The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph

Former board member sues St. Lawrence

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / August 12, 2025 / CEGEP Champlain-St. Lawrence, Quebec City, Ruby Pratka

Former board member sues St. Lawrence

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

A former member of the CEGEP Champlain-St. Lawrence establishment board is suing the CEGEP, director of studies Edward Berryman and human resources director Lyne Larivière amid al- legations of psychological harassment, the QCT learned on Aug. 10. The case was filed in Quebec Superior Court on July 22 and will be heard as soon as the court’s schedule permits.

Helen Walling joined the CEGEP’s establishment board in 2016 and became board chair in September 2020. She said that in January 2022, she received an email saying she and several colleagues were being investigated for psychological harassment. She was later told she was being investigated for harassment against the school’s management team, most of whom she had never met due to pandemic-era work-from-home guidelines. She learned of the specific allegations against her in April of that year.

A third-party consulting firm, Latitude Management, was hired to investigate the allegations against Walling and her colleagues; Walling said that in November 2022, Anaïs Lacroix, a lawyer working for the consulting firm, told her she had been cleared of the allegations against her. She left the board at the end of that month.

Walling said Berryman never told her his concerns before she was accused of harass- ment, and that the 14 allegations related to “banal” differences of opinion. “As board chair, I’m asking questions. If you’re not happy, let’s have a conversation. I never knew he was this upset,” she told the QCT. “Had he said, ‘Helen, I just need to talk to you,’ this never would have gone anywhere.”

In the 11 months between when she learned of the allegations and when she left the board, Walling, who was serving in a volunteer capacity while running a life coaching business and completing a PhD, said her professional life and her health were impacted by the stress. She is suing the CEGEP, Berryman and Larivière for approximately $80,000, including $30,000 for the financial impact of missed work.

The QCT was unable to obtain the full court filing before press time on Monday.

Three cases

Walling’s case is the second of three ongoing legal cases of which the QCT is aware, involving alleged psychological harassment by Berryman and Larivière against former teachers or board members. The first such case, involving longtime teacher Lisa Birch, went before the province’s labour tribunal in early 2024. In that case, arbitrator Julie Blouin ruled that the college had failed to ensure a psychologically safe work environment for Birch. Blouin’s ruling lays out a sequence of events similar to what Walling said happened in her own case. In January 2022, Birch was told she was being investigated for psychological harassment. In response, she filed three grievances alleging psychological harassment towards her and failure to ensure a safe workplace. She alleged that the college never made clear what she was accused of, and subjected her to a drawn-out investigation including no-contact protocols that isolated her from colleagues. She was also led to believe multiple people had filed complaints against her when only one person – Berryman – had. “The investigation should never have happened,” Blouin ruled. In June 2024, the college appealed the decision; as of this writing, the appeal has not been heard.

“Since the case before the court, we are saving our arguments for the hearing. The college will not give further comments,” the college said in a brief statement. It is rare for a defendant in a civil case to comment publicly while the case is pending.

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Historic: New combined English high school gets green light

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / August 6, 2025 / Central Québec School Board, Peter Black, Quebec City

Historic: New combined English high school gets green light

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

“For the anglophone population in Quebec, this is historic.”

Jean Robert, chairperson of the council of commissioners for the Central Québec School Board (CQSB), had just received a letter from Education Minister Bernard Drainville, authorizing the board to proceed with a call for tenders to build a brand new English high school to replace the antiquated buildings housing Quebec High School and St. Patrick’s High School.

The letter, dated July 23, is the latest and arguably the most important step in a process dating back to early 2017, when members of parents’ committees for both schools joined forces to push for a new combined school.

While there had been some troubling uncertainty in recent months as to whether the project – although well advanced in the planning and design phases and budgeted at “well over $200 million” – would be approved due to government spending re- strictions, Robert was convinced it would get the green light.

“I mean, it really is unbelievable. A new school in a time when there are budgetary concerns,” Robert said. “But the government believes in the fact that there is a need for a new modern school. It is really remarkable. It’s wonderful.”

He said, “I can only imagine how thrilled some of the future students and teachers and administrators will be.”

The new school, as presented at consultation sessions in fall 2022 with parents and other interested parties, will be a four-storey complex, organized into five learning zones with 40 classrooms, four gyms, eight art classrooms and seven science classrooms. There will also be ample outdoor sports and activity surfaces.

It will be designed to accommodate a maximum of 1,400 students, in anticipation of growing student populations at the two downtown high schools as well as Dollard-des-Ormeaux School in Shannon, whose secondary section would be closed and students transferred to the new facility.

The new school will be built on the site of the now-abandoned St. Vincent Elementary School on Avenue Wolfe, behind the Boul. Laurier commercial strip. It would be in close proximity to the city’s proposed tramway line.

When St. Vincent closed in spring 2024, students were relocated for the fall term to the brand new New Liverpool Elementary School in Lévis or to other CQSB schools on the North Shore.

Robert said according to the architects’ plan, construction could begin on the new building at the same time as the old one is being demolished.

Now that the board has the minister’s approval of the call for tenders, Robert said, “Every- thing is ready. We just have to push the button and the whole procedure starts.” The project will be managed by the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), which handles major government construction projects.

Although the target date for the opening of the new school is fall 2028, Robert said, “The truth is we’ll only really know about details and so on once we get the results from the tenders,” which could be received and analyzed by September or October of this year.

He said there is likely no issue concerning soil contamination, although it is known the St. Vincent building has asbestos insulation, so demolition will be more methodical and hence more costly.

Once construction actually begins, the expected construction period would be two years. Robert said that although the school building is a relatively large one, it is a standard project and could interest many general contractors. He said the “timing is good” to get such a project off the ground.

A complication to the choice of the St. Vincent site is that it required additional land to accommodate the size of school desired. Three separate transactions involving the federal government, the Ville de Québec and the Centre des services scolaire des Découvreurs needed to be resolved. Part of the deal with the city is an agreement that local residents will have access to school facilities such as gymnasiums and sports fields.

Robert, the former director of CEGEP Champlain-St. Law- rence, who spearheaded the amphitheatre expansion there, drew a comparison with the new high school project. “We’re always kind of shy [about asking for things from the government], but the fact is that the English community deserved a new school and deserves something that we can be proud of and we’re certainly going to be proud of this one.”

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School board reform was spark for new combined English high school

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / August 6, 2025 / Central Québec School Board, Peter Black, Quebec City

School board reform was spark for new combined English high school

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

The green light for the construction of a new English secondary school from Education Minister Bernard Drainville, to quote Winston Churchill, marks “the end of the beginning” of a journey that dates back nearly 30 years.

Quoting Churchill may be appropriate in that he was British prime minister in 1941, when Quebec High School first opened its doors. St. Patrick’s High School, which had its start in the Old City in 1843, has been in its current building since 1918, with an expansion in 1957.

The basic motivation for the project to ditch the two aging schools located within a few blocks of each other in the Montcalm district – once the heart of a thriving anglophone community – dates back to 1997, when confessional school boards were replaced with language-based boards.

St. Patrick’s, previously with the Catholic school system, became a non-denominational school, though keeping some of its religious heritage, under the newly created Central Québec School Board (CQSB).

While there were proposals to integrate or rationalize programs between the two schools, they were inevitably foiled by the then-passionate rivalry between the partisans of the St. Pat’s Fighting Irish and the Quebec High School (QHS) Blazers.

That changed in early 2017, when frustrated parents from both schools got together and asked the question, “Where do you see our high schools in 50 years?”

Led by St. Pat’s rep Ian O’Gallagher and Jean-Luc Trahan from QHS, the parents told the board the schools were ready to put aside their rivalry to gain a modern school that could compete for students with the schools in the well- resourced French system.

A presentation the group prepared to make the case for a new school cited examples of how much more the modern high schools in the French system could offer students compared to the antiquated English schools.

A bottom-line concern was that many parents whose children attended English elementary schools were choosing to send them to French high schools because of the higher- quality facilities and programs.

The presentation said, “Between Grade 6 and Secondary I, the CQSB loses 10 to 20 per cent of eligible students to French private and public schools.”

Stephen Burke, then chair of the CQSB council of commissioners, seized the initiative to push forward what was called The Project. The board got lucky in that, by sheer serendipity, the minister of education at the time was Liberal Sébastien Proulx, in whose Jean-Talon riding the new school would be built.

Not only did Proulx grasp the need for a new English high school, he signed off on a brand new English elementary school in Lévis, which opened last year – he was invited to the ribbon-cutting. That move made the St. Vincent property on Avenue Wolfe available for the new high school.

Proulx stepped down in 2019 and Joëlle Boutin won the rid- ing in a byelection for the Coalition Avenir Québec. Boutin herself stepped down in 2023, and the riding is now held by Pascal Paradis of the Parti Québécois.

Current CQSB chairperson Jean Robert, who succeeded Burke last fall, said the strong support from the city’s English- speaking community was an important factor in moving the project forward. A series of consultations in the fall of 2022 bolstered the board’s belief in the new school.

Razvan Petre, the president of Voice of English-speaking Québec (VEQ), said in an email to the QCT: “We are extremely happy to learn that the project has finally received the green light to commence the bidding process. This is a very exciting project for our youth and our community. There is no doubt that this modern new building will contribute to our community’s vitality.”

If all goes according to plan and construction can be completed in the anticipated two years, the new school – yet to be named – would welcome the first students in fall 2028.

That means students enter- ing Secondary I at St. Pat’s and QHS this September would begin their Secondary IV at a brand-new, state-of-the-art English high school, as classmates, not rivals.

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Marchand: Jardin Jean-Paul-L’Allier repairs to be done in tandem with tramway

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / August 6, 2025 / Bruno Marchand, Peter Black, Quebec City, TramCité, Tramway de Québec

Marchand: Jardin Jean-Paul-L’Allier repairs to be done in tandem with tramway

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Freshly returned from vacation as the clock ticks down to the launch of the municipal election campaign, Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand counter- attacked on an issue that had been festering in his absence – the deterioration of Jardin Jean-Paul-L’Allier in the Saint-Roch district.

On July 30, at a City Hall news conference to announce the development of Place Namur in the Old City (see article in this edition), Marchand said that contrary to what critics say, the park in the heart of the district “has not been abandoned.”

An exposé in Le Soleil de- tailed the deterioration of the space opened in 1993, including the broken waterfall and fountains, the empty pool and the proliferation of graffiti and crumbling concrete.

“The garden is still in bloom, it’s beautiful, it’s well-maintained. But there are parts that need repair, and we’re going to do it,” the mayor said.

As for the waterfall, fountains and pool, the mayor said their mechanisms had worn out after more than 30 years of operation. He said restoring the waterfall is a major undertaking costing several million dollars.

“It certainly won’t be operational again for a few years. We need to give ourselves time to co-ordinate the tramway- related work in this area and assess its impact on the garden,” Marchand said.

The restoration work would be done, he said, well before the expected completion of the tramway in 2033, since it is in a sector where the tramway tunnel entrance would be constructed.

He said the work on the park’s waterfall and fountains “will be done in a sequence that will ensure that, for the taxpayer, the citizen, we will not have to do it three times.”

Marchand denied the deterioration of the garden was an insult to the former mayor for whom it is named. L’Allier’s widow, Johanne Mongeau, had been quoted in Le Soleil as deploring the decline in the park that had been the centrepiece of L’Allier’s revitalization of Saint-Roch.

“We will have a park worthy of the man to whom it was dedicated, but for which we will carry out the work in the right order,” Marchand said.

Sam Hamad, according to polls Marchand’s main rival for mayor, responded in a state- ment: “The Jean-Paul-L’Allier Garden is more than just a green space. It’s a symbol of pride, renewal, and heritage. Letting it wither year after year is an insult to Mr. L’Allier’s memory, but also a disavowal of the citizens of Saint-Roch.”

Hamad, leader of Leadership Québec and a former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister, said, “Instead of saying, ‘I heard you,’ the mayor tells them, ‘You misunderstood.’ Sometimes, certain issues can’t wait for the tramway. [Jardin] Jean- Paul-L’Allier is a place of life and collective memory. It must once again become a jewel, not a constant reminder of the challenges facing Saint-Roch.”

The garden, known as Jardin Saint-Roch when it opened, was renamed for L’Allier in 2017, a year after his death.

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City announces upgrades to Place de Namur to honour sister city

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / August 6, 2025 / Quebec City, Ruby Pratka, sister cities

City announces upgrades to Place de Namur to honour sister city

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

The Place de Namur public square in Lower Town will be expanded this year to mark the 25th anniversary of Quebec City’s sister-city relationship with Namur, Belgium, Mayor Bruno Marchand announced last week. The square is located at the intersection of Rue Saint-Nicolas, Rue des Vaisseaux-du-Roy and Côte de la Potasse, in the shadow of the ramparts, alluding to the fact that Namur is also a walled city. There’s also a public square called Place de Québec in the historic centre of Namur, and a pier named in honour of the Royal 22e Régiment.

“We are very pleased to launch the development of this public square near the ramparts, which echoes the shared history of the fortified cities of Namur and Quebec City,” said Marchand at a City Hall press conference on July 31, alongside Belgian deputy prime minister and former Namur mayor Maxime Prévôt, first alderwoman and acting mayor of Namur Anne Barzin and representatives from the Délégation Wallonie-Bruxelles. “This project is motivated by the strong ties that unite us with our sister city, but also by our desire to offer a more welcoming and safe place for citizens who travel in this area. It will also be an opportunity to underline the 40th anniversary of Quebec City’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“We will beautify an area that a lot of us pass through often to get to City Hall or Vieux-Québec or elsewhere from Lower Town, but that was unremarkable, and it will become a great Vieux- Québec landmark,” Marchand said. “Widened sidewalks, se- cure intersections, the addition of benches and the installation of public art: connecting the Gare du Palais to the Old City, the Place de Namur will make the trip more comfortable and fun for pedestrians, offering a shaded space to stop and rest on their way up the Côte du Palais.”

The square will be enlarged, and at least three trees and two outdoor art installations will be added. “We’re obviously very proud that you’ve honoured our city with this public square that we’ve seen the sketches for,” Barzin told Marchand at the press conference. The city of Namur will donate a touchable replica of a famous bas-relief, La Hure du Grognon, of which the original is at the Musée archéologique de Namur.

Place de Namur will also feature Confluence, a sculpture by Quebec City artist Danielle April. Designed specifically for this space, the sculpture evokes the many similarities between Namur and Quebec City, two French-speaking, fortified cities that developed at the conflu- ence of a river and a stream. It will incorporate place names shared by the two capitals, some of which are etched into the wavy lines of the 14 waves of the aluminum sculpture.

The upgrades to the public square and the installation of the two works of art are expected to cost the city about $900,000. Construction is expected to be complete in November 2025; trees will be planted in spring 2026 to put the finishing touches on the new square.

Barzin said that during the Belgian delegation’s visit to Quebec, they had visited Terrebonne, near Montreal, with which they also have a sister city relationship, and the small town of Namur in the Outaouais region. They also spoke with officials from the Quebec City library system, consulted Quebec City police about best practices for pedestrian streets, discussed heritage preservation and climate resilience with different groups, visited the Musée de la Civilisation and participated in cultural exchanges. “Our populations win when we learn from each other,” commented Marchand.

Namur is the capital of Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium; it is a city built around a medieval centre, with a population of about 112,000. It is one of eight cities with which Quebec City has sister-city relationships. The others are Paris, Bordeaux, Rennes and Nantes, France; San Antonio, Texas; Xi’an, China; and Calgary.

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Charlesbourg library to reopen after 10 months of renos

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / August 6, 2025 / librairies, Quebec City, Ruby Pratka

Charlesbourg library to reopen after 10 months of renos

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

The Paul-Aimé-Paiement Library in Charlesbourg will reopen on Aug. 10 after nearly a year of closure for extensive renovations, city officials announced at the end of July. The library closed in October 2024 for work including reconstruction of the foundation walls, restoration of brick walls, replacement and restoration of windows and rearrangement of the basement. The renovations cost the city a total of $9.2 million, city officials said in a statement.

The library will resume regular hours immediately after reopening: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The book return chute, located near the main entrance, will be accessible at all times starting Aug. 4.

Work will continue on the site after the library reopens to the public, through fall of this year. Some services may be temporarily affected this fall, including access to the indoor restrooms and exhibition hall, as well as some parking spaces. Visitors can also expect occasional construction noise.

In other public library news, officials announced that the Étienne-Parent Library in Beauport would close on Aug. 11 for several months while workers replace its ventilation system. It is expected to reopen in March 2026. The Ville de Québec communications and citizen relations department said the renovations, with an estimated cost of $1.5 million, were essential to keeping the building operational. More extensive renovations, first announced in 2023, which would more than double the size of the library, are still under study as of this writing.

While the library is closed, city officials said measures will be put in place to ensure service continuity and minimize impacts on library users. A temporary collection point for returns and reservations will be put in place at the Centre Sportif Marc-Simoneau starting Aug. 18. The hours of the Chemin-Royal Library will also be extended starting Aug. 18, and the document chute will remain accessible at all times.

For more information on Quebec City libraries, visit your local library or the public library system’s website (bibliothequesdequebec.qc.ca).

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Interpreter service helps patients, health professionals overcome language barriers

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / August 6, 2025 / CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale, language, Quebec City, Ruby Pratka

Interpreter service helps patients, health professionals overcome language barriers

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

If you speak limited French and you need help communicating with staff at a hospital or public clinic anywhere in the region, help is available. The Banque d’interprètes du réseau de la santé et des services sociaux (Health and Social Services Network interpreter bank) provides free interpretation at health facilities in more than 60 languages, including English. The CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale is trying to make the bank better known, after Santé Québec data suggested it was being underused by the English-speaking community.

Stéphanie Fiset, assistant establishment director at Jeffery Hale–Saint Brigid’s (JHSB), explained that when a communication issue arises at a hospital or clinic, a health professional can request an interpreter via an app. “There is still training to be done” to ensure all health professionals know how and when to use the bank, she said. However, the tools are in place, and facilities with a particularly large immigrant clientele, such as the Jeffery Hale refugee clinic, are used to using them.

Requests are made by a health professional on a secure online platform; they fill out a form explaining what the interpreter needs to do and whether they need to be present in person, over the phone or via videoconference. Although patients and caregivers can’t make a request themselves, they can ask the professional to make a request on their behalf.

Requests are made in advance of an appointment when possible, and about 70 per cent are in person. “We’re working on finding alternatives for situations [such as emergencies] when we can’t have an interpreter present quickly,” Fiset said. Strict requirements around data security mean AI and other technological tools need to be carefully considered before implementation. “We need to ensure that we use [technology] in the right way, at the right time and for the right reasons.”

In the past, Fiset added, health professionals didn’t necessarily ask for an interpreter when they came up against a language barrier, especially when the patient was English-speaking. “We say, ‘I listen to my shows in English. When I travel, I can get by in English, so I’m likely to be able to make myself understood. Or often, there will be someone with [the patient] who may be better at French, so we’ll rely on family. But we’re really trying to promote the use of [trained] interpreters.” She noted that an employee who’s comfortable doing basic intake in English may still need an interpreter to discuss complex health issues or informed consent with an English-speaking patient. “This is really what we’re working on, to help people better understand the circumstances in which to ask for an interpreter, and the importance of doing so as well.”

Directive brings clarity

In July 2024, the Quebec government issued a directive as part of the Bill 96 implementation process, laying out a list of situations where English and other languages could be used in health care. The directive alarmed advocates for access to services in English, who saw an attempt to restrict English in health care. A revised directive, published in September, clarified that a language other than French may be used whenever “the user or their representative requests it, expresses that they do not understand or do not seem to understand French, or according to the judgment of the [health professional].” It states that health professionals can communicate in English or another language with a patient or their representative if they’re able, or work with an interpretation service if they aren’t. It also clarifies when translated documents should be provided. If translations aren’t available, professionals need to find a way to provide the patient with the information in a language they understand.

JHSB establishment director Mélie De Champlain said the new directive “is actually a big help.

“It clarifies things, it gives us tools to get where we’re going and [see] how we can support people who want to have access to care in the language of their choice,” she said. “We are working much more on promot- ing it so that people know how they can access services in the language of their choice.”

“We always want users to communicate their needs. If you have a need [for an interpreter or for translated written information], communicate that to the professional working with you,” Fiset said.

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Critics say city neglect degrading Jardin Jean-Paul L’Allier

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 29, 2025 / Peter Black, Quebec City, Saint-Roch

Critics say city neglect degrading Jardin Jean-Paul L’Allier

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Pressure is mounting on the administration of Mayor Bruno Marchand to act immediately to address the serious deterioration of Jardin Jean-Paul L’Allier in Saint-Roch.

A report in Le Soleil last week on the state of the public garden sparked a torrent of criticism and accusations the park’s decline is a symptom of the neglect of the Saint-Roch district by city hall.

Named in 2017 for the late former mayor who led the effort to revitalize the Saint- Roch district, the park is in decrepit condition 30 years after it was opened.

The waterfall no longer works, nor the fountains in the pool; graffiti marks most surfaces; gardens and lawns are badly maintained and lighting is inadequate in the area.

The decline of the park has been a festering issue for the Saint-Roch neighbourhood council. President Thomas Brady told the QCT the topic has come up several times at meetings in recent months. He said Pierre-Luc Lachance, the city councillor for Saint-Roch–Saint-Sauveur and executive committee member, was in attendance at meetings when the state of the garden was discussed.

“We are aware of the concerns about the park. Its condition does not create a sense of welcome. The occasional problems here and there, the cohabitation issues and consumer waste make people less inclined to go there,” he said.

Brady said the council would be meeting after the summer break to come up with a formal request to the city to take action.

The QCT requested a response from the city and received this reply from Cédrik Verreault, a spokesperson for the mayor: “There’s no doubt the Jardin Jean-Paul L’Allier is a central, even emblematic, location in Saint-Roch. However, after more than 30 years, some of its infrastructure, such as the fountain, needs to be replaced. And it’s only right to co-ordinate this work with the other major investments planned in the area, which will, among other things, help restore the garden to its former splendour.

“In the meantime, we are already working with the neighbourhood council, organizations and merchants to develop a broader vision for beautifying and revitalizing our city centre. We will announce the prioritized actions in the fall.”

The “other major investments planned in the area” is a reference to the tramway project. Jardin Jean-Paul L’Allier is slated to be a major station on the tramway route, the point where the train would enter a tunnel to climb to Upper Town.

The garden, formerly called Jardin Saint-Roch, is considered a symbol of L’Allier’s efforts during his 16 years as mayor to revitalize what had become a rundown neighbourhood, featuring a block-long mall that covered some distinctive architecture.

Le Soleil contacted L’Allier’s widow, Johanne Mongeau, for her reaction to the decline of the garden. “It’s an honour that the city has given him by naming it after him, and now it’s almost a pity. It’s embarrassing to say that it bears his name. Jean-Paul doesn’t deserve this,” she told the newspaper. “It’s a respect that we owe him, and for now, we can’t say that it lives up to the respect he deserves.”

Opposition and Québec d’Abord Leader Claude Villeneuve convened a press conference at the park on July 23. He said, “The state of the garden is a symbol of the Marchand administration’s abandonment of Saint-Roch.” Villeneuve said the tramway work is still years away, so the city should act now. “I’m calling for mobilization. I want the city to do its job. I call on the administration; if the mayor isn’t interested in this part of the city, let the administration take care of it.”

Another of Marchand’s mayoral rivals, Leadership Québec chief and former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Sam Hamad, issued a statement saying: “What I see today in the Jean-Paul-L’Allier garden is a symbol of abandonment. The heart of Saint-Roch is beating slowly, and the March- and administration is looking the other way. When such an emblematic place for our city deteriorates to this extent, it is more than just a lack of maintenance: it is a clear signal that the city has lost sight of what makes our neighbourhoods so rich.”

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School boards to seek injunction against spending restrictions

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 29, 2025 / Bernard Drainville, Bill 40, Central Québec School Board, Education, Jean Robert, Joe Ortona, QESBA, Ruby Pratka, school boards

School boards to seek injunction against spending restrictions

Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

The organization representing Quebec’s nine English school boards may take the Quebec govern- ment to court if it doesn’t loosen restrictions on how the boards can allocate funding.

Earlier this summer, the Quebec government announced $570 million in across-the-board cuts to fund- ing for schools. On July 19, amid a growing public outcry, Education Minister Bernard Drainville announced that the government would reallocate $540 million to be distributed among French-language school service centres, English boards and eligible private schools, on the condition that the institutions “show that efforts are being made to reduce administrative costs, and ensure the money goes to student services only.” School boards have been told they cannot dip into surplus funds or run budget deficits in order to further cushion the impact of the cuts.

“It is misleading when the government announces that the cuts are being walked back,” Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) president Joe Ortona told the QCT. “They maintained the cuts and then said, ‘We’ll put new money into education, but in order for you to be eligible for this money, there are hurdles in place that are difficult for school boards to meet.’ The government has been clear that we’re not allowed to use our own surplus money which we have accumulated through our own careful management … which is absurd.”

QESBA intends to mandate law firm Power Law to “challenge the validity” of the budgetary restrictions and request an injunction blocking their application. The Central Québec School Board (CQSB) has passed a resolution supporting QESBA’s decision.

QESBA and its nine member boards, including the CQSB, are currently in a drawn-out court battle with the Quebec government over Bill 40, the 2020 law which transformed French-language school boards into government-run service centres; if fully applied to English boards, it would legislate them out of existence. In April of this year, a Quebec appeals court panel upheld an earlier Superior Court ruling that found that abolishing elected school boards and replacing them with service centres would infringe on the English-speaking community’s Charter right to manage its own schools. Ortona and Jean Robert, the chair of the CQSB Council of Commissioners, argue that the legal precedent in that case — over which the Quebec government intends to appeal to the Supreme Court — strengthens the school boards’ case for an injunction blocking spending restrictions.

“If we accept [these restrictions], we are accepting that we don’t have a say in what happens in our schools,” Robert said. “The fact that there were adjustments [to the cuts initially announced] doesn’t change our resolve to say that the Constitution protects us.”

Ortona said there has been no communication or collaboration from Drainville’s office regarding the school boards’ concerns. “We have made it very clear that these cuts with the hurdles and parameters are unconstitutional and a violation of the Bill 40 judgment that says the government cannot micromanage our finances,” said Ortona. “He has not acknowledged these letters – we have received no reply of any kind. Their mind is made up – they have made it clear that they are not allowing us to use surplus money. We have been clear that that is unconstitutional.”

Ortona said the most recent cuts would still require boards to make difficult decisions about “sports programs, music programs, child psychologists, speech therapists, childcare workers, cutting teacher positions and overcrowding classrooms.”

Robert said CQSB personnel are still figuring out how the cuts may affect services. “You could not ask for a worse time for us to redo all of this work,” he said. “If we had access to our surplus, we would say we’ll give ourselves time to make the changes next year, but now we’re being asked to make changes [for a second time] while everyone is on holiday … and that is unreasonable.”

Education Ministry spokesperson Bryan St-Louis said the financial statements of school school boards and service centres have been consolidated with those of the government. Consequently, “any surplus or deficit incurred by a school board affects the government’s financial position. ”

“The [previous] surplus appropriation rule was intended to allow a service centre or board to run a deficit up to the permitted appropriation limit, without having to apply to the ministry,” he explained. “For the 2025-2026 school year, it was decided to review the appropriation rule in order to limit the increase in education portfolio spending, in line with the budgetary context.”

School boards to seek injunction against spending restrictions Read More »

‘Huge potential’ in commuter rail link from QC to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré: Blair

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 29, 2025 / Charlevoix, David Blair, Peter Black, Quebec City, rail service

‘Huge potential’ in commuter rail link from QC to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré: Blair

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Only a few months after getting the financially troubled Chemin de fer Charlevoix (CFC) tourist train back on the rails, company president and transportation lawyer David Blair is working on a plan to bring commuter train service to the east of the city using the same tracks.

“The tracks are already there,” Blair told the QCT. “Tomorrow morning we could run a train from [the] Gare du Palais to Sainte-Anne de Beaupré. It wouldn’t go very fast, but the rail infrastructure is there.”

The main shareholder of CFC, Groupe Le Massif, the owners of the ski resort in Charlevoix, also owns the 150-kilometre-long right of way from Quebec City to Clermont along the Saint Lawrence River, what Blair describes as “one of the most beautiful railway lines in North America.”

The key to the plan, Blair said, is to upgrade the track to be able to increase the speed of the train from the current 30 km/h to 60 km/h, making it much more attractive to potential commuter traffic.

Blair said he has already met and had positive responses from potential players in such a project, including Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault, Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand, VIA Rail, and officials from Canadian National (CN) which controls the tracks entering the Gare du Palais.

Another key player, Blair said, could be the Commission de la Capitale Nationale du Québec (CCNQ) which recently unveiled ambitious plans for Phase 4 of the Promenade Samuel-De Champlain waterfront redevelopment in the Beauport area. “It would be a perfect time to be part of that,” Blair said.

He also sees an interconnection between the commuter train and the eventual Phase 2 of the tramway project which foresees a line to D’Estimauville.

At the moment, CFC uses only the section of the tracks from a station for the tourist train at Montmorency Falls with stops at Sainte-Anne-de- Beaupré, Petite-Rivière-Saint- François, Baie Saint-Paul, Les Éboulements, Saint-Irénée and La Malbaie.

Blair said some 90,000 passengers took the tourist train last year, but the attraction ran into financial problems and there was a serious risk the train would not operate this season. A partnership with tourism company Groupe Voyages Québec, which took over management of train packages, allowed the excursion to start up operations again in June.

Blair said. “Everyone thinks it’s a good idea,” but the project, which he acknowledges is “an embryonic idea,” needs financing and partners. He said the plan would need “some kind of equivalent” to the Exo public transit operator in Montreal, which manages commuter trains and bus routes.

A city spokesperson said, “We have indeed had constructive discussions with the developer. We remain open to studying projects that help combat congestion in the greater Quebec City area.” Another key partner, Blair said, could be the Quebec ministry of transport which has “invested heavily to upgrade infrastructure” on the railways it owns, notably the Gaspé line and the former Quebec Central Railway line from Lévis to Thetford Mines (see article in this edition). Blair said the commuter train project, as preliminary as it is, would be but the first of other possible uses for an upgraded line. “If we get the speed up, all of a sudden taking a train from downtown Quebec to the ski hill would be a different perspective.”

He said, “The guy from VIA Rail was so excited” when discussing possibilities for new rail ventures. “This is fantastic. You could get off the train from Montreal, cross the platform and get on the train for Charlevoix.”

Blair said, “In order for the tracks to be viable, we really need to find other uses for them. There’s potential there, huge potential.”

Blair said he hopes to meet again with CN Rail in the coming weeks to discuss how to move forward with the plan.

‘Huge potential’ in commuter rail link from QC to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré: Blair Read More »

Bid issues delay Quebec Central Railway upgrade

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 29, 2025 / Beauce, Lévis, Peter Black, rail, rail refurbishment, rail service, Thetford Mines

Bid issues delay Quebec Central Railway upgrade

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

While a project to bring a commuter train to the east of Quebec City could be several years away, another railway rehabilitation project in the region is well underway, but with an unexpected delay.

Postponements in the tendering process have forced a delay in work to upgrade a section of the Quebec Central Railway line between Vallée-Jonction and Thetford Mines.

Initially slated to be completed this fall, the delay may push the reopening of the line to 2027, according to a report in Beauce Média.

The project involves the third and fourth sections over a distance of 58 kilometres, the last two portions of the plan to rehabilitate 109 km of track from Lévis to Thetford Mines, for the use of predominantly cargo traffic.

The Quebec Central Railway was built in 1869 and ran from Lévis to Sherbrooke and then into the United States, a total distance of 344 km.

The Quebec government bought the line in 2007 with the aim of providing a more environmentally friendly alternative to truck cargo traffic. The first section of the project, the 33 km from Lévis to Scott, is already in operation.

The second section, the 18 km from Scott to Vallée-Jonction, is also well advanced, with five bridges rebuilt and a portion in operation between Sainte-Marie and Vallée-Jonction.

The last two sections are the most complicated and most expensive, at an estimated $440 million. The work involves, according to transport ministry information, the reconstruction of 17 bridges, replacing 102 culverts, complete reprofiling of the tracks and rebuilding 40 level crossings.

Transport ministry spokesperson Nicolas Vigneault told Beauce Média that tenders, initially called for February, were postponed until July. “These postponements were necessary, due, among other things, to the numerous questions received from bidders.”

According to the report, “Given this change to the tendering procedure, the ministry now expects work to begin in the fall of 2025. Work will be interrupted during the winter season, with commissioning scheduled for 2027.”

The Quebec government also owns the Gaspé rail line. Work to bring that line back into service after years of abandonment has been delayed due to cost issues and other complications until at least 2027.

(Editors’ note: For further information about the Gaspé rail renovations and efforts to bring passenger rail service back to the Gaspé, read this recent story by our colleagues at the Gaspé Spec.)

Bid issues delay Quebec Central Railway upgrade Read More »

Arts Alive! Québec to bring festive vibes to Morrin Centre

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 29, 2025 / canadian heritage, Morrin Centre, Quebec City, Ruby Pratka

Arts Alive! Québec to bring festive vibes to Morrin Centre

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

On Aug. 15 and 16, the courtyard of the Morrin Centre will come alive for Arts Alive!, the library and cultural centre’s annual celebration of local English-language arts and culture. The 11th edition of the festival will have a “heroes” theme, to fit in with the Morrin Centre’s ongoing summer Book Quest activities for grade school children.

Cultural programming co- ordinator Noora Heiskanen explained that the theme was chosen because it was inspiring and cut across different genres of children’s literature. “There is so much variety and diversity … and you can be a hero in so many different ways.” Heiskanen said a series of fun games and challenges would be organized for kids and adults, and participants would be able to take pictures of themselves atop the “hero podium.”

On the afternoon of Aug. 15, the festivities will open with a multidisciplinary art installation in College Hall in partnership with the UNESCO City of Literature network, where participants will be able to listen to and interact with recorded poetry and write some of their own. That evening, the Marie Desneiges duo (traditional Québécois accordion and fiddle melodies with a dash of classical and blues) and local bluegrass, ragtime and jazz manouche icon Bosko Baker will perform from 6 to 8 p.m., while local visual artist Elbé (Laurence Bélanger) creates a painting inspired by the music, in front of the audience.

The second day of the festival will feature a special edition of storytime for children aged three to seven, a body percus- sion and gumboot (South African clogging) performance for all ages and live music by the festive bands Fanfaronetta and Vent du Sud, who will fill Vieux- Québec with their Balkan- and Latin-inspired rhythms in a street fair atmosphere. There will also be performing arts workshops, including a theatre workshop led by Michael Bourguignon of the Quebec Art Company, Heiskanen said. The traditional artisan fair will also return to the Chaussée des Écossais, with several local artists and craftspeople – including visual artists, ceramicists and a weaver of traditional sashes – on hand to present, share and sell their art. “There’s something for everybody, there really is, no matter your age or background,” Heiskanen said.

The festival began more than a decade ago as one of several similar events around the province, organized by the English Language Arts Network (ELAN) to highlight locally produced English-language arts and culture in Quebec City, the Outaouais, the Eastern Townships and the greater Montreal area. When the ELAN program ended, the Morrin Centre “repatriated” the Quebec City festival and now organizes Arts Alive! annually with support from the federal government and corporate sponsors including Desjardins and Quebecor. Putting a new spin on the festival, which began as a celebration of local anglophone arts and culture, festival organizers are counting on the universal language of instrumental music to celebrate local English-language creativity while creating connections between anglophone and francophone communities, locals and tourists and people from different parts of the city. “I’m already dreaming of seeing everybody dancing and mov- ing around with the marching band!” Heiskanen enthused.

All events at the Arts Alive! festival are free. In the event of rain, concerts, workshops and the artisans’ fair will be moved inside the Morrin Centre. Reservations are not required. The library will remain open during the festival, and guided tours will be ongoing at the usual price. Heiskanen cautioned that parking in the Old City may be a challenge.

Arts Alive! Québec to bring festive vibes to Morrin Centre Read More »

Montreal museum sheds light on Quebec vet’s eventful career

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 29, 2025 / Ruby Pratka

Montreal museum sheds light on Quebec vet’s eventful career

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Open a drawer at a small Montreal military museum and you may discover a little-known piece of Quebec City anglophone history.

The Royal Montreal Regiment (RMR) Museum is inside the regiment’s headquarters on Sainte-Catherine St. West in Westmount. The museum’s compact, bilingual permanent exhibition tells the story of the first bilingual regiment in Canadian military history, composed of both English- and French-speaking divisions at its founding on the eve of the First World War. Rows of perfectly preserved uniforms, medals, medical kits, weapons and other artifacts, many of which were given to the museum by veterans and their families, trace the unit’s history from the First World War to 20th-century peacekeeping missions and involvement in Afghanistan.

Throughout the exhibit, drawers and captions highlight the stories of specific soldiers. One of these soldiers is Maj. William Jeffrey Holliday, who was born in Quebec City in 1877 and grew up on Avenue des Érables – or Maple Avenue, as it was then known – in the Montcalm district. In 1898, he joined the Quebec Bulldogs hockey team, becoming a local hero in 1901 as the captain of the second-string team, explained RMR Museum assistant curator Amynte Egun.

He and a few of his teammates interrupted their hockey careers to serve in the British Army in the Boer War in South Africa. Repatriated with an injury, Holliday, who held a day job as a ship’s purser, recovered sufficiently well to get back to playing hockey. In 1904, Holliday’s last year on the team, the Bulldogs won the Canadian Amateur Hockey League title, the equivalent of the Stanley Cup at the time. He returned to active duty with the RMR in the First World War, dying at the age of 40 in a French military hospital of injuries suffered at Vimy Ridge.

All of this, Egun and curator Ron Zemancik explained, came to light thanks to a box of artifacts bequeathed to the museum by a nephew of Holliday’s in Kingston, Ont. The box contained several of Holliday’s letters home, along with clippings from the Quebec Chronicle, a predecessor of the QCT, chronicling Holliday’s achievements on the ice and on the battlefield. Holliday’s last letter home, dictated to a nurse, a memorial scroll bearing the signature of King George V, and a wristwatch salvaged from the battlefield complete the exhibit.

Zemancik, a lifelong Montrealer and military history buff in his 70s, and Egun, a recent graduate of the Université de Montréal museology master’s program who grew up in Nova Scotia and studied in Europe, may look like an unlikely duo at first glance, but they’re united by a shared passion for military history and for keeping the memories of Holliday and his comrades alive. The artifacts on display at the museum barely scratch the surface of what has been given to the RMR museum over the years. Egun estimates that they have “five years of boxes” of donated archives waiting to be fully catalogued, with dozens of stories like Holliday’s inside. “I want to do a few of these [exhibit drawers] with a few different people from different backgrounds,” she said. “It’s always interesