will be ramping up his events and trying to convince people with all types of perspectives to consider the PPC.

Once Parliament is back in session on Mar. 24, it is anticipated leaders of the three major opposition parties (Bloc Québécois, NDP and CPC) will bring down the government by way of a non-confidence vote, triggering the next election as early as May.

*Update: Jan. 15, 2025 This article was updated to reflect the news that Pontiac MP Sophie Chatel has endorsed Mark Carney in his bid for Liberal leadership, which he is expected to announce on Thursday. THE EQUITY will provide updates on this story as it evolves.

Chatel proud of Trudeau’s reign, endorses Carney as next leader Read More »

Shawville’s Lotus Clinic listed for sale

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Shawville’s medical clinic, Clinique Médicale le Lotus, has been put up for sale.

Opened in 2014 by Fort Coulonge native Joanne Romain, the private clinic has expanded into having 13 family doctors, a physiotherapist, two specialized nurse practitioners, an osteopath and an after-hours care clinic.

Romain said at the time she saw a need for a healthcare centre in the area where she could bring different services under one roof.

“I wanted to offer a good service to the population of the Pontiac,” she said, adding that she also envisioned the clinic as a place where doctors would want to work without having to do all of the office work.

“The vision was to be able to have a tool where doctors and students wanted to work, and to offer a service to the doctors so that they don’t feel overworked.”

After almost 11 years running the clinic, she said it feels like the right moment for her to make time for her and her family.

“I saw a need to create this clinic, but now I need a different look. I’ve done what I can, but now it’s time to take my leave,” she said.

In early December she informed the clinic’s doctors of her decision to sell and gave them a chance to express interest in buying it. It’s currently listed at $2,250,000.

“I explained the situation to them, and spoke to them about the advantages of becoming an ownership group,” she said, adding that no one from that group has stepped forward yet to offer to purchase the building.

Dr. Martin Benfey, a doctor at the Clinique Médicale le Lotus, said the clinic filled a need for a private clinic in the area.

“At that time there were some private offices that were not functioning particularly well, and [Romain] thought it would be really good to centralize the medical offices and the doctors in one area,” he said, adding that after-hours care has been a crucial addition to the region’s healthcare.

“It’s sort of a clone of the emergency room, so that people aren’t always going to the emergency room in Fort Coulonge or in Shawville.”

Dr. Benfey said at the tail end of his career he is not personally interested in joining any sort of ownership group, and he has not heard of any doctors at the clinic who are prepared to take the step into ownership.
Romain is proud of what she accomplished, but said it is the time for her to step away from full-time work.

“I really want to take care of myself and spend time with my kids [ . . . ] I didn’t have the energy to play, I didn’t want to go out. I really put my life on hold,” she said.

There have been no offers on the building yet, but Romain emphasized they are looking for a buyer that will continue operating the clinic and possibly keep making improvements.

“We are looking for a buyer who will keep the clinic the way it currently is, and could add more professional services,” she said, citing dentists and pharmacists as examples.

Romain wants to make sure whoever buys the clinic has the community’s health needs top of mind.

“The clinic is 100 per cent important to the Pontiac,” she said.

Shawville’s Lotus Clinic listed for sale Read More »

CISSSO to cut almost 200 temp jobs: Health network says cuts not cost-saving measure

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Outaouais’ public health and social services network (CISSSO) will be cutting 196 temporary assignment positions in the coming weeks, Le Droit reported Friday.

The organization insists these cuts will not affect healthcare services, nor make much of a dent in the $90 million it needs to cut to balance its budget by March, but are a necessary first step in reorganizing staffing structures to be more efficient.

There are 2,000 temporary assignments across the healthcare network, used to fill vacancies caused by maternity leaves, sick leaves, or empty positions while a hiring process is underway. They fill all job categories including nurses, technicians, maintenance staff and sanitation staff.

Mathieu Marsolais, director of communications for CISSSO, said of the 196 positions, the majority are orderlies, maintenance workers, sanitation staff, technical employees, and administrative employees.

“It was really, one by one, really analyzing it to make sure that we were able to stop some assignments without compromising the services,” Marsolais told THE EQUITY. He could not confirm how many of these assignments were in the Pontiac.

“I don’t think there will be a lot of impact because we’re keeping 90 per cent of the assignments running. It was an essential first step in a broader process of analysing our staffing structures which will take several months,” he said, emphasizing the main objective was not saving costs.

He said many of those whose position has been cut will be reassigned to one of the many other vacant positions across the network, but this will not be the case for all. Some people, however, will end up on a recall list and likely see a significant reduction of work over the next months.

In the fall CISSSO learned it, along with regional healthcare networks across the province, would have to balance their budgets by March of this year to meet new budget demands from the province’s healthcare authority, Santé Québec.

For CISSSO, this means cutting its projected spending by $90 million, or 6 per cent of its annual budget, in the next two months. While the organization has yet to provide many concrete details about how it plans to find this money back, Marsolais said the cuts to the assignment positions are not part of this project.

“Because the majority of staff will be reassigned, the actual savings won’t be that much, so we’re not counting on that measure to save money,” Marsolais said.

But Karine D’Auteuil, president of the local nurses union, Syndicat des professionnelles en soins de l’Outaouais, sees this as a cost saving measure.

“It’s absurd to see how the government treats the healthcare system like an accounting book,” she said in a French interview with THE EQUITY.

Her union represents about 10 people who will be affected by these cuts. She said the news came as a shock given that Outaouais’ healthcare network is already underfunded by about $200 million every year, according to a study produced by the University of Quebec in the Outaouais.

“These people, the hours that they’re working, their not surplus hours [ . . . ] It’s utopian to think that this will have any impact on the care of the population.”

Jean Pigeon, spokesperson for healthcare advocacy group SOS Outaouais, echoed d’Auteuil’s frustration with the systemic underfunding of the region’s healthcare network.

“We understand that the CISSS de l’Outaouais is forced to meet an obligation imposed by the provincial government, but this measure illustrates once again the scale of the challenges facing our region. With imposed cuts of $90 million and chronic underfunding estimated at $200 million annually, these decisions further weaken a region already in dire straits,” Pigeon wrote in a press release.

The coalition called on the Quebec government to act on a motion unanimously adopted in the National Assembly in Oct. 2019 that recognized the funding inequities faced in the Outaouais region.

“We are pointing the finger at the government, which continues to ignore the crying needs of our healthcare network,” Pigeon added. “This lack of action to correct funding inequities is a missed opportunity to improve accessibility and security of care for Outaouais citizens.”

CISSSO to cut almost 200 temp jobs: Health network says cuts not cost-saving measure Read More »

Robert Chartrand Memorial Tournament gives $45K to local recreation orgs

Sarah Pledge Dickson, LJI Journalist

On Jan. 1, Jean-Marc Chartrand celebrated the birthday of his late brother Robert Chartrand by announcing how much money was raised from the second annual Robert Chartrand Memorial Tournament, held last October, and where the money was donated.

Chartrand said that after the ball tournament in the fall, they began presenting cheques to community organizations ranging from $2,000 to $10,000. In total, the fundraiser brought in $45,000 which is $5,000 more than last year’s tournament.

The tournament was first organized to honour Robert, a young Chapeau resident who passed away tragically in 2021 after his snowmobile went through the ice on the Ottawa River.

The funds from this year’s tournament were distributed to various youth sports and recreation organizations, something Chartrand said is to honour his brother.

“My brother was so involved in kid’s sports,” Chartrand said. “We’re trying to keep a little bit of what he loved doing going forward.”

Karie Bissonnette is the president of the Chapeau Recreation Association, which received a donation of $5,000 from the memorial tournament fundraiser.

She said that this money will be used to improve the infrastructure at the RA, including improvements to the drainage system, the installation of an outdoor pavilion, restoration of the soccer field, netting for the baseball field and a walking trail to connect all the areas together.

“The funding received from the Robert Chartrand Memorial Tournament is very appreciated because it gets us closer to achieving our goals,” Bissonnette said.

“The baseball part of the tournament takes place on RA property and it makes us proud to be a part of it. It brings the community together to support a cause that we value as well, while remembering and honouring Robert for his involvement in the community.”

The rest of the money raised was given to Upper Pontiac Sports Complex ($10,000), the Waltham RA ($5,000), Les maisons des jeunes du Pontiac ($5,000), Chapeau Minor Hockey ($5,000), Ottawa Valley District Girls Hockey Association ($5,000), the Fort Coulonge arena ($5,000), the Upper Ottawa Valley Little League ($3,000) and the Chapeau Karate Club ($2,000).

The tournament organizers decided to wait until after all the donations had been given out to announce the recipients, a moment which just so happened to coincide with Robert’s birthday.

“We’ve already begun planning for next year,” Chartrand said. “Hopefully it could be better and bigger than it was this year.”

Robert Chartrand Memorial Tournament gives $45K to local recreation orgs Read More »

Quaile acclaimed as Otter Lake mayor

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Jennifer Quaile was acclaimed to the position of mayor of Otter Lake last month after nobody else entered their name in the race for the municipality’s top seat.

The news came late in the afternoon of Dec. 20, the last day of the candidate nomination period.

“I’m thrilled. I think that it’s a real privilege to have the opportunity to be a mayor of Otter Lake,” Quaile said.

“I really care a lot about Otter Lake, having been born and raised here. I know I’ve been away a long time but I care about the village and I care about the community, so it really does mean a lot to me.”

Quaile was elected councillor of the municipality in 2021, and appointed pro-mayor in June 2022.

Last fall she assumed mayoral duties when Terry Lafleur resigned from the position to take a job as assistant director general for MRC Pontiac.

To learn more about Quaile’s ambitions as mayor, see THE EQUITY’s interview with her on page five, the final piece in our Who’s Running this Town? series of conversations with mayors across the Pontiac.

Quaile acclaimed as Otter Lake mayor Read More »

MRC passes shares bylaw at December meeting: Alleyn and Cawood motion to defer bylaw vote rejected

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

MRC Pontiac’s December council of mayors meeting saw the long-awaited passing of a bylaw that will determine a new method for calculating the money each municipality pays to the county for a collection of shared services.

The Municipality of Alleyn and Cawood has been pushing for a new bylaw since the spring, arguing the now former system used to calculate shares was flawed and unfair.

Until the passing of this new bylaw, municipal shares were calculated based on a municipality’s assessed property value in year one, and based on its standardized value, determined by the comparative factor, in years two and three of the triennial assessment roll.

The comparative factor is a number produced in years two and three of an evaluation cycle, that reflects the difference between the property evaluations in year one and what the market is doing in those second and third years.

The number is used by the province and by some MRC’s to charge municipalities various taxes and shares based on a general calculation of their global property value in the years when they’re not getting a thorough property assessment done.

In 2023, the sale of a collection of empty lots to a developer for an inflated price caused a significant spike in Alleyn and Cawood’s standardized property evaluation, which in turn increased its shares from $112,539 in 2023 to $289,148 in 2024.

This increase did not represent the municipality’s actual property value, and so it was charged shares that it could not recuperate from its tax base. The municipality has been calling for doing away completely with the use of the comparative factor in calculating shares.

The bylaw passed in December is the MRC’s first attempt at mitigating the impact the comparative factor has on share calculations, but does not completely eliminate its use.

“We moved the bylaw tonight as a starting point,” said Warden Jane Toller following the meeting. “But if we find new information that could make our bylaw a better bylaw, we have the ability to create a new one, in this year. So this is a work in progress.”

Under the new bylaw, 50 per cent of shares will be calculated using a municipality’s year one property evaluation, and 50 per cent will be based on its standardized property evaluation, determined by the comparative factor, deposited in years two and three of its evaluation cycle.

Since the draft bylaw was tabled at the MRC’s November meeting, it was amended to note interest will be charged on any amount of shares due in 2024 but not paid by Jan. 1, 2025, at the rate of 2 per cent per month.

At the time of the MRC’s December council meeting, Alleyn and Cawood had yet to pay its 2024 shares.
Motion to defer vote rejected

Before the bylaw was voted on, Alleyn and Cawood mayor Carl Mayer tabled a motion to defer the vote until after the mayors received a presentation from former MRC evaluator Charles Lepoutre this month.

“It’s been going on long enough that I just hope delaying [the vote] one month so that you can get more information would be something we could align on,” said taskforce member Angela Giroux, addressing the mayors during question period before the motion was tabled.

While only four mayors, along with Mayer, supported the motion to defer the vote on the bylaw (Brent Orr of Bristol, Alain Gagnon of Bryson, Thorne pro-mayor Robert Wills and Otter Lake pro-mayor Robin Zacharias), the warden assured Lepoutre would still be invited to speak to the mayors in January.

Lepoutre is a longtime municipal assessor who established the MRC’s evaluation department in 1981. He spoke at an information meeting hosted by Alleyn in Cawood on Dec. 14 to explain why he believes the use of the comparative factor is flawed.

Toller, in attendance at this meeting, told Lepoutre she believes the standardized evaluations should not be used.

“I agree with you, we don’t need that information,” she said. “Have your property evaluated once, and then you’re fine until year four.”

This approach is what Alleyn and Cawood have been arguing since the spring.

At the MRC meeting four days later, THE EQUITY asked Toller what led her to support this approach, she said it was Lepoutre’s explanation that helped her better understand the problem with the comparative factor.

“I think that it was just always being referred to as the comparative factor. And it wasn’t until I heard the presentation that I actually understood that this was something that was . . . it was the way he expressed it.

He said, ‘That information is unnecessary. We don’t need that. Why is that information factoring in, when the evaluation is just done in the first year of the roll?’,” Toller said.

“In year two and three, in my opinion, nothing should change.”

Toller also said she believes moving towards a calculation of shares based on a weighted assessment of the resources and infrastructure in each municipality was a good idea.

“I think this makes perfect sense, to take all of our municipalities and weight them according to what is in the municipality. [ . . . ] And this could help us with how the shares are properly allocated.”

MRC passes shares bylaw at December meeting: Alleyn and Cawood motion to defer bylaw vote rejected Read More »

Province forces school boards to make last-minute cuts

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

School boards across Quebec, including boards governing Pontiac schools, are facing some tough budget decisions after the Quebec government asked them to cut millions of dollars in costs before the end of this fiscal year.

In December the province announced school boards would lose $200 million in previously-approved budgets for the period ending in Mar. 2025.

In the Pontiac, the Western Quebec School Board (WQSB) must reduce spending by $906,000, less than 0.6 per cent of the board’s annual operating budget, and the Centre de services scolaires des Hauts-Bois-de-l’Outaouais must cut $324,303.

WQSB director general George Singfield said in the coming weeks his school board will start looking at which programs or schools will receive cuts, which the province has said should not affect students’ learning experience.

“We’ll take a hard line on things that we have committed to and we won’t cut in areas where it’s going to have a huge impact on learning,” Singfield said. “We have to be strategic and minimize.”

Singfield said the fact that the board has been able to save money on certain things, such as last year’s elections, will help mitigate the impact of the cuts.

“It’s not about cutting programs, and it’s certainly not about cutting staff. There are things that are sacred that we are going to continue with. It’s really about looking at things that we are not committed to for this year.”

WQSB chairwoman Joanne Labadie said despite the province’s directive that cuts should not impact students’ learning experiences, the board will be hard-pressed to come up with solutions that do not impact students in some way.

“Whether it’s in buildings, IT, library services, special education technicians [ . . . ] everything we do is going to affect student services,” she said, adding that the board is currently in the process of figuring out ways to minimize the impact on students and should complete its recommendations sometime in January.

The government has also implemented a construction moratorium preventing the completion of new projects, as well as a hiring freeze, which Labadie said comes with the same directive – that hiring decisions should not impact students’ experience.

For example, she said the board can continue to hire teachers and special education attendants, but if a position becomes vacant it can only be filled internally. She said the school board only has so many resources and it cannot currently fill all those positions if they became vacant.

“We lose a lot of staff to Ontario, and then to be told that we can only fill positions internally, well, we’re not that big of an organization. You lose two or three people, that creates some pretty big gaps for us,” she said.
Labadie said she is more concerned about what next year’s budget will look like, as she anticipates the province will implement more widespread cuts.

“My biggest concern is that these are budget cuts for this fiscal year, until March of 2025,” she said. “When the new budget comes out we are expecting drastic cuts for next year as well.”

The Centre de services scolaires des Hauts-Bois-de-l’Outaouais was not offering interviews on the subject of the budget cuts, but did offer a brief emailed statement.

“The sources or sectors of spending in danger of being affected have not yet been identified,” wrote communications coordinator Mona Lirette in French. “Our objective remains to preserve the integrity of services offered to students.”

THE EQUITY requested an interview with the provincial education department but did not receive a response before going to print.

Province forces school boards to make last-minute cuts Read More »

‘It’s my turn’ : Fort Coulonge women’s hockey group brings sport to those it has left behind

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Lisa Soucie didn’t play hockey growing up.

It wasn’t for lack of want — as a kid she craved nothing more than to ditch her street hockey gear for a puck and skates.

But like many girls of her generation, a lack of hockey opportunities meant she didn’t get her turn to lace up.

“I always got told for years, ‘No, you can’t because you’re a girl, you shouldn’t be playing,’” the 42-year-old mother of four said.

Now, she’s trying to change that. Last Monday, she hosted the first session of a women’s hockey group, open to women from across the Pontiac who are interested in hockey, from seasoned players to absolute beginners.

She said the idea is to give women a judgment-free zone where they can try the sport in good company.

“[I want to get] more girls to come out to play, even from scratch,” she said, adding that prospective players shouldn’t be intimidated since there are players of all skill levels.

“If you don’t know how to skate, we have a coach.”

Eleven women showed up at the Centre de Loisirs des Draveurs Century 21 Élite arena in Fort Coulonge for the first practice on Dec. 9, where a coach led the players through drills and scrimmages.

In the coming weeks she expects the hockey sessions to draw more players to the ice. Eventually, as players get more comfortable, she hopes there will be enough participants for two teams, forming what could be the beginnings of the Pontiac’s own women’s hockey league.

Girls who want to play hockey competitively, or even just try their hand at the sport, have limited options to do so close to home. Those who are exceptionally determined join the Lions or Comets minor leagues in Shawville and Fort Coulonge, respectively, where they play with mostly male teammates until they’re able to move into a women’s league.

Paige Dubeau knows this system well. She grew up playing hockey with the Pontiac Lions and is now playing hockey at Montreal’s Dawson College.

“It’s nice to have more [women’s] hockey growing in small communities because we don’t get a lot of opportunities here [ . . . ] It’s pushing girls’ hockey even more,” she told THE EQUITY.

Dubeau said she hopes a women’s group will give young girls positive role models to look up to in the sport.

“It’s going to open a lot of younger girls’ eyes on their dreams of playing hockey, and having an opportunity.”

‘Maybe they will think it’s badass’

At the first session last Monday some players were skating for the very first time, like Vickie Chatelain, a self-described “hippie” and massage therapist who lives in Shawville.

She too wanted to play from a young age but, like Soucie, didn’t get that chance.

“My parents were like, ‘You’re a girl, you can’t play hockey.’”

She scratched the competitive itch by playing high-level handball for Team Canada, but over the years she always held hockey dear.

Now a mother of two, Chatelain sees the joy on her son’s face as he steps on the ice for his minor club, and decided when the opportunity came for her to play, she would seize it.

“Now, it’s my turn to have the smile on my face,” she said, adding that at 43-years-old she thought her athletic career might be over. She is looking forward to having a space where she can meet new people, learn something new and rekindle her competitive spirit.

“It’s just going to be a good way to connect with other women, and get out, and hopefully maybe compete with other women,” Chatelain said, adding that she hopes to inspire her kids, especially her daughter. 

Maybe they will think it’s badass.”

Some players were more experienced, like 16-year-old Brooke Bernasconi who plays competitive hockey for the Ottawa Valley Thunder U18C team and was excited to share her favourite sport with players old and new.

“I just wanted to have a good time, see people and enjoy hockey. I just love hockey so much,” she said, adding that it was nice to get some extra ice time.

Bernasconi said she enjoyed embracing her role as an experienced player, helping the first-timers understand the game.

“I feel like I helped them play the game and get more experience in it. The only way they can learn is if they touch the puck more.”

‘It’s me time’

Soucie said with four kids there isn’t often time for extracurriculars, but she wanted to make hockey a priority.

“It’s me time,” she said, adding that for her the experience is about making friends, getting exercise and connecting with other women.

She said her oldest daughter has taken up interest in the sport, and they often play together in the driveway. She hopes that by playing hockey she can be a positive role model for her daughter.

Chatelain agreed. “It’s going to be great to do sports, and give myself permission as a mom to be like ‘Okay, this is my time, I’m going to play hockey.’”

On Monday night, Soucie was at the rink while her husband stayed home to watch the kids, something she said wouldn’t necessarily have happened when she was younger.

“It’s different from 20 years ago, when I couldn’t play hockey because I was a girl.”

The group practices weekly on Monday nights at the Fort Coulonge arena.

‘It’s my turn’ : Fort Coulonge women’s hockey group brings sport to those it has left behind Read More »

Pontiac municipality gets on-demand public transit

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Residents of the Municipality of Pontiac can now book on-demand public transit with a few simple clicks.
Outaouais transit provider Transcollines has partnered with Taxi Loyal to offer rides within the municipality that can be reserved online, through a mobile app, or by phone, at least two hours and as much as 30 days ahead of the desired pick-up time.

For a cost of $5, a wheel-chair accessible taxi van will then pick up the rider at one of the dozens of stops along Highway 148 between Quyon and Aylmer, including several in Quyon’s village centre, and drop them off at their destination of choice within the municipality, or at one of a handful of stops in the Gatineau area.

Rides can be booked weekdays between 6.30 a.m. and 6.30 p.m.

Chantal Mainville, communications manager for Transcollines, has said the first year of the service will act as a pilot to help the transit provider learn more about transit needs in the municipality.

“We’re going to test the hours, observe how people are going to use it, and what the most popular stops are going to be,” she said, noting the service will evolve over time to reflect these usage patterns.

Transcollines, the same organization that currently operates the fixed 910 bus line that travels from Allumette Island to Gatineau and back every weekday, has been offering on-demand transit in the municipalities of Chelsea, La Pêche, Val-des-Monts and Cantley since Nov. 2022.

The Municipality of Pontiac is the last of the five municipalities in the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais to receive the service.

“The challenge here is the size of the municipality, the way we are made. It’s not like Chelsea or La Pêche that are more dense. So that’s why it took us a long time to figure out how to provide it,” said Roger Larose, mayor of the Municipality of Pontiac.

“First we had to find the company to work with us, and that was a challenge to find a company who wanted to do the Pontiac.”

The new service was officially launched at a press conference held at the municipality’s town hall in Luskville on Tuesday morning.

“I think it’s going to help the people that don’t have a car, or who don’t like to drive, or who are too old. It’s going to give them a way to get out into the municipality, to visit people, to go shopping,” Larose said.

“We’ve got kids that have got to go to college and all that stuff. It’s going to help the students as well as the older people.”

Mainville noted the organization is planning for the 910 bus to eventually offer on-demand services when it’s not running the fixed line, and hopes to bring more taxis to serve the municipality down the road.

As for the possible expansion of on-demand transit into MRC Pontiac, Mainville said Transcollines plans to post a call for tenders in the new year to find a provider who will be able to roll out the service here.

Pontiac municipality gets on-demand public transit Read More »

Stedmans wraps up a half-century serving Shawville

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Richard and Carolyn Meisner arrived in Shawville in 1973. It was a cold January day, the biting kind of cold that nips the feeling from your fingers.

With a car full of belongings and three kids in tow, the new owners of the Shawville Stedmans prepared to move their whole life into the apartment upstairs.

They got out of the car to stretch their limbs. No sooner had they done so, than had a crowd of people greeted them with a warm welcome and a helping hand, carrying their carload of belongings into the new abode.

“It was certainly a little bit overwhelming,” Carolyn said, adding that the welcome crew were the family’s first friends here.

“Those three people and their spouses just took us under their wing and we had a great social circle with them,” she said, adding that they quickly felt at home in town.

Over the years, the new Stedmans owners would become a fixture in the community, giving thousands of hours back to the town that welcomed them so warmly.

Generations of people came through the front doors at 375 Main St. for back-to-school shopping, to buy a board game, or simply to chat.

But this month, after 51 years of ownership, the couple will be closing up shop for good.

Richard, who had previously owned a Stedmans store in Stellarton, N.S., before moving to the Ontario towns of Woodstock, Trenton and Orangeville, heard the Shawville owner was retiring, so he decided to make an offer.

For him, it was not only a business venture but an opportunity for his family to settle down and find stability.

“It was a chance to get off of the road and spend more time with family,” Richard said.

Over the years, the store endured a fire, an economic recession, the arrival of big box stores and, eventually, online shopping, but it was the COVID-19 pandemic that was the last straw.

The Meisners’ daughter Rhonda, who took over managing the store in 2012, said the pandemic forced some of their suppliers out of business.

“The merchandise we were getting was astronomically priced and the shipping costs were ludicrous . . . all of that impacted us,” she said. “As a small business, you don’t have a vast resource of capital.”

She said their store had always focused on stocking a wide variety of merchandise, and when the pandemic limited the availability of that wide variety, their bottom line suffered.

“It became harder and harder for us to source,” she said, saying their order costs tripled in some cases. “It became very difficult for us to manage our inventory [ . . . ] It was just awful.”

Rhonda said that with an aging population and a declining number of young families in the area, there was no longer enough money around to sustain the business, and the pandemic dealt the final blow.

About two years ago, Rhonda, Richard and Carolyn decided to list the building on a real estate website. It was time to move on from the business, and get what compensation they could in return.

While the trio waited for the building to find its next owners, they started to get rid of their remaining inventory, down to the shelves and shopping carts.

“We were ready to liquidate whatever was left, and get out,” said Rhonda, who said seeing the merchandise slowly emptying from the shelves has been tough.

“It’s still a hard pill. Still you go in there every day and look around and it becomes less and less [merchandise] all the time and it’s hard. It’s sad for me,” she said, adding that she had been struggling with feelings of failure at not being able to keep the store afloat.

“But more a feeling of disappointment, wanting to be able to keep it in the community but not being able to have that happen.”

As the store’s days dwindle, Rhonda said she is going to miss the little chats with her customers.

“There’s always a story, always a minute to talk. Someone’s granddaughter or grandson is playing hockey,” she said, adding that she enjoyed being a part of the town’s fabric. “We’re just your neighbour.”

‘We’ve spent our whole lives here’

Growing up in Bristol, Connie Hodgins frequented Stedmans with her mom, and she said she has some fond memories from the store.

“I remember going in and looking at the cassette tapes every week,” she said, adding that it was where she bought her first-ever Lion King cassette.

“It would be the go-to place for a lot of school supplies,” she said, adding that she is disappointed to see the store close.

“To see a piece of Shawville go, it seems really sad.”

For Jodi Hamilton Peck, who has been working at Stedmans for 41 years, losing the job is like losing a family.

“They’re my adopted work parents,” she said of Richard and Carolyn, who assumed the role of de facto “parents” when Peck’s real mom and dad passed away in the early 2000s.

In addition to missing the Meisners, Peck said she’ll miss the little chats with her regulars, or going the extra mile to lend a hand. She said doing little things, like carrying big jugs of Culligan water out to customers’ cars, is what kept them coming back.

“They’ll be back every week for their water just because you did that,” she said.

She said when people in the community started to find out the store would be closing, they asked her why she didn’t go off and find another job.

“Because I’m not done with this job,” was always her response, adding that she wanted to finish what she started.

As Richard and Carolyn prepare to close the store, they said the feeling is bittersweet.

“We didn’t want to see it go this way, but we also know that it can’t continue either,” Carolyn said.

Richard estimates theirs is one of less than a handful of Stedmans remaining in the country, and while it’s tough to see it go, he is proud of how long they kept the doors open.

What’s the secret to staying in business, you might ask?

“Maybe we weren’t smart enough to get out,” Carolyn said with a laugh.

Humble as can be, the couple didn’t see their 51 years as particularly eventful or dramatic. Stedmans was merely a job, and one they enjoyed doing thanks in large part to the community.

“We never, never once dreaded to get up and go to work in the morning. There was always something going on,” said Carolyn, who added they never wanted recognition or accolades.

“We were just here to provide a service and to make a living.”

Reflecting back on that chilly January day when they first arrived, the couple said they are grateful for the community that welcomed them with open, heavy-lifting arms.

“We’ve spent our whole lives here [ . . . ] This is our home, this is where our kids were brought up, and this is their home too,” Carolyn said.

Richard agreed. “It’s an absolutely fantastic place to raise a family,” he said.

The couple took the opportunity to thank the generations of loyal customers who have come through the doors at 375 Main St. over the years.

“When we first came here, their grandparents shopped here and now the kids and then their kids are shopping here,” said Carolyn, who shared one bit of good news with THE EQUITY.

The sale of the building was finalized last Saturday, meaning a new tenant will move into the space early in the new year.

The Meisners, who expressed gratitude for their loyal customers, were happy to sell the building and are looking forward to a restful retirement.

Stedmans wraps up a half-century serving Shawville Read More »

Nolan elected Conservative candidate for Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi riding

Sarah Pledge Dickson, LJI Journalist

In what was a close vote, Brian Nolan of Chelsea, Que. has been elected to be the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) candidate for the Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi riding in the next federal election.
Party members in the riding gathered at the Shawville arena on Saturday morning to cast their vote for one of four candidates vying for the position.

A total of 206 ballots were cast in the riding which has more than 800 party members eligible to vote. Voters were asked to rank the candidates on the ballot. After the initial count of the members’ first choices, no candidate had received more than half the votes to win the nomination, so the vote went to second and then third choices on the ballot. Nolan won with 114 votes in the third round of counting.

The ballot box with all the paperwork will now stay at the CPC office in the Pontiac for five days, until end of day Wednesday, in case one of the candidates appeals the decision.

Nolan was happy to receive the unofficial results Saturday afternoon.

“I think it’s a great thing for the Pontiac to have a new person. We had four great candidates and I’m lucky to be the one,” Nolan said, noting he plans to ask the other three candidates to join his team once his campaign kicks off in January.

“We have a big riding and I want to be a voice for everybody. I’m approachable and I like talking to people. I want to meet people.”

Nolan said that he joined the race a bit late and didn’t even start with a list of Conservative Party members. He focused his efforts on the Sheenboro to Luskville area. When asked how we would unite a riding where the vote went to the third ballot, he promised that he would travel throughout the rest of the riding to connect with other voters in other communities.

He said that it feels great to have the support of the Pontiac behind him.

“I met some wonderful people during the last two weeks here,” Nolan said. “It feels like the people really like me and that’s good.”

Nolan elected Conservative candidate for Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi riding Read More »

Holiday giving needed more than ever, local charities say

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

For weeks, local businesses, community groups and individuals across the Pontiac have been finding ways to give back to their neighbours who may need a little more support making ends meet through the holiday season.

The people facilitating this generosity, whether it be those raising money for snowsuits, collecting gifts for children, or preparing special holiday meals for those who could use a little lift, all say the need for this generosity is greater than ever.

Megan Coleman has been leading the Angel Tree Pontiac initiative for several years now and said she’s seen a jump in the number of kids signed up each year.

“I have 83 children this year, there were 72 last year, and 56 the year before that,” Coleman said, noting the requests come in from Quyon to Fort Coulonge.

“I do find they’re asking for more essential stuff. All the people with babies, they need diapers, they need wipes. It’s not necessarily fancy things they’re asking for, they do tend to ask for a lot of the basic things.”

Through the Angel Tree program, families register their children to receive a gift. Each child gets an angel with their wishlist hung on a tree at either the Giant Tiger or Canadian Tire in Shawville, as well as at Pontiac High School.

People also donate money to the program, which Coleman uses to buy other essentials, like underwear, socks, hygiene products, and school snacks that will help families in need make it through the two weeks when their kids are home from school. Requests for these types of items, she says, have become more frequent this year and last.

The Maison de la Famille de Quyon is also organizing an Angel Tree program in partnership with the Quyon Legion. Together the organizations collect financial donations from each sponsorship which are then divided evenly to purchase gifts for every angel.

Maison de la Famille director general Sara McCann says while the organization has an ongoing list of families who benefit from its various programs, including the snowsuit fund and the back-to-school program, it still receives more requests for support every year through community referrals.

“Last year we had 25 children on the program, this year we’re expecting it to be more,” McCann said, noting that, like Coleman, she’s seen more and more people adding everyday items to their Christmas wishlists, such as lunch snacks and personal hygiene products.

“The daily necessities is what they have on their wishlist,” McCann said.

While McCann’s list for the snowsuit fund is more or less steady year over year, this is not the case at the Maison de la Famille du Pontiac in Fort Coulonge.

“Every year the number of people who call in for a snowsuit just keeps jumping,” said Nadine Duval, who’s been running the program for four years, noting this year she has about 100 requests so far from families across the Pontiac.

She said the organization receives financial donations from the community throughout the year which makes it possible for her to buy the needed snowsuits. After Christmas she plans to publish a thank you to all the people who have donated to the snowsuit fund, to express her gratitude to the critical support provided by the community.

The community’s generosity is not lost on Coleman, either, who was happy to see the businesses and community groups show up once again to support Pontiac children.

“Every year I’m blown away by the amount of financial donors, gifts under the trees, and the local businesses who will message me personally and say, ‘Hey, I have a cheque for you,’” Coleman said.

She noted sponsorships for the Angel Tree program will close Dec. 15, and that there are still about a dozen angels needing sponsorship at Canadian Tire, and half a dozen at Giant Tiger.

Holiday giving needed more than ever, local charities say Read More »

Promutuel donates $5K to Bouffe Pontiac

Sarah Pledge Dickson, LJI Journalist

Bouffe Pontiac received a significant financial donation from Promutuel Insurance Vallée de l’Outaouais on Monday afternoon, adding to the financial support brought in through the food bank’s annual food drive last week.

Denis Larivière, the president of Promutuel Insurance Vallée de l’Outaouais, presented the food bank with a cheque for $5,000 at the organization’s headquarters.
Larivière said that with the increased cost of living, this was the right opportunity to donate to the food bank.

“We felt that this was the right time to step up and help the community,” he said. “We exist because of the community and that’s why it’s so important.”

Larivière presented the cheque to Jacinthe Paquette, Bouffe Pontiac’s coordinator, and Martin Riopel, the organization’s president.

Larivière said that they have offices throughout the Ottawa Valley region, including in the Pontiac and that providing a direct donation felt like a personal touch.

This donation is on top of the funds raised during last week’s food drive where Bouffe Pontiac received $11,302.63 in financial donations, approximately $1,300 more than was raised last year.

“All the cash donations we got, and we got a substantial amount of them, will go towards covering our expenses from buying all the turkeys, chickens, stuffing and everything that goes into the hampers,” said Trevor McCreight, from Bouffe Pontiac.

The food bank plans to send out at least 280 Christmas hampers this year, 70 more than were requested last year.

The food donations collected during the drive will be used to restock Bouffe’s shelves in the new year.

Promutuel donates $5K to Bouffe Pontiac Read More »

SQ report says 9-1-1 calls up, collisions down in 2023-24

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

The MRC Pontiac’s public security committee released its year-end review of the Sûreté du Québec’s (SQ) activities on the territory, revealing statistics on crime, collisions and 9-1-1 calls, to name but a few of the data types tracked.

This annual report highlights the SQ’s involvement in the community as well as statistics for the 2023-24 financial period from Apr. 2023 to Mar. 2024.

Before the year began, the public security committee, which is made up of mayors and SQ officers, identified two priorities for the service on the MRC Pontiac territory: increasing security on the roads as well as reducing general crime.

Captain Mélanie Larouche, who is responsible for overseeing stations in Campbell’s Bay, Maniwaki and Mont-Laurier, said in an emailed statement to THE EQUITY that her organization was successful in addressing those priorities, noting the county saw a reduction in collisions and general crime.

“Each year, our objective is always to improve our citizens’ ability to feel safe, to improve safety on the roads and to diminish crime in general,” she said.

The county saw a total of 259 vehicle collisions in 2023-2024, down from 315 the previous year. This total included two fatal collisions and two collisions resulting in serious injury. Larouche said this decrease could be due to a number of factors.

“The weather, the state of the roads, the mechanical state of vehicles on the roads, and the police presence all play a role.”

The 239 personal crimes committed this year represents an 11 per cent decrease in the category, which includes sexual assaults, general assaults, and thefts, but this year’s number is still higher than the five-year average of 219.

At 181 instances of property crime in the 2023-2024 year, the rate stayed more or less consistent with the five-year average.

The MRC saw an increase in 9-1-1 calls for the fourth consecutive year, and this year’s 3,291 calls represents an eight per cent increase over the year prior.

It’s a trend Larouche explained is happening across the province.

“We believe this is, among other reasons, due to the fact that the people who are calling are more comfortable reporting situations because they trust their police service,” she said.

The SQ made 1,555 road stops last year, down from 2,442 the year prior, a difference Larouche attributes to a number of different reasons.

“There could be several explanations, but we have a constant increase in calls, heavier cases, and interventions that require more time,” she said, noting they issued 429 fewer warnings this year than the year prior.

“These warnings are often related to minor infractions for which officers can choose to issue a warning, such as for not having one’s driver’s licence or registration in the car, or for a minor mechanical issue like a burnt-out light, but these warnings are not necessary.”

Larouche said the SQ’s greatest successes in the MRC Pontiac this year included community presence and general safety.

“We were extremely present in schools, we were involved in the community (Christmas baskets). Road safety improved in terms of number of collisions. We are planning our operations to improve road safety, and our presence is bearing fruit,” she said, noting she wants to improve the service’s community reach going forward.

“We want to continue partnering with the population, elected officials, increase operations with our road stops, schools, Bouffe Pontiac, etc, in order to respond to the needs of citizens, to become closer with them and constantly strive to improve the public’s ability to feel safe.”

Alain Gagnon, chair of the MRC’s public security committee and mayor of Bryson, said it is going to request that the SQ get four cadets next summer instead of its current contingent of two.

“Everybody is really happy for the work those cadets did,” he said, adding that they are helping to improve the SQ’s presence on the ground and to forge ties with the community.

“They don’t do any patrol, they can’t arrest anybody, but they are our eyes and ears on any site [ . . . ] It’s more a public relations thing with them.”

Gagnon, who worked for the SQ for over 20 years, said there are some unique challenges to policing a large territory such as the Pontiac, especially when resources are running thin.

“If you’re in Montreal, Gatineau or any city, you’ll have a cruiser that’s 10 streets from you. If you’re in the Pontiac, you’re one car with two police officers, and you could be alone [if you call the police for help],” he said, adding that the more police cars that are on the road, the more municipalities have to pay for policing.

“It would be nice to have two, three, four, five cars on the road, but of course the bill comes with it,” he said.

He said with the holiday season coming up, people should be especially careful about drinking and driving, and should call someone to pick them up instead of driving home.

“It’s always better to call somebody … while being arrested is not a fun thing, having an accident or if somebody is injured, that’s even worse.”

The committee’s priorities for the upcoming year have not been chosen yet, but will be discussed early in the new year.

SQ report says 9-1-1 calls up, collisions down in 2023-24 Read More »

Two Pontiac municipalities to reduce councils to four seats

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Only two of the MRC Pontiac’s 18 municipalities have chosen to reduce their municipal councils from six to four seats after a new provincial bill made this change possible for municipalities with under 2,000 residents.

Over the past few months, councils across the MRC have been holding sessions and public consultations about the question of whether or not to resize. Councils have until the end of December to make a decision, which will affect seats in the municipal elections set for Nov. 2025.

Almost all MRC Pontiac municipalities have decided to keep six council seats, except Bryson and Fort Coulonge, which have decided to shrink to four-person councils.

Bill 57, passed by the National Assembly in June, aims to “protect elected officers and to facilitate the unhindered exercise of their functions,” according to its title.

As part of this, it allows for the province’s smallest municipalities to reduce the number of mandatory council seats to help fill seats that had previously been left vacant, or been filled unopposed.

CBC reported this year that close to 5,000 candidates were elected unopposed in Quebec’s 2021 municipal elections.

Local radio station CHIP FM previously reported that in the Pontiac, 73 candidates ran unopposed in the 2021 municipal elections, representing nearly 60 per cent of those running for seats in the county, with the councils of Chichester, Campbell’s Bay and Waltham elected entirely by acclamation.

Bryson mayor Alain Gagnon said his municipality has been trying to reduce its council size since 2017, when it volunteered to go down to four candidates due to low turnout for councillor seats in recent elections.

“We had to fight at the last day to get somebody to put their name in,” he said, adding that at the time, the province’s municipal affairs ministry denied Bryson’s request to reduce its council size due to a high number of requests.

“So they said, ‘We’ll redo the electoral law’, which they did,” said Gagnon.

Clarendon mayor Edward Walsh said his council unanimously decided to remain at six to ensure representation of the whole territory. He noted they wanted to ensure decisions were more democratic in nature.

“If you get down to four, and you get a couple of them that are chummy chummy, they can really swing a lot of votes at council. With six people you usually get a pretty fair opinion of anything,” he said.

Portage du Fort mayor Lynne Cameron said her council also wanted to keep six voices at the table.

“Our councillors do not get a huge wage – $280 [per month]. We had a full council on that, and it had something to do with just having more people’s opinions and thoughts, and they just figured it would be better than four,” she said.

“If two people weren’t here, then there’s two people making a decision for the whole town.”

Waltham’s council, which represents a population of just under 400 people, voted to stick with the six-seat system. Mayor Odette Godin said her council believed the reduction would cause unwanted competition between councillors.

“They didn’t want to do that because it causes bad feelings. In a small town like Waltham, you’re running against relatives, friends, neighbours,” Godin said. “They didn’t think it was right to pit each other against each other.”

She said despite the ultimate decision, she doesn’t think Waltham needs six councillors, and that the reduction would save money.

“Right off the bat it would save the taxpayers money. And with the FQM talking about amalgamation, I’m afraid that if nobody budges there won’t be councillors for Waltham at all. We won’t have a seat at the table,” she said, adding that reducing council would show that council is committed to making life better for Waltham residents.

“If we can show we’re doing what we can to reduce costs while still being able to service the taxpayers, I can’t see that as a bad thing.”

Fort Coulonge is the second of Pontiac’s two municipalities set to reduce its council to four, and its mayor Christine Francoeur told THE EQUITY she is confident it will have enough hands to do the work.

While the decision will save the municipality about $14,000 a year, money was not the biggest factor in the council’s unanimous decision to reduce its size.

“Do we really need six councillors for 1,300 people? [ . . . ] It’s not like we are in a big city where we have projects galore to work on,” she said, adding that in a city being a councillor is a full-time job, but in the Pontiac it is part-time.

The city of Gatineau, for example, has 21 councillors for 291,041 people — roughly one councillor for every 13,860 residents.

With 106 councillors and a 2023 population of 14,860, the MRC Pontiac has one councillor for roughly every 140 residents.

Francoeur said the MRC Pontiac as a whole has too many elected officials and she might consider amalgamation if the option presented itself.

“Our whole council is all in agreement that we do have too many councillors for the Pontiac. Too many councillors and too many mayors. I think it should be reduced [ . . . ] Maybe this is a first step toward [an amalgamation].”

Any municipality that decides to reduce to four councillors must pass a resolution, a draft by-law and hold a public consultation meeting on it, and must inform the FQM of its decision before Dec. 31 of this year.

Any changes to the makeup of councils will take effect during the municipal elections scheduled for Nov. 2025. After this, if a municipality wishes to revert back to having six councillors, it will have to wait until the municipal elections of 2029.

Two Pontiac municipalities to reduce councils to four seats Read More »

Victoria Ave. apartments seeks support for renovations

Sarah Pledge Dickson, LJI Journalist

The non-profit that runs the old Victoria High School building in Shawville, now home to Shawville Apartments Inc., has launched a new community fundraising effort to collect the money to do some much-needed repairs.

“For our goal at this moment, we need probably about $250,000 to accomplish the list that we’re looking to take care of,” Lyssa McDonald, president of the Shawville Apartments Inc. board of directors, told THE EQUITY.

This, she said, is the price tag contractors have given her for repairing the deteriorating bricks on the building’s exterior, replacing the carpet, updating the windows, renovating the bathrooms and updating kitchen cabinetry.

McDonald said the board, which includes vice-president Sherri Lasalle, treasurer Naomi Burgess-Goyette, secretary Patricia Barker and directors Kyle Harris and Danielle Villeneuve, has received some funding over the past year to assist with the needed repairs, including $9,500 from the office of MNA André Fortin and $10,000 from Pontiac businessman Gord Black, but not enough to cover the foreseen costs.

McDonald said that even if the non-profit receives the federal and provincial funding for which it has applied, it will need to rely on some community support to get all the work done.

Last month, the non-profit launched two separate contests on its Facebook page – a 50/50 draw, and a draw for a $100 Cabela’s gift card, just some of the efforts the group is planning to help raise the needed money. The group hopes to have more fundraisers in the coming year and work with other local organizations to reach its goals.

The building was converted into apartments after the high school closed in 1983, and now offers affordable living with a set rental rate and currently has a waiting list for apartments. McDonald estimates that 70 per cent of the residents are living on a fixed income, and for this reason, the non-profit tries to keep rent affordable, below $650 a month.

“We try and make just enough money to pay the bills and do what we can from rent and outside donations,” McDonald said. “But at this point, the building needs so much that we need more than just the rent to be able to renovate what we need.”

The board started this initiative to do some of the more expensive but much-needed repairs last year while Keith Harris was the president. Since his passing, McDonald has taken up the helm and hopes to see Harris’ vision through.

Residents of the building said there are definitely some changes that need to be made.

Angelika Beaverdam moved in around March this year. She’s happy with her apartment but said that there are some things that need updating to make the apartments more livable for seniors.

“With the draft in the windows, your hydro goes up and you’re cold,” Beaverdam said. “And I think they should renovate the bathrooms because the old taps are hard to work with.”

Bruce Walsh has been living in one of the apartments since 2016. When asked what he thought needed to be updated, he pointed to the carpet in the hallway.

Walsh said that the board came to his apartment and asked him what he thought needed to be improved. He said that he hopes they manage to find hardwood under the carpet.

Bill McCleary, mayor of Shawville, said the municipality will help out the board with the grant applications to the federal and provincial government. He also hopes the community will support the project.

“The 50/50 was a great idea. It’s probably going to be surprising to see how much the board can raise,” he said.

Over the past year, some updates have been made thanks to the donations from Gord Black and Fortin, as well as existing fundraising money the board had collected. This money was used to redo the exterior walkways that were slippery, the lighting and electrical in the hallways and for the addition of two sets of coin-operated washers and dryers.

Black said that he wanted to give back to the community, including to the building where he went to school. He said that he knew the building needed a lot of work and hopes to see it restored.

“That’s where I went to school for grades one, two and three,” Black said. “And my dad was instrumental in a small group of people on that first original committee that arranged to keep the building in the community.”

Victoria Ave. apartments seeks support for renovations Read More »

How would you like to die? Connexions hosts two-part workshop on end-of-life care

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Mavis Kluke is not afraid of dying.

“The moment that I take my last breath, it means nothing to me, because I’m assuming, at that time, I will be unconscious,” Kluke told THE EQUITY, sitting at a table in the Campbell’s Bay Golden Age Club, in the basement under Bouffe Pontiac.

“It’s the struggle before I get to that point that I would not like, because I’ve seen people who should have had an easier passing from their life.”

Through the many years Kluke has spent working in long term care homes, she’s seen the many shapes the end of a life can take.

“To me, it was very heartbreaking to watch all of these older people who are feeling useless and sick and could not be alleviated of their pain,” Kluke said.

“I always say, if I cannot pick up the spoon with the macaroni in it, one of my favourite foods, and put it in my mouth, then I want that needle.”

By “needle” Kluke is referring to medical assistance in dying (MAID), a process in which a medical practitioner, at a patient’s request, administers medication that brings about that person’s death.

It’s not a choice Kluke takes lightly. She knows that if diagnosed with a terminal illness, she would prefer a medically assisted death to the prolonged suffering the illness might cause.

“I was all for it, not just because I would think it would be the right thing for me if I was ill, but because [it would enable] the families to give their elderly family members some dignity as they passed.”

On Thursday afternoon, Kluke, both the treasurer and secretary of the Golden Age Club, was nearing the end of tidying up the club after hosting the second of two sessions about end-of-life care when she took a break to share all of this with THE EQUITY.

The workshop, which brought a group of about 20 participants together on the afternoons of Nov. 22 and Nov. 28, was organized by the Connexions Resource Centre and facilitated by therapist and grief counselor Manon Lafrenière.

Over the course of the two afternoons, Lafrenière both shared information about the three options for end-of-life care in Canada – palliative care, palliative care with sedation, and medical assistance in dying (MAID) – and invited participants to reflect on and share anxieties and discomforts with what it means to die.

Shelley Heaphy, Connexions’ community engagement and outreach coordinator for the Pontiac, said the organization decided to organize this two-day workshop after hosting two separate information sessions on the same subject at low-income seniors’ residences in the area and seeing a desire for more information about end-of-life-care in the region.

“But we didn’t want it to just be [an opportunity to] get the information and then go home with it,” Heaphy said. “We wanted to be able to answer questions, and just talk to other people who have these feelings, who are going through something similar, and to have the space to do it.”

It’s for this reason Connexions invited Manon Lafrenière to facilitate the workshop.

Lafrenière is one of 34 people in Quebec who have received a special training to help people understand whether or not they’re interested in MAID, and support them through all aspects of the process of applying for it, including everything from filling out the paperwork to having difficult conversations with their families.

In the first session, she invited participants to share what they believed dying to be.

“Misconceptions [about end-of-life care] come from your own personal fears, or your own false beliefs, so that’s why I talk about, ‘What is death?’, and, ‘How do you talk about death with your family members, including kids and grandkids?’”

In the workshop, she also offered critical information about the three options for end-of-life care.

“In all three of them, you have to have your diagnoses of an incurable disease, and it could be physical or mental,” she said.

Palliative care, she explained, involves being administered medication to help relieve pain and suffering near the end of your life, when treatment of an illness will no longer improve its condition.

Palliative sedation, she said, is offered “when it gets to a point where they can’t control or ease the pain.” In this option, a medical professional administers a medication that puts you to sleep. Lafrenière noted this is not a coma. “Medication just puts you to sleep, but does not harm the heart. The heart will stop when it’s ready to stop.”

The final option is MAID, medical assistance in dying, which has been legal in Canada since 2016, and requires a patient meets several criteria to be eligible.

“First thing, when you get your diagnoses and you’re interested in MAID, ask your doctor about MAID right then and there,” Lafrenière said. “The doctor won’t talk about it, they’re not allowed to mention it, but if you ask questions they will answer, and if your doctor is not in agreement with MAID, then find a doctor who is.”

She said therapists such as herself are qualified to help people through this process of learning about and applying MAID, and can be found through the Association québécoise pour le droit de mourir dans la dignité (AQDMD).

She said she often hears from people who feel frustrated that nobody they encounter in the healthcare system talks about end of life care, including MAID.

“It’s not right. People should know about these things so that they are able to make the proper decisions and understand what’s going on,” Lafrenière said.

For her part, Kluke said she was keen to host the workshop at the Campbell’s Bay club because the conversation was one from which she thought many in her extended community could benefit, especially those of an older generation who might be more closed to the idea of MAID because of their religious beliefs.

“I thought it was something other people should be aware of,” she said, noting even she, somebody who’s spent significant time thinking about what it means to die, learned a great deal about the process of applying for MAID and also picked up some useful strategies for talking about death with her family.

How would you like to die? Connexions hosts two-part workshop on end-of-life care Read More »

MRC presents new plan for calculating municipal shares

Sophie Kuijper Dickson and K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalists

The MRC Pontiac has come up with a new way of calculating how much each of its 18 municipalities should pay it in shares every year, tabled in a new draft bylaw at its monthly Council of Mayors meeting last Wednesday.

Under the new bylaw, shares would be calculated using 50 per cent of a municipality’s year one property evaluation, and 50 per cent of its standardized property evaluation deposited in years two and three of its evaluation cycle.

This is a slight modification from the current method used by the MRC to calculate shares, which charges municipalities based on their property evaluation in year one of their evaluation cycle, and on their more general, or “standardized” evaluation in years two and three.

The MRC’s director general Kim Lesage said after many months of discussions and research, the budget committee had finally agreed on an alternative calculation method.

“Not only has the budget committee agreed and approved it, but at plenary we went through it over the past two months to look at different options, and this is what we’re proposing tonight.”

The MRC’s longstanding method of calculating shares was challenged by the Municipality of Alleyn and Cawood this year after it was charged its 2024 municipal shares based on a year three standardized property evaluation that was 370 per cent more than the previous year.

This significant increase, the municipality said, was due to the selling of a collection of 120 or so vacant lots at an inflated value the year prior, and was not an accurate representation of the taxable property value across the municipality.

But the municipality was still asked to pay shares based on what it considered to be an unfair and inaccurate property evaluation. In August, Alleyn and Cawood presented the MRC with a proposed bylaw that would completely do away with the use of the standardized value in the calculation of shares.

While this proposal was ultimately rejected, the municipality’s director general Isabelle Cardinal said the new draft bylaw is still “better than doing nothing.”

“We would have preferred to eliminate the comparative factor altogether from the calculation of the shares,” Cardinal said.

The comparative factor is a number determined by the difference between the year one property values and the standardized property values produced in the other two years of evaluations. This number is meant to give municipalities, counties and other government agencies a general sense of the taxable value of properties in a given municipality, and it’s this number the MRC has historically used to calculate municipal shares.

“I think what happened to Alleyn and Cawood, and two years ago to Chichester, proves that when we use the comparative factor, it’s not really accurate compared to what the evaluation actually is,” Cardinal said.

Her municipality has put consistent pressure on the MRC to come up with an alternative method of calculating shares.

“It’s taken time,” said Warden Jane Toller following the meeting. “The feeling was maybe that we were being kind of slow to react but I’m pleased to say that before this year finished we will have approved our first bylaw and it really will be something that I think is going to help all municipalities for the future.”

She was clear that the bylaw tabled would be the bylaw voted upon by the 18 mayors at their next public council meeting, and that no changes would be made in the interim.

by Sophie Kuijper Dickson

Quaile, Cameron join environment committee

Also at Wednesday’s monthly mayors’ meeting, the council passed a motion to add two members to the MRC’s existing environment committee.

Portage du Fort mayor Lynne Cameron and Otter Lake pro-mayor Jennifer Quaile will join the six-person committee, which has been in existence since February but has met only a few times since then.
The committee’s official mandate includes considering issues related to municipal waste, as well as other environmental concerns in the region.

Its first order of business after forming last winter was to look at the tenders submitted for MRC’s waste management contract, which was awarded to FilloGreen this summer.

Warden Jane Toller said going forward, the committee will be looking at the recycling file.

“[The MRC] has now got the support and agreement I think of all 18 municipalities. They’re moving forward into the program where everything will be going down to the sorting centre down in Gatineau, and she’s working towards, I think eventually, door-to-door pickup,” Toller said.

She explained MRC staff will also be on the committee, organizing the meetings and taking minutes, but will not have voting power. She said they are there to ensure certain topics they need discussion on are talked about in order to bring recommendations back to the council of mayors.

“The eight mayors will not be making the decisions without the support of the eighteen mayors,” she said.

Allumette Island mayor Corey Spence, who is on the committee and expects to be nominated for chair at its meeting this week, said the group has not been very active since the tender was issued and hopes the committee will now be more active with two more members.

Spence said he wants to make sure waste collection, particularly for compost, is done in a responsible manner.

“If a compost truck shows up in the middle of a rural area to pick up only compost and not recycling and/or garbage, that would be very irresponsible as elected officials,” he said, adding that he thinks door-to-door collection should be done all at once for all three streams of waste – garbage, recycling and compost.

“I want to make sure it’s done in a responsible manner.”

Spence said he is looking forward to having two new members at the table who will bring diverse perspectives to the table.

“Jennifer [Quaile] will bring a perspective that the current people will not have because she is [ . . . ] passionate about many things concerning the environment,” he said, adding that there was a strong push from Quaile’s community of Otter Lake for responsibility and accountability about the energy-from-waste file, and he expects Quaile will bring the same to the committee.

by K.C. Jordan

MRC presents new plan for calculating municipal shares Read More »

CISSSO says home care, overtime hours first targets for cuts

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

In an update to a story THE EQUITY published last week, the president and CEO of Outaouais’ healthcare network Marc Bilodeau has offered minor clarity on how CISSSO will cut back its predicted spending by $90 million before Mar. 2025, the end of this fiscal year, to meet the province’s demand that all regional health authorities balance their budgets.

In an interview with THE EQUITY last week, Bilodeau indicated that as home care, the hiring of agency staff, and paying overtime hours are all expensive practices for CISSSO, it would be focusing on finding efficiencies in these departments in its attempt to balance its budget.

“Based on our initial assessment, we’re probably providing more [home care] than is required so we need to step back a bit. We’ve already seen a reduction in our hours of home care without seeing a negative impact,” Bilodeau said.

“The other area is reducing the cost of our human resources by looking at how we can bring agency personnel back as employees. It basically costs double to have agency personnel compared to regular employees. If I can hire them back, then I suddenly save a lot of money.”

Bilodeau also noted the network pays a lot of money in overtime hours, which he believes can be reduced by dialing in scheduling practices.

“If we capitalize more on regular time, we’re going to save quite a bit of money.”

Bilodeau emphasized that these practices will be applied differently to different hospitals and healthcare centres, taking into account the nuances of each local reality.

“I’m going to need to monitor the impact on access and quality and if there is one, I’m going to need to stop,” he said. “I don’t know yet what the line is going to be.”

CISSSO says home care, overtime hours first targets for cuts Read More »

Swisha’s Commonwealth mill to close before Christmas

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

The Commonwealth Plywood sawmill in Rapides des Joachims has plans to shut down operations for an undetermined period beginning on Dec. 19, a decision which will see its 23 employees lose their jobs less than a week before Christmas.

The news comes just under two years after the mill reopened in Jan. 2023, after a near 10-year closure.

In an emailed statement to THE EQUITY, Commonwealth’s vice-president of forestry Joël Quévillon detailed the many reasons for the company’s decision to close its Pontiac location.

He listed the province’s cutting of the mill’s pine wood allocation by about 30 per cent around the time the mill reopened, its cancellation of a financial assistance program that helped maintain logging roads, and the challenges of operating in a mixed forest without guaranteed takers of certain species since the pulp mill in Thurso and the softwood mill in Maniwaki closed, as some of the leading obstacles to the mill’s sustainable operation.

He said while the notice of closure was given for Dec. 19, the company is still hopeful this can be changed.

“It is still conceivable that this deadline could be delayed a little,” Quévillon wrote in French. “We’re working on it. The [Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests] has not put in place any new measures to ensure that supply is economically feasible for a long period.”

In a French statement to THE EQUITY, MRNF spokesperson Sylvain Carrier said in 2023, the province’s chief forester “reduced the allowable cut for white and red pine in the Outaouais region by 31 per cent to ensure the sustainability of the resource. The reduction is attributable in particular to the government’s decision to establish new protected areas in this region.”

The statement explained that the reduction in Commonwealth’s pine allotment was only about 15 per cent, “since volumes from Témiscamingue helped to mitigate the decrease,” and noted, “since its reopening in 2023, this mill has never consumed all the pine volumes made available to it.”
Rapides des Joachims mayor Lucie Rivet Paquette said the closure will bring a serious economic blow to the town, where it was one of the only employers.

“I think it’s going to be a big impact,” she said, noting the closure will not only affect the community’s eight people employed there, but the larger economy that has been built up around it as well.

“You not only have to think about the people working in the sawmill but you have to think about the truck drivers who come and get the wood. All those people come and work in the bush to cut the trees. It’s maybe 100 people who will lose their job.”

At MRC Pontiac’s Nov. 27 Council of Mayors meeting, a unanimous vote passed a resolution in support of the mill that demands the MRNF reinstate the financial assistance program for maintenance of forestry roads and the original wood allocation to the mill.

Following the council meeting, Warden Jane Toller, who sits on the forestry committee of the Federation of Quebec Municipalities (FQM), said she had met with the committee the day prior to discuss a plan for helping the mill to reopen.

“If we can just help them with their cutting, give them more wood to cut, and then restore the program that helps pay for the road construction, I think they’ll reopen,” Toller said, referring not only to the Commonwealth mill, but also the Résolu mill in Maniwaki, which this fall announced it would also be closing in December, laying off its 280 employees.

But Pontiac MNA André Fortin, also forestry critic for the official opposition, is less optimistic about the potential of getting these mills reopened.

“Mill closures are happening right across the province. A lot of it is due to the forestry regime in Quebec, the rules and regulations around forestry which make it so that we’re not competitive,” he said.

“Government doesn’t offer any predictability towards wood allocation, and that makes it difficult to plan and budget [ . . . ] And that’s something that everybody, whether it’s the forestry workers, the forestry companies, or all opposition parties, have been asking the government to change for about five years now. It’s in the CAQ platform but nobody has seen the start of this just yet.”

He said in the case of the mill in Rapides des Joachims, which was closed for 10 years prior to reopening again, the decrease of its wood allotments is not justifiable.

“Trees had regrown in that area, there are no other takers other than Commonwealth Plywood in that sector of the province, there really is no reason not to offer that specific mill a predictable wood allocation,” Fortin said.

“Everybody was thrilled to see it come back a few years ago, and everybody feels, right now, an equal level of despair to see it shut down again.”

Swisha’s Commonwealth mill to close before Christmas Read More »

Finding Grace: Woman safe after 42 hours lost in the bush

Sarah Pledge Dickson, LJI Journalist

Alleyn and Cawood resident Grace Early was found safe and sound on Saturday morning after getting lost in the forest for two nights about five kilometres from her home.

Her safe return was thanks to a massive search effort that saw more than 400 community volunteers comb the woods for hours alongside police, local firefighters, and search and rescue teams.

From Grace’s bed at the Pontiac Hospital, where she was taken after being found on Saturday morning, the 73-year-old woman shared details of the two nights she spent lost in the bush.

Grace said that at around 4 p.m. on Thursday, she went to look for her husband, David Early, who was out working on clearing a private road near their home.

She said when her car slid off the unfinished road near but not visible from where he was working, she started walking into the forest in an effort to get back home.

“I was going to walk home but when it gets dark, everything looks the same,” Grace told THE EQUITY. “I got distracted and just kept walking until it got too dark. Then I stopped at a tree and rock and that’s where I stayed the night.”

Grace said that it was then she realized she was lost.

“I was lost, but I was not afraid.”

Friday morning, Grace got up and kept walking until she found another tree and rock shelter. She sat down for the night, but when Saturday morning rolled around, she was too cold and sore to stand.

“I’d spent the night before in the rain,” Grace said. “I was so wet and dirty and by the next morning, I couldn’t move at all. So I sat there and I prayed.”

It wasn’t until Friday morning that Grace’s husband began to worry. He went over to Grace’s best friend Jean Milford’s, where he assumed she had been, to look for her. When he didn’t find her, he started calling family and friends.

The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) was informed of the disappearance Friday afternoon and sent officers to start the search. Maggie Early, one of Grace’s seven daughters, said the first officers arrived 20 minutes after they made the call on Friday.

SQ spokesperson Sgt. Marc Tessier confirmed that canine teams and drones were deployed as part of the effort, which Grace said that she could hear, along with a helicopter, while she was in the bush.

A trail camera clue
It was Friday that Maggie went to look at her trail cameras in hopes of figuring out where her mom had ended up.

The camera showed Grace walking away from her truck at around 5 p.m. on Thursday.This confirmed for the family that Grace had indeed walked away from the truck, which until then they had not known as fact.

On Saturday morning, Maggie put a call out on Facebook asking for the public’s help in locating her mother, and a few hours later the SQ put out a press release making the same call for help.

An estimated 400 people responded, gathering at Grace’s home on chemin Cawood Ouest as early as 6:30 a.m. sporting warm clothes, hunting gear and bright orange vests, ready to search the forest, including a group from Ottawa Volunteer Search and Rescue.

Teams of approximately 15 people went out in waves to perform grid searches of various areas in hopes of tracking Grace down.

One of these search volunteers was Connor Brown, whose mom had told him Friday night she’d heard Grace had gone missing. Brown and his girlfriend drove up to the search meeting spot first thing Saturday morning, and Grace is lucky they did, as Brown was the volunteer who, at 11:30 a.m. that morning, discovered her sitting on the ground.

“When I first walked up, I just looked around and I noticed a pair of boots sticking off to the side, then I noticed the rest of her body,” Brown told THE EQUITY on Saturday after he had returned from the search. “When I shouted out that I found her, she shouted out to me.”

Grace was found sitting down about 200 yards from a tree stand on her niece’s property, almost a kilometre from the truck. She was found south of her truck, having traveled in the exact opposite direction of her home.

Immediately, Brown said he felt a huge sense of relief hearing Grace’s voice.

“When she answered back, it was a really good feeling,” Brown said.

The team of searchers quickly gathered around to help get Grace warm. The weather had been cold and rainy for the past couple days so Grace’s clothing was wet.

“We ran over right away and took off her wet clothes and got her all bundled up in everybody’s jackets,” Brown said. “We made a fire for her and tried to get her warm and comfortable.”

When the call came in to Maggie, who was leading the operations back at her parents’ home that Grace had been found alive, she was overwhelmed with emotion.

“I was screaming, yelling, crying, there are no words,” Maggie said.

William Holmes, Grace’s grandson, came back from the location where she’d be found to let people know how she was doing, saying she was in good spirits.

“Everybody was just so happy,” Holmes said. “She’s safe and it’s just pure relief and joy.”

Brown said that apart from being cold, dehydrated, and sore, Grace seemed alright.

“She looked very cold but she was talking and moving around a bit,” Brown said. “She was just looking for a smoke.”

A press release put out by the SQ at 2 p.m. on Saturday confirmed Grace had been found safe and sound, and was sent to hospital for preventative care.

On Monday Grace was unsure when she would be released from the hospital but, in good spirits, was slowly rebuilding her strength.

Recalling how she felt when she learned of the community’s effort to bring her home, she was at a loss of words. Emotionally, she said it was simply “overwhelming.”

“It took a long time to get that word out, but it was overwhelming when I saw the pictures.”

Finding Grace: Woman safe after 42 hours lost in the bush Read More »

Shawville’s St. Paul’s transforms hall into community ‘hub’

Sarah Pledge Dickson, LJI Journalist

The St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Shawville hosted the grand opening of its newly renovated hall on Saturday morning. Dignitaries and members of the church’s community gathered to cut the ribbon and officially welcome the public into the community hub.

The project began at the start of this year when the church received the first installment of funds from one of MRC Pontiac’s revitalization grants. Reverend Susan Lewis said since then, they have made many improvements to the building.

“With this grant, we have been able to change the flooring, electrical, upgrade the kitchen appliances and make the hall fully accessible with this beautiful automatic door,” Lewis said, adding that they wanted to continue to provide a space for the community to come together.

At the ribbon cutting on Saturday, they also unveiled the building’s new name: “The HUB: Centre Communautaire, Community Centre.”

“We made a decision that we could use the building to act as a hub to bring people together and support the Pontiac,” Lewis said. “This hall has housed cooking classes, bread-making classes, art workshops, exercise medications, drumming, mental health initiatives, Indigenous blanket exercises and talking circles and peer-to-peer support for dementia.”

These events have been ongoing throughout the renovations.

“The only time we didn’t have something was in the summer while we were having the floors done,” Lewis said. “We were closed for about a month and a half but the rest of the time, the hall has been open and available.”

The new floors also feature a labyrinth, something Lewis said is an ancient Christian meditative practice.

It is a replica of the labyrinth at the Chartres Cathedral in France. Lewis said these paths were created as a place for people to walk on and use it for silent prayer.

Representatives from some of the church’s community partners were also in attendance, including the Western Quebec Literacy Council, The Parents’ Voice, the Alzheimer’s Society and the Connexions Resource Centre.

MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller was also in attendance to take part in the ribbon cutting ceremony. She said the MRC gave approximately $67,000 of the provincial grant money it receives from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs (MAMH) for revitalization projects to the church for this project.

“It’s so important when we receive money from revitalization to actually see that the results of the funds are being utilized,” Toller said. “It’s wonderful to see these projects completed.”

Lewis said all the workshops and events they’ve hosted over the years helped them to show how important this building is in the community.

“Because we were using it as a community hub to bring services to the Pontiac that were not readily available, that was the main reason we got [the funding],” Lewis said.

Lewis thanked the MRC and Evelyn Gauthier, the Outaouais regional director for MAMH, who was also in attendance.

The recipients of the funding get the money in installments and have a year to complete the renovations. Despite the grand opening happening on Saturday, there are still plans in the works for the building.

“Next week, we will be installing a cabana at the side of the hall which will house a community fridge, so if you have fresh leftovers you can put them in the fridge for someone who needs them,” Lewis said.

“We will also house an English book library and a hygiene bank for those in need.”

Toller was glad to hear that the church is using the funds to find innovative solutions to issues in the community.

“I love this idea of sharing food,” she said. “There are people who are having a really difficult time in the Pontiac. This is a great example of a church in our community who has really opened their doors and are looking for ways to support the community.”

Shawville’s St. Paul’s transforms hall into community ‘hub’ Read More »

Bouffe Pontiac users double since pre-pandemic

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

The sudden increase in Pontiac food bank users caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is not showing any signs of slowing down, according to Bouffe Pontiac director Kim Laroche.

In 2024, the number of people using the Campbell’s Bay food bank increased from 718 to 800, and this number doesn’t account for one of the organization’s busiest times of year – the holiday season.

“That’s a big jump for a small food bank,” Laroche said, still adamant this increase would in no way affect Bouffe’s ability to feed people, just as it usually does, through this holiday season.

“I thought that after the pandemic, [the number of people we get] would stop increasing, but it’s still going up,” Laroche said. “What we’re hearing is that high housing costs are bringing more people to the food bank.”

In 2019, the food bank was serving between 400 and 500 people. She said of these people, almost none actually had jobs.

“Now, we have many, many people who do have minimum wage jobs – in grocery stores, restaurants, depanneurs – and still need to use the food bank. They’re people who were able to get by on minimum wage before, and now they’re no longer able,” Laroche said, noting she’s also seen an increase in the amount of unhoused people relying on Bouffe Pontiac for food.

Among the minimum wage workers who use the food bank are two of Bouffe Pontiac’s own employees.

One, who requested to remain anonymous to protect his privacy, said he has two jobs to pay his monthly bills, working on average 15 hours a day, five days a week.

“Everything is so expensive. The food has gone up since covid, the gas has gone up since covid. The rent? My god, it’s unbelievable. Who can afford a $1,300 rent? It’s not livable anymore,” the employee said. “It mentally burns me.”

One of the greatest challenges for Bouffe Pontiac in meeting the growing need is that the donations received from the community are not keeping pace, which means year over year, the organization has to use an increasing amount of its budget on buying food to meet the growing demand.

In 2020, Bouffe Pontiac spent $43,139 of its budget on food. In 2021, it increased to $54,281, to $81,576 in 2022, and a total of $128,827 in 2023.

“We know we got more clients, and the cost of food has also gone up, and we think we have fewer food donations than we’ve had in the past, which means we need to buy more food to feed our clients,” Laroche said. “I can’t make a box for our clients with only what we receive in donations. They would go hungry.”

So while the number of community members it serves has more or less doubled since 2019, the amount of its budget spent on food has more than tripled, and in less time.

This makes it very difficult for Laroche to pay her employees the wages she knows would make it possible for them to stay at the food bank long term.

“The second a position opens anywhere else [in the area], I lose them,” Laroche said. “When I put all my money towards food, I cannot [pay them enough].”

A challenging location

Part of the challenge for Laroche is that as food banks go, Bouffe Pontiac is fairly isolated.

The food donations she receives come from a few different sources – private donations, grocery stores giving away expired products, and a weekly delivery of five or six pallets of products from food bank supplier Moisson Outaouais.

But private donations, according to Laroche, are slowing, and while the donations she gets from the local grocery stores is critical to the food bank’s survival, they can’t match the massive donations urban food banks receive from larger box stores like Walmart and IGA.

“They’re not mega-big grocery stores so we don’t receive as many donations from them, which means we have to buy,” she said.

Laroche recently began visiting food banks across the Outaouais to get ideas for how to manage Bouffe, and said when other directors learned of how much of her budget goes towards purchasing food, they were shocked.

One such food bank is the Aylmer Food Centre, which currently serves about 16,000 people.

Its director Denis Parizeau said 95 per cent of the food that passes through this food bank has been donated, either by individuals or by any of the many large grocery stores that surround it.

In the 2023-2024 budget year, the centre spent $82,000 on buying food.

“We have all the food chains that are helping us every week,” Parizeau said. “So that helps a lot, but they don’t have that luxury over there [in Campbell’s Bay].”

Lack of funding

Bouffe Pontiac receives various forms of funding from the province’s health ministry in the form of both grants that are to be dedicated to special projects, and general funding that goes towards what she calls “la mission globale,” or the general mission fund.

She can use this money for whatever she needs to keep the operation going, whether it’s building repairs, buying food, or paying staff salaries.

But according to the Table régionale des organismes communautaires autonomes de l’Outaouais (TROCAO), a group dedicated to advocating for social service organizations across the region, the provincial funding to services like Bouffe Pontiac is seriously lacking.

In a press release last week, the TROCAO called on Quebec to more than double the $54 million in “mission globale” funding it estimates will be offered to the 180 community action groups across the Outaouais – a need it said is based on each organization’s assessment of how much money it would need to be able to accomplish its mission.

“There’s a lot of organizations that are having trouble paying a decent living wage because of the lack of funding, and there’s always increasing needs of the community,” said TROCAO director Daniel Cayley-Daoust.

He said while labour in the community services has historically been undervalued, it is essential to “how we build resilient communities and support people at the margins,” and for this reason believes the province should be investing far more money into it.

Bouffe Pontiac did receive an increase of about $3,000 to the “mission globale” pot this year, but Laroche said this is pennies compared to the expenses she is facing.

“I know that if I had more money coming into that general pot, it would solve a lot of my problems,”she said.

Laroche said Bouffe Pontiac’s food drive, this year scheduled for Dec. 5 from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., will be critical to the food bank’s ability to give out Christmas hampers, just as it is ever year.

“It’s an approximately $18,000 cost for the hampers. We raise close to $10,000 each year and are hoping to get at least that amount.”

Bouffe Pontiac users double since pre-pandemic Read More »

CISSSO to cut $90 million

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Outaouais’ public health and social services network (CISSSO) learned recently it will have to pinch pennies for the next few months to meet new budget demands from the province’s healthcare authority.
Earlier this month, Santé Québec, the Crown corporation set to take over management of Quebec’s healthcare services as of Dec. 1, announced that all regional networks would have to balance their budgets by the end of the fiscal year.

This means CISSSO will have to cut its projected spending by $90 million, or 6 per cent of its annual budget, by Mar. 2025.

“Given the state of public finances, a request was made in the autumn to eliminate all deficits for all institutions by 2024-2025,” said health ministry spokesperson Marie-Christine Patry in an email to THE EQUITY. “All institutions are required to achieve and maintain a balanced budget.”

CISSSO did not offer an interview before publication deadline, but in an interview with Radio-Canada last week, the health network’s president Marc Bilodeau assured that while the the cuts will pose a significant challenge for the network, no existing jobs will be touched. Instead, he said, the network is considering a freeze on hiring administrative personnel.

Pontiac MNA André Fortin, also healthcare critic for the official opposition, rejects the idea that $90 million can be saved simply by pausing all administrative hires until the new budget year.
“There are not $90 million in administrative cuts in the CISSS de l’Outaouais,” Fortin told THE EQUITY on Monday.

He said other regional healthcare networks have already announced how they plan to reduce their projected spending, including removing job postings for nurses, social workers and orderlies, reducing evening shifts in long-term care facilities, and pausing the development of infrastructure projects like youth centres.

“We know that everywhere across Quebec, but particularly in the Outaouais and even more so in the Pontiac, we have to try to attract nurses, so we can’t afford to suspend job postings. We need every tool at our disposal to attract healthcare workers,” Fortin said.

“The underlying point here is that the region doesn’t need to cut $90 million from its healthcare budget. It needs to add $90 million, at least.”

Jean Pigeon, spokesperson for healthcare advocacy coalition SOS Outaouais, said the cuts to CISSSO’s budget are concerning and underscore “the chronic underfunding of healthcare in our region.”

“These cuts are not just a financial adjustment; they represent a significant setback for a region already grappling with structural inequities,” Pigeon said. “With $181 million still needed to meet the provincial average for healthcare funding, this decision perpetuates a cycle of insufficient services and growing disparities.”

Fortin echoed this point.

“The Outaouais and everybody in Quebec City has publicly agreed to this, that the Outaouais is underfunded in terms of healthcare by about $200 million,” he said.

“So for the region to be treated just like every other region when it comes to the cuts that are requested by government seems counterproductive at this point.”

CISSSO to cut $90 million Read More »

Six candidates vying for Pontiac’s federal Conservative seat

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

The race for the Conservative Party candidate for the Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi riding in the next federal election finally closed its doors to new entries on Nov. 13, with a total of six people having thrown their name in the hat to be considered for the job.

Brian Goodman, Michel Gauthier, Terrence Watters, Mark Buzan, Brian Nolan, and Jean-Nicolas de Bellefeuille each confirmed they’re hoping to receive the party’s nomination, however Watters did not respond to The Equity’s questions by publication deadline, so his answers will be published in next week’s issue.

Below are brief summaries of each candidate, based on responses they submitted by email. THE EQUITY has yet to obtain official confirmation from the Conservative Party of Canada that these candidates have indeed been accepted into the nomination race.
Residents of the riding who wish to vote at the nomination meeting, the date and time of which have yet to be publicly confirmed, must be a registered member of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Michel Gauthier

Michel Gauthier, originally from Maniwaki, currently lives in the town of Bois-Franc, 15 kilometres north of Maniwaki. He ran as the Conservative Party candidate for the Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi riding in the 2021 federal election, and spent 10 years working for the Gatineau Liberal Association, both as president and as head of communications for then MNA Stéphanie Vallée. Prior to this, he spent two decades working as a journalist in Gatineau covering political news at municipal, provincial and federal levels.
He said his choice to run for the Conservative Party is a question of values.

“I am a fiscal conservative and I am member and candidate for the CPC because this party is the only one that takes into account the sound financial management of the country before making decisions whose effects can then extend over decades,” he wrote in an email.

“I also completely agree with Mr. Poilievre’s common sense approach.One of the most striking examples is the proposal to cut the GST when buying a new home.”

He said the top three subjects he’s campaigning on are his belief that the construction of the nuclear waste disposal facility at Chalk River should not continue until studies on alternative sites have been done; a review of the federal government’s teleworking policy with the ambition of making employment with the federal public service accessible to people living in rural communities; and pushing for the construction of a Gatineau tramway, which he said is an important project for the west of the city, but municipal officials will have to understand that it will require urban densification to justify the costs, not moratoria on housing development.

Jean-Nicolas de Bellefeuille

Jean-Nicolas de Bellefeuille grew up in Val-des-Monts, and says his close proximity to nature as a child showed him “how deeply nature embodies freedom.”
“It’s a perspective that guides my approach to policies – aiming for sustainable practices that protect our environment while ensuring that future generations can enjoy the same sense of freedom and connection to the land.”

He is in his second term as a councillor for the municipality of Cantley, and spent four of his seven years in that job as president of the municipal Urban Planning Advisory Committee, both experiences which he says have equipped him with “a deep understanding of the machinery of government and a steadfast commitment to public service and ethical governance.”

In his email response to THE EQUITY, he explained his work with the urban planning committee “taught him the critical importance of balancing growth with environmental stewardship, a principle that is increasingly vital at the federal level as we address national challenges such as housing, infrastructure development and climate change.”

He’s chosen to run for the Conservative Party “because its values align closely with his own vision for Canada’s future – one grounded in fiscal responsibility, individual freedom, and the efficiency of small government.”

The top three policy changes he is campaigning on are reducing taxes, which he believes are too high and therefore putting “undue strain on hard working Canadians”; building homes by cutting red tape and incentivizing development; and preserving natural heritage by expanding parks and protected areas.

“I’m committed to advocating for the purchase of additional forest land for parks, ensuring these green spaces are available for generations to come.”

Mark Buzan

Mark Buzan is originally from southwestern Ontario but currently resides in the Plateau, in Gatineau, and has lived in the Outaouais since 1997. His political career began in the late 90s when he worked as the Legislative Assistant to then-MP Jason Kenney, who went on to become Minister of Immigration under Stephen Harper and more recently, Premier of Alberta. In 1998, Buzan was also a candidate for the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), a provincial political party that shut down in 2012. Finally, for over two decades Buzan has worked as a party organizer in the Outaouais for what he calls the conservative movement, most recently as the executive vice-president for the Conservative Party of Quebec.

“My conservative values drive me to advocate for policies that empower small businesses, reduce unnecessary government interference, and restore integrity, efficiency, and honesty to our governance,” Buzan wrote to THE EQUITY, explaining his decision to run for the Conservative Party.

He said his political priorities include reducing the high cost of living for Canadians, which he believes is caused by excessive government spending and the creation of federal taxes such as the carbon tax and capital gains tax. He also said he would work to cut back regulations preventing small business and resource development in the Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi riding, in an effort to create “a thriving local economy,” and support policies that incentivize municipalities to issue more permits for housing construction, in line with Pierre Poilievre’s commitment for bonuses on municipalities that meet their targets, this in an effort to support younger people wishing to establish roots in the region.

Brian Nolan

Brian Nolan was raised in Quebec City. He moved to Ottawa when he was 20, where he finished his studies in computer science, and has now lived in Chelsea, Que. for over 30 years.

Nolan cites his 25 years in the public service, his 15 years owning an IT consulting company and three years co-owning a Spoon Frozen Yogurt lounge in the ByWard market as experiences that played important parts in the development of his political senses, each in different ways giving him an understanding of the operations of the federal government.

In his email to THE EQUITY, he said his experience working in the public service, for example, “taught [him] the importance of transparent and accountable governance and gave me valuable insights into the complexities of policy making.”

He also said his role as vice-president and president of the Des Collines de l’Outaouais Minor Hockey Association strengthened his ties with the community, allowing him to “promote youth development and support local families.”

Nolan said he’s running to represent the Conservative Party because he believes in “the importance of fiscal responsibility, individual freedom, and the power of local communities to address local issues,” he wrote. “In short, I chose to run as a Conservative because I believe in balanced progress that respects tradition, supports hard-working Canadians, and fosters self-reliance and opportunity.”

Nolan said he would prioritize local economic development and support for small businesses, improving housing accessibility, and improving the quality of life for seniors through policies that “no longer treat them as an afterthought,” but that “ensure they enjoy their golden years with dignity, financial security, and access to world-class health care.”

Brian Goodman

Brian Goodman currently lives in Chelsea, Que., but is originally from the small town of Stonewall, Man.. He moved to the Ottawa-Gatineau area in 2008, after several years in Saskatchewan.

His political experience includes working for the Minister of Justice, Don Morgan, in the Saskatchewan Party government in 2007, as well as for Saskatchewan Conservative MP Ray Boughen on Parliament Hill. He also cites his time working with the federal government in various capacities, most recently with Canada’s export credit agency, Export Development Canada, and the dozen or so political campaigns he’s worked on in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec as critical to his political career.

“I’ve essentially been around politics and government from all angles for 15 years and would argue that very few people have the experience, knowledge, or network that I do in Ottawa,” he wrote.

In his email to THE EQUITY, Goodman said he’s running for this riding’s Conservative seat because “it pains [him] to watch the Liberals/NDP drive our country (and young people especially) ever deeper into debt, while letting housing and cost of living get out of control.”

“Conservatives are the only party that prioritizes the economy and since I work in trade, their focus on productivity and competitiveness is particularly appealing to me,” he wrote. “Closer to home, I know that Conservatives are much more in tune with rural communities.”

He said the top three policy issues he would focus on would be “economic opportunities for people in rural parts of the riding, and on competitiveness [and] productivity issues more broadly; housing and cost of living issues for both urban and rural parts of the riding; and protecting the environment of the riding, including Gatineau Park, the Ottawa River, and beyond.”

Terrence Watters

Terrence Watters did not respond to THE EQUITY’s emailed questions. However, the real estate broker and former casino manager was the candidate for the Conservative Party of Quebec in the 2022 provincial election. More can be learned about his policy priorities by visiting https://theequity.ca/candidates-take-questions-at-forum/ and https://theequity.ca/candidates-clash-at-the-winery-conversation-with-the-candidates-hosted-by-the-equity/.

Update: Nov. 27, 2024  Since this article was first published, THE EQUITY has learned that Terrence Watters has decided not to run, and Mark Buzan’s application is under review.

Six candidates vying for Pontiac’s federal Conservative seat Read More »

From song to soil: Why one Calumet Island man is bringing back a heritage Pontiac potato

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

On a nippy November afternoon, longtime Calumet Island resident Mike Lamothe pulled a small package out of a freshly dug hole in the garden behind his home. He unfurled the newspaper wrapping, revealing dozens of tiny potatoes inside.

The 82-year-old local history buff is keeping them underground over the winter for safe keeping. These aren’t just any potatoes — they’re a heritage variety, no longer widely grown, and one Lamothe only came to know after he heard its name mentioned in the local folk song, The Chapeau Boys.

“These are the Early Roses,” he said, plucking the spuds one by one out of the package to examine them. He explained this variety of potato was once grown in the Ottawa Valley at the height of the logging industry, known at the time for its robust flavour, hardiness and versatility, but has since fallen into relative obscurity.

After some work, Lamothe was able to procure himself some of these potatoes. Now, he is trying to revive a crop of these traditional tubers for future generations to enjoy.

The Chapeau Boys connection

Inside his house, Lamothe cracked open a book containing the lyrics to the song The Chapeau Boys, which follows a group of loggers as they embark on their yearly trek up-river toward their winter camp in the Upper Pontiac.

As an avid outdoorsman and former owner of an adventure tour business, Lamothe was familiar with many of the locations called out in the song: Chapeau, Fort William, the Black River.

“The song spoke to me,” Lamothe said, noting he began to read the lyrics more closely a few years ago.


In the song, the men arrive at their winter abode — the Caldwell farm — and spend several verses describing the many foods they feasted on at the camp. Delights like cabbage, custard, rice pudding and pies are all mentioned in delectable detail. Arriving at the end of the seventh verse, Lamothe encountered the spud for the first time.

The board at the farm, the truth for to tell,
Could not be surpassed in the Russell Hotel.
We had roast beef and mutton, Our tea sweet and strong,
And the good early roses, full six inches long.

Lamothe had never heard of the variety before. After some research, he came to learn more about its origins in New England and its lineage. As it turns out, the Early Rose was one of the parent potatoes of the Russet Burbank, a variety long favoured by fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s for french fry use.

Wanting to find out more about the variety — and maybe grow some himself — Lamothe consulted local friends and seed savants, but it seemed nobody in the Pontiac was still growing them.

He put the project aside for a while, thinking he had hit a dead end. One day he hit the jackpot: he found a government seed bank in Fredericton growing heritage varieties of potatoes, including the exact ones he was looking for. Within a few weeks, he had a package containing about 50 Early Rose buds on his doorstep.

An enthusiast of local history, Lamothe is always knee-deep in a research project. If he’s not dressing up as legendary Calumet Island figure Jean Cadieux, he is researching his family roots, or the history of the island. He said he wanted to embark on the potato project because with it he is keeping alive a part of the Pontiac’s past.

“What’s the value of saving heritage things? In the end it’s not earth-shattering, but [ . . . ] it’s kind of neat to say ‘Oh, here’s a potato that faded from view and now we’ve saved it,’ and maybe hundreds of years from now you won’t see any anymore, but in the meantime people will enjoy it.”

Beyond the history of it all, Lamothe is mostly curious to see if it lives up to its reputation. “What really got me interested in it, is that it’s a far superior potato. For people who have fine culinary taste, instead of the russet or Yukon Gold or whatever, this will be far superior,” he said.

According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Early Rose potato originated in Vermont in 1861, and was made commercially available in the United States for the first time in 1868 in the B.K. Bliss & Sons company’s gardening catalogue.

Its exact journey to the Ottawa Valley is unclear, but according to research conducted by THE EQUITY and the Upper Ottawa Valley Heritage Centre (UOVHC), the earliest available record of the potato in the Pembroke Observer and Upper Ottawa Advertiser was in 1872, where an advertisement read:

“These are the best early potatoes ever introduced into this section of the country, appearing two weeks earlier than any other potato.”

In an email to THE EQUITY, Julia Klimack of the UOVHC wrote that this means the potatoes were in Pembroke in at least 1871. “From this we can glean that they were becoming more widely available,” she said. 

A gardening book published that same year, Money in the Garden by P.T. Quinn, describes the potato as, “a large-sized tuber, smooth skin, few eyes, flesh white and steams and boils mealy.”

Eventually the potato, which was not uniform enough in size, did not survive the industrialization of agriculture, and is no longer listed as a registered variety on Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s online database.

Local gardeners keen for the special spud

Lamothe has been putting out feelers to other Pontiac gardeners to gauge interest in growing this heritage variety of potato.

Julie Anglehart has a small garden plot in Clarendon, where next year she’ll make room for Lamothe’s spuds. As a grower of heirloom varieties, including a variety of tomato she said started with 13 viable seeds found in an attic in Beauce, Que., in the 1960s, Anglehart said it’s exciting to possibly play a role in the survival of the Early Rose.

“If I could contribute to the survival of this food staple long into the future and make its access easy to keep good, nutrient-rich, unadulterated sustainable food for the future, it would be a proud legacy,” she said, noting she often finds heritage varieties to be tastier and more nutritious.

She added that heritage seeds are an important window into our history. “[Heritage seeds are] a history lesson of the food that shaped our culture and history [ . . . ] and the knowledge that some of these unadulterated varieties still exist and are worth popularizing and saving,” she said.

Joan LaCroix will also be making room for the Early Rose seeds in her garden next year, and she is excited to have a new variety.

“Anything heritage, that is passed down from seed, is superior to genetically modified,” she said, adding that it’s unfair that the DNA of genetically modified seeds such as Monsanto’s limit the grower to one growing season.

She said growing her own seeds is her way of combating a rising cost of living and a changing planet.

“With food insecurities growing, whether by skyrocketing costs, the decline of bees, birds and insects, or climate change, growing your own organic food becomes a more reliable and healthy option.”

Denis Blaedow, who works for Esprit Rafting and is a board member for the Chutes Coulonge, has known Lamothe since the mid-90s. He heard about the potato project and wants to start a small crop of the spuds at the Chutes for culinary use at special events.

“We had a couple of bus tour companies come up [ . . . ] and we serve them sea pie for a dinner there. It would be neat if we could put back in those potatoes as another part of the authenticity of serving something like that,” he said, noting how meaningful it would be to serve a sea pie containing possibly the very variety of potato that was once used to make the dish.

Back to the Caldwell camp

Lamothe said he is excited to begin growing these potatoes and to share them with others who are as passionate about local history — and food — as he is.

The spuds are still seed potatoes, too small to plant, so he’s keeping them buried deep underground until next year, at which point they will be ready to distribute to other interested growers.

Once the plants are ready, he said he plans to give some to all who expressed interest. But he has a special mission that he wants to accomplish: trek up the Black River to plant the spuds on the Caldwell farm, in the very same soil as the loggers might have done in The Chapeau Boys.

“It’s just as a tribute to the song,” he said, adding that the song reflects a part of our unique regional culture that is worth preserving.

“To some people, Chapeau Boys is like the national anthem of the Pontiac. It’s part of our culture.”

From song to soil: Why one Calumet Island man is bringing back a heritage Pontiac potato Read More »

Former Kitigan Zibi chief Whiteduck running for Pontiac NDP nomination

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Former Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation chief Gilbert Whiteduck announced in a press release last week he will seek the NDP nomination in the federal riding of Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi for the next election.

Whiteduck holds degrees from Carleton University, the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi and the University of Ottawa, as well as a Certificate in Indigenous Law and an Honorary Doctorate degree for his work in education.

He is the president of the Gatineau Valley Historical Society, has worked as a school principal, and served on the band council of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation before serving as chief for seven years. He is currently working as a therapist for First Nations and Inuit people with mental health and substance use disorders.

Whiteduck said people throughout the riding were asking him if he planned on running, and while he didn’t initially consider it, after some thought he decided to put his name forward.

“It came down to saying, from the experience and everything that I’ve gained, and people that I’ve talked to and what they’ve told me, ‘Can I be a different kind of voice? A more affirmative voice.’”
He said his experience as a councillor and as chief of Kitigan Zibi has given him experience in a wide variety of fields, and with all levels of government.

“It’s not at all like a mayor of a municipality, because you are negotiating land claims. You’re overlooking healthcare. [ . . . ] Our education is strictly under us,” he said, describing the unique nature of his work as chief.

“You’re negotiating provincial, federal, speaking to the MRCs. I did all of that in different ways.”
Whiteduck said while he needs to reach out to more people across the riding to understand their concerns, he has identified a few of his own priorities.

“One of them, of course, is homelessness. The reality that poverty exists in maybe more rural [environments]. And that’s all tied to housing, and everything around housing.”

“There’s also, of course, the economic stuff, and what programs and what supports can be made available differently to medium and small businesses,” he said.

He said he sees agriculture as a big concern for the riding, and while he needs to speak with more farmers to understand their concerns, he sees them as crucial drivers of the economy.

“Farmers for me are important. Maybe because they are close to the land, and as an Indigenous person we have always been close to the land, and I’ve told that to the farmers that I’ve met.”

He said he also sees the issue of the Chalk River nuclear research facility as important to the region.

“The water is so important, whether it be the Kitchissippi, the Gatineau River, are all are important rivers that we need collectively to take care of. It’s tied to biodiversity, it’s tied to taking care of the land.”

Whiteduck added that he is being realistic about the NDP’s chances in this election, but regardless of the election result wants to do right by the people and represent their best interests.

“The NDP has never formed government. Do they have a chance to form? Well, we’ll see,” he said.

“As an MP your role is to influence. Your role is at committees, at different levels, at different contacts with ministers to influence that change that will benefit the riding.”

The Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi NDP nomination meeting will happen on Nov. 30 at 11 a.m. at the Wakefield community centre. The party confirmed Whiteduck is so far the only candidate.

Former Kitigan Zibi chief Whiteduck running for Pontiac NDP nomination Read More »

Canada Post drivers hit the picket line

All mail delivery stopped except social assistance cheques

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Pontiac’s Canada Post drivers joined the 55,000 or so postal workers across the country who walked off the job last week as part of a nation-wide strike after failing to reach a new collective agreement with their employer.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) representing Canada Post employees has been in negotiations with the federal government since Nov. 2023 around issues including pay, health benefits, pension, and whether Canada Post will shift to delivering seven days a week, something the Crown corporation feels it needs to do to be able to compete with other delivery services like Purolator and FedEx.

For the six delivery drivers who spent Friday morning on strike outside the Shawville post office, a secure and reliable pension was the number one thing they hoped would come of the negotiations, that and protection of their five-day work week.

“A lot of people always say, ‘Oh, you make enough money,’ but for me it’s not the money, it’s the pension,” said Kayla Wilson, a driver for the Shawville post office. “I’m young and I’d like to have a pension to look forward to when I’m older.”

Canada Post’s latest offer, made last week, included an 11.5 per cent wage increase over four years, as well as protection of the current stable pension plan for current employees.

However, according to information from the union, the corporation proposed a less predictable, market-dependent pension plan for future employees. The union is concerned Canada Post will gradually phase out the stable pension plan while those who paid into it are still living off it in their retirement, which could pose problems. 

For Terry Matte, another Shawville driver, this is scary.

“I took this job for the pension,” she said. “At the age that I’m at, you’ve got to have something steady.”

Andrew Lang lives in Shawville but delivers mail out of the Lac-des-Loups post office, where no other mail delivery service operates. On top of a stable pension, he’s hoping to be accurately compensated for the time he works.

“I’ve got 307 addresses I’m responsible for. I could have 60 on a normal Monday and I’m expecting anywhere from 150 parcels on a single day in the month leading up to Christmas,” Lang said, explaining that most of the overtime he works during busy periods is not compensated.

“I would much rather be sitting in my car right now and delivering the mail, and seeing the people I deliver mail to. That’s a part I enjoy about the job is the people. I don’t enjoy standing on the side of the road,” he added, a sentiment with which every driver gathered agreed.

Media reports late Monday evening suggested Canada Post and the union had yet to reach an agreement, and the two sides were still far apart at the table.

As the strike continues, transportation of all mail has been put on hold. Government social assistance cheques, however, including pension, child benefit, and old age security cheques, are scheduled to be delivered to residents this week.

Are you a Pontiac resident somehow affected by this strike? Tell us how by writing to sophie@theequity.ca.

Canada Post drivers hit the picket line Read More »

Shawville RA raising funds to empower Pontiac youth

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Jaycie Hodgins spent a lot of time at the Shawville District Recreation Association as a kid.

Through the RA’s summer camps and soccer program, not to mention the years she’s spent playing hockey with the Pontiac Lions, she’s benefitted from the countless hours given by community volunteers towards her development as an athlete, and as a leader. And she sees this.

Now in Grade 11 at Pontiac High School (PHS), Hodgins is stepping into these leadership roles herself.

This summer, she returned to the RA’s summer camp, this time as a counselor. She felt she was able to wrangle and care for the kids with confidence thanks to certain training she’s already received, including CPR training offered in a Grade 9 science class and communication skills learned in teacher Matt Greer’s leadership class.

“Without the class I probably would have been like a chicken with my head cut off. I just wouldn’t know how to deal with certain conversations, especially as a teenager talking to adults about their children,” Hodgins said.

“There was an incident at the RA one time, and I was really glad I knew how to do CPR and the heimlich. I had that skill under my belt, and if we can maybe open that up to other people to make sure that there are more youth certified in that, I think it’s really important.”

A new fundraising effort from the Shawville RA, led by Matt Greer, also an RA council member of many years, aims to offer these foundational leadership skills to more youth in Shawville and across the Pontiac in an effort to increase the pool of youth who can volunteer to lead sports and recreation programs.

The campaign’s goal is to raise $6,000 from the community in the next 76 days. If the RA achieves this, it will be given an additional $24,000 from La Ruche, a Quebec crowdfunding platform for community projects.

The $30,000 total will be used to offer interested youth various trainings, including First Aid and CPR courses, as well as coaching and refereeing training across various sports.

“In the spring there were definitely some concerns raised about a lack of volunteers, and part of the discussion was tapping into our youth and really trying to cultivate that, and build the pool,” Greer said, noting the RA has seen a significant increase in demand for services since more people have moved to the community from the city over the last five or so years.

“People, mostly parents, are stepping up to make it happen, but we’re feeling like there’s an untapped resource in our community, which is our young people,” Greer said.

He emphasized that while this campaign is being led by the Shawville RA, his vision is that it can support the growth of recreation and summer camp programs across the region.

“It’s not just about fighting for Shawville, it’s about the Pontiac. Let’s say we had 50 kids doing different things through this training, it would be amazing if they were scattered, and helping out in Fort Coulonge and Otter Lake.”

People interested in supporting this effort can do so by visiting https://laruchequebec.com/en/projects/leaders-of-tomorrow-shawville-ra.

Shawville RA raising funds to empower Pontiac youth Read More »

Calumet Island’s Golden Age Club has members working up a sweat

Sarah Pledge Dickson, LJI Journalist

Calumet Island’s Golden Age Club was bumping with music and movement on Saturday afternoon as it welcomed members to try out new exercise equipment acquired with funds from Loisir Sport Outaouais.

The money received was used to purchase exercise balls, resistance bands, weights, a stationary bike, elliptical trainers, a parachute, and a television and DVD player to play exercise videos approved by the Viactive program.

The open house also featured a demonstration of the Viactive program, an exercise program for people over the age of 50. Approximately 25 members and friends of the club turned up to try out the new equipment.

Bernadette Maheral participated in some of the exercises Saturday.

“I had a fracture in my back,” Maheral said. “I can’t do many of the exercises yet but they help keep me active.”

Colleen Griffin, president of the club, took part in the Viactive training session to learn how to teach exercise classes to the club’s members.

“It’s a one-day course where they run through the whole gauntlet of exercises and get us to do them,” Griffin said. “They tell us all the different things we can do and how it’s geared to this age group.”

The funding used to purchase the equipment was applied for by the Municipality of L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet on behalf of the Golden Age Club.

“We have a lot of people over the age of 50 and we don’t have much on the island for them,” said municipal councillor Louise Grenier. Also the citizen representative for the municipality, she did the work of applying for the funding. “With this activity there’s a chance to meet people and after, they bring their lunch and eat together.”

Griffin echoed this point.

“The Golden Age Club is vital because it gets seniors out of isolation,” she said. “It improves morale, and the exercises are also good for your physical well-being.”

Calumet Island’s Golden Age Club has members working up a sweat Read More »

Court dismisses lawsuit against Litchfield

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

A lawsuit filed against the Municipality of Litchfield in which the plaintiffs claimed financial, moral and exemplary damages, will not proceed in court, a judge has decided.

In Mar. 2023, the three plaintiffs, siblings Colleen McGuire, Michael McGuire and Mary Ellen McGuire, sued Litchfield for $14,780.30 in damages they claim to have suffered over the course of the dispute with the municipality, which began in 2015.

But at the case’s first hearing in the Campbell’s Bay courthouse at the end of September, the municipality, represented by its director general Julie Bertrand, submitted that the case should be dismissed because the claim was initiated more than six months after the damages had been caused, which disqualifies it under Quebec’s municipal act (section 1112.1)

After several weeks of deliberation, the judge, Honourable Serge Laurin, decided in favour of the municipality’s submission for a dismissal of the case.

“The cause of the application arose no later than August 10, 2021, and the application was instituted on Mar. 2, 2023, more than 6 months after that date. As soon as all the elements constituting the burden of proof were met, the limitation period began to run,” the judge’s October decision reads.

“Considering that the McGuire family suffered sufficient prejudice, administrative errors and that its application had a chance of success, without this technicality, the Court will not award legal costs,” the decision concludes.

The conflict can be traced back to 2007 when a land surveyor listed a lot as belonging to the Municipality of Litchfield which the plaintiffs believed to belong to their father, Aloysius McGuire.

The McGuire’s statement of claim submitted to the court states that in 2015, when they learned of the municipality’s “intent to sell or grant servitude” to the lot to neighbouring property owners, the plaintiffs tried to prove to the municipality, using deeds and other legal documents, that this property should still be under their father’s name.

The claim says that this and every subsequent attempt to prove ownership of the lot was rejected by the municipality and that only in 2021, when a reconsideration of the original 2007 survey report ordered by Quebec’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests (MERN) found the property did indeed still belong to Aloysius McGuire, did the municipality state that it would not be seeking a review of this finding.

Then, in Mar. 2023, the siblings filed for damages. At September’s first hearing of the case, Mary Ellen McGuire disputed the Aug. 2021 date of harm identified by Bertrand. She said that for her family, this case was not only about the question of who owned the lot, a dispute resolved on Aug. 10, but also about the ways in which the municipality, in her opinion, abused its power and breached its code of ethics, the harm from which continued beyond Aug. 10, 2021.

To learn more about this court case, read THE EQUITY’s story, https://theequity.ca/damages-claim-over-litchfield-property-dispute-goes-to-court/, published in our Oct. 2 issue.

Court dismisses lawsuit against Litchfield Read More »

Man leaves flaming trailer at Quyon fire hall, shoots at off-duty firefighter, witness says

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Several witnesses are helping THE EQUITY trace the path of a man who allegedly drove a flaming camping trailer down chemin Lac-des-Loups near Quyon last Monday night, left the still-flaming trailer at the town’s fire station, and drove away.

The man allegedly shot four times in the direction of a volunteer firefighter who was following him, according to an anonymous radio interview with the firefighter that aired on 104.7 Outaouais on Wednesday.

The firefighter declined THE EQUITY’s interview request but was confirmed through multiple sources to be a member of the Bristol Fire Department.

According to the account, shared on the radio, the firefighter spotted the man towing the flaming trailer on chemin Lac-des-Loups about 10 kilometres north of Quyon and decided to follow it as it headed south toward the village.

“Fire was falling from the trailer,” he said in the interview, adding that it caused trees along the side of the road to catch fire in at least four different places.

He called 9-1-1 to alert the authorities of the fires, continuing to follow the man across Highway 148 and into Quyon, where he watched the man stop his vehicle, unhook the flaming trailer in the parking lot, and take off back up the road he came from.

In the interview he said that since Quyon isn’t part of his fire department’s territory, he didn’t have the right to intervene, so he continued to follow the driver so he could provide updates to the authorities.

Then, once on chemin Swamp, the driver stopped. “He gets out of his vehicle and shoots in my direction with a shotgun,” the firefighter said, who wasn’t hit but whose vehicle was hit twice on the hood.

The firefighter, who was out of cell signal, said he tried to reposition himself so he could update 9-1-1 on the situation. At this point the man allegedly shot twice again in his direction, hitting this vehicle’s radiator.

“Fortunately I didn’t get hit,” he said.

THE EQUITY reached out to the MRC des Collines police several times since the Monday night incident for confirmation of these details, but nobody with knowledge of the file was available to speak before publication deadline.

However, several more witnesses confirmed aspects of what the firefighter recounted. One woman, who was with her boyfriend at his home on chemin Cain just east of chemin Lac-des-Loups, did not see the fire happen but said they woke up Tuesday morning to find trees burnt on either side of their laneway, and firetrucks by the road.

She said she had no idea it had happened, but learned more from the firefighters who were by the side of the road the next morning.

Her boyfriend, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of his own security, said he couldn’t believe someone would endanger people in that way. “There’s so much he could have done to avoid driving through a town full of people with a flaming fireball,” he said.

According to security camera footage acquired from the Quyon ProColour auto body shop at the corner of chemin Lac-des-Loups and Highway 148, the flaming trailer crossed the highway around 11 p.m. Monday night, heading toward the village of Quyon.

A woman named Emilie, who lives in Quyon and who did not wish to publicize her last name, confirmed she saw the flaming trailer, and while her property was unscathed by the flames, said her neighbour’s property and car were damaged by the fire.

“I saw it, [ . . . ] there was a big explosion,” she said, adding that the fire department was there promptly so she went back to bed.

Municipality of Pontiac mayor Roger Larose confirmed that the fire department responded to a call late on Monday night on chemin Cain. “The bush caught on fire,” he said, confirming the department responded to several fires along the way.

He said once the fire department heard the man had unhitched the trailer at the Quyon fire station, firefighters responded to the call in a timely manner and extinguished the fire.

He said the trailer fire didn’t cause any widespread property damage, but a water main in town did break under the pressure caused by firefighters turning off their water source after putting out the trailer fire.

“When they shut the tap off [ . . . ] the pressure busted the pipe,” he said, adding that portions of the village were without water the next day, including Sainte-Marie school, which was forced to close. He added that crews worked to fix the issue and residents had water back within two days.

The MRC des Collines police have not named a suspect, but several witnesses confirmed the man is known to the community.

THE EQUITY has not found any information about why the man was driving a burning trailer.

Man leaves flaming trailer at Quyon fire hall, shoots at off-duty firefighter, witness says Read More »

Citizens of the Pontiac wants residents to protect themselves against a radioactive gas

Sarah Pledge Dickson, LJI Journalist

Local activism group Citizens of the Pontiac (CoP) organized a public information session in Campbell’s Bay on Saturday to raise awareness about the presence of radon in the region, and how it can affect residents’ health.

The hazardous radioactive gas is produced as uranium breaks down in rock and soil. While not particularly dangerous if diluted outdoors, the invisible, odorless and tasteless gas can be harmful to human health if it accumulates indoors. According to Health Canada, radon is the number one cause of lung cancer in non-smokers.

Judith Spence, CoP’s organizer for the event, tested for radon in her Clarendon home and got results two months ago. The test found the gas in her home at 2,200 Becquerels per cubic metre (Bq/m3), levels 11 times higher than Health Canada’s recommended maximum exposure level of 200 Bq/m3.
“I was scared shitless when I found out that my levels were extremely high,” Spence said.

She organized Saturday’s event in collaboration with the MRC Pontiac and CISSSO to raise awareness about the gas and help other Pontiac residents protect themselves against it.

The information session brought together radon experts from across the Outaouais to explain what radon is, and how to detect and reduce its presence.

“Everybody will be supported as much as possible,” Spence said. “We’re here to get some of the information today and we’ll be out there to help you.”

Kelley Bush, a member of the Health Canada Radon Protection Bureau, was one of three presenters at the event. She explained that inside buildings that have direct contact with the ground, radon can creep through cracks and tiny holes in the foundation. Without proper ventilation, the gas can build up indoors and pose a serious health risk.

“Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer for people who don’t smoke and the second main cause of lung cancer after smoking. We estimate that about 3,200 Canadians a year die of radon-induced lung cancer. That’s about eight per day,” Bush said.

According to the Association pulmonaire du Québec, 21.86 per cent of homes in the Outaouais region have higher-than-recommended levels of radon. This is up from the national average in 2018 of 18 per cent.

“It’s never a question of, ‘Do I have it?’ You do. It’s how much do you have, and the only way to know that is to test,” Bush said.

“There is no safe level of radiation exposure. Certainly the risk under 200 Bq/m3 is low, but if your levels are 199, it does not mean you’re safe.”

There are relatively simple ways to detect radon, and protect your home against it. Arthur Ladouceur from Radon Ottawa Gatineau recommends that first, people walk through their basements and look for openings near plumbing pipes or gaps in the concrete. Sealing these holes can have a significant impact on the radon concentration.

There are also single-use tests and digital readers that can be purchased or even borrowed to get an idea of how much radon is in your home. Both types of tests must be left in the home for three months to provide an accurate reading. Single-use tests are mailed back to a lab to be analyzed, while digital tests will provide accurate results after three months. They can be reset and reused by other households.

Tests can be purchased from TakeActiononRadon.ca and cost anywhere from $50 to $200.

“We are working hard to make sure that testing is available and as cost effective as possible,” Bush said, noting Health Canada is helping library programs share digital tests in the community.

If patching holes in your basement doesn’t result in a decrease in radon exposure, Ladouceur recommends contacting a certified professional to install a radon mitigation device in your basement.

“We typically get between 90 to 98 per cent reduction in the radon level with that kind of technique,” said Marcel Brascoupé, founding member of the Canadian Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists, describing how a small fan and pipe can be used to suck radon gas from under a home’s foundation and release it outdoors.

Some regions have building codes that require radon levels in homes be below the 200 Bq/m3 guideline. One such region is Chelsea, where Brascoupé worked on developing the codes. Despite the good intentions, Brascoupé said that contractors do not always live up to the codes. Some building codes also predate 2008, when Health Canada reduced its recommended radon limit from 800 Bq/m3 to 200 Bq/m3.

Pascal Proulx, assistant general director of the Western Quebec School Board (WQSB), said Saturday he was pleased to announce all 31 schools in the WQSB have radon levels below Health Canada’s recommended limit. Going forward, the WQSB plans to test five schools each year so that every six-year cycle, all 31 schools are retested.

Going forward, Spence said Citizens of the Pontiac plans to give a presentation to the MRC Pontiac’s 18 mayors about radon and what they can do to mitigate its harmful effects.

She also said CoP is now a stakeholder with CARST and is networking with Brascoupé to hold a public Zoom meeting.

Citizens of the Pontiac wants residents to protect themselves against a radioactive gas Read More »

Mustangs mount late comeback, stamp down Comets in Shawville home opener

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

The Pontiac Senior Comets’ first home opener in almost five years ended in a 6-4 loss to the South Stormont Mustangs on Sunday evening.

The team, which found a new league this season after a hiatus, held its opening game of the Eastern Ontario Senior Hockey League (EOSHL) season at the Shawville arena due to a mechanical failure at its usual rink, the Centre de Loisirs des Draveurs Century 21 Elite in Fort Coulonge.

The building was brimming with fans anxiously anticipating the team’s return to play. The Comets players were met with whoops and cheers from the crowd during pregame introductions, with special emphasis for assistant captain Quinn O’Brien and head captain Darcy Findlay, both of whom are native Pontiacers.

Before the game, MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller as well as mayors from Shawville, Clarendon, Fort Coulonge, and Mansfield and Pontefract were on hand for a ceremonial puck drop.

Then, the real puck drop. The Comets dominated possession of the puck in the first period, getting out to a quick 2-0 lead with goals from Keyshawn Francis and Dominic Jalbert.

The second period saw one goal from each team, putting the Comets ahead 3-1 heading into the final frame. Then, the Mustangs started to mount a third-period comeback, scoring a burst of five goals, including two in the final six minutes, to win the game 6-4.

Team captain Darcy Findlay said his team gave up advantages to the Mustangs with bad line changes and poorly timed penalties, which allowed their opponents to take the lead.

“As soon as we gave them a powerplay or two, we gave them that momentum, which allowed them to have confidence,” he said.

Head coach Luc Danis said they made some mistakes in the third period, but acknowledged the Mustangs’ experience was what allowed them to come back.

“We’re still a young team, we’re still learning to play with each other,” he said, adding that the chemistry will come as the season progresses.

Findlay said despite the loss the team is going to take the positives out of today’s game, including improving team chemistry with the team’s core group of players.

“We’re very excited for what’s going to come. Every week is going to get better, the speed is going to get faster, everyone’s physical shape is going to get better, and then of course team chemistry starts to build,” he said.

Findlay, who last played competitive hockey with the Comets in the 2019-2020 season, said it was nice to be back on the ice, especially in front of the Shawville hometown crowd.

“In the unfortunate circumstances we’re making the best we can,” he said of the last-minute venue change, adding that they are trying to find ways to involve the entire Pontiac community.

In addition to adding new sponsors from the Shawville area, the team distributed free tickets to all local schools this week in hopes of gaining some new fans.

The team had two flagbearers at Sunday’s game, one from each minor hockey association in the Pontiac. Ozzie Carmichael of the Shawville and District Minor Hockey Association and Nathan Belair of Hockey mineure Fort Coulonge skated around the rink carrying Comets flags, getting fans pumped up for player introductions.

Findlay said they hope to do more things like this to get local kids involved, including bringing minor teams out to line up with the Comets for the national anthem.

The Comets have now lost three of their last four games, putting them in fourth place in the Capital division.

The team will play the Glengarry Pipers on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. in Shawville.

Mustangs mount late comeback, stamp down Comets in Shawville home opener Read More »

New show choir gives kids a chance to find meaning through music

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Last Monday evening, long after the last bell had gone and students were off to their extracurriculars, a group of 20 or so kids aged seven to 15 gathered in the Pontiac High School auditorium to hone their singing chops.

Their director was none other than Pontiac High School teacher Phil Holmes, who stood at the front of the auditorium urging the young singers, “Sing from your diaphragm!”

Holmes has directed 18 high school musical theatre productions and spent hundreds of hours offering private music lessons to Outaouais youth. A graduate of the University of Ottawa’s vocal performance program, he’s widely sought after for his singing expertise.

This fall, he and his wife Alina Holmes have turned their attention to a new musical endeavour – the creation of the Pontiac Youth Show Choir – where the next generation of Pontiac prodigies can hone their own chops.

According to Phil, who grew up in Shawville in a time when most singing groups were church choirs, this new show choir is the first of its kind in the Pontiac. He said a show choir is in many ways the opposite of a church choir. Active, dynamic, and upbeat, it’s more akin to musical theatre.

“A show choir is fast, fun, up-tempo music, and it’s more than just standing,” Phil said. “It’s a performance, it’s a show. There’s movement, there’s choreography, hopefully costumes.”

Phil and Alina, who manages the behind-the-scenes business for the choir such as registrations, had talked about starting a show choir for a few years, but with two kids now interested in joining the choir, the couple decided the time had finally come to actually do it.

Phil said rehearsals, which have been going on in the PHS auditorium since mid-September, are going well, and that the kids are getting more comfortable singing and dancing. “A lot of these kids don’t have a background in dance,” he said.

Last Monday’s rehearsal began with Phil leading the kids through dynamic vocal warm-ups, enunciation exercises and full-body stretches. Then, once everyone was nice and loose he led the kids through their repertoire of songs, which he has arranged according to the kids’ strengths and abilities. Selections range from pop music from artists such as Coldplay and Imagine Dragons, to more traditional songs, like sea shanties.

On this particular day it was the sea shanty that was giving the kids trouble. Phil urged the kids to sing louder, with the gut and gusto of a salty sailor. “Sing with your diaphragm!”

A student of the art of singing, he knows what he’s talking about. Singing from the diaphragm, instead of the chest, creates a deeper, fuller sound, helping singers project their voices further.

The kids listen to his advice. “Better!” he said.

Phil might be dealing with a choir full of kids, but he takes it seriously, even issuing a challenge to his young singers: “Being good at singing is going to be hard,” he said. “You’re going to have to work at this.”

Phil has seen firsthand the impact music can have on young people’s lives. He said programs like the show choir are there to help kids find their passion — especially if that passion doesn’t happen to be sports.

“We have a fantastic hockey program [in Shawville], fantastic athletics, but not every child wants to play a sport. But every child is born with something inside of them that they will love,” he said.

Alina, who has a university degree in music as well, also discovered music at a young age, which she said helped her overcome a lot of challenges.

“Socially, I had a difficult time with bullying, with other things going on, and I really struggled with that. And it was only when I found music and I found that space that the rest of it didn’t matter as much anymore. Because I had somewhere I could go where I had people that got me,” she said.

Alina said in addition to her husband being from the music community, two of her best friends are as well. She hopes the choir can help these kids find meaningful connections through music, just as she was able to.

“We want to make sure that we are creating these spaces. [ . . . ] We need to provide as many opportunities as possible for kids to find their space where they belong, whatever that means to them.”

Nathalie Vallée signed her daughter Maggie up for the choir because the girl is interested in K-pop and wants to learn how to sing. Vallée and her partner were looking for singing lessons as far as Aylmer, but when they found the show choir they jumped on the opportunity.

“I thought it would be perfect to possibly help her sing, but also give her confidence in singing in the fact that her voice was mixed in with other voices,” Vallée said.

“I also wanted her to meet other people that love to sing,” she said.

Michelle Hitchen said her daughter Mia is always singing around the house, and even asked for singing lessons, so when she heard about the choir it was a no-brainer.

“She is enjoying it,” she said. “It’s great to see a program like this offered as an after-school activity.”

Phil and Alina have two kids, Mason and Amélie, in the choir, and the family is using the rehearsals as an opportunity to spend some quality family time together, despite what can be a busy schedule.

“We run a lot of various community events and organizations and what we have chosen to work on definitely has shifted over the years based on our childrens’ interests,” Alina said, adding that for them, spending time as a family is the number one priority.

She said that while Phil doesn’t like to toot his own horn, with him the kids are getting a world-class musical education.

“These kids don’t even know it because they’re just having a blast, but they are getting an absolute professional teacher, someone that is totally sought after,” she said.

“People are calling him constantly trying to hire him and he’s often saying no, he’s too busy, and this is the type of thing he’s too busy doing [ . . . ] This is where his heart is, and this is where he’s going to spend his time.”

Phil said he eventually hoped to take the choir on the road and perform in different locations. But first, he said, there’s lots of work to be done.

“We are only going to perform if we sound good as a group,” he said to the kids at rehearsal. “Who’s ready to work?”

“Me!” was the unanimous response from the choir.

New show choir gives kids a chance to find meaning through music Read More »

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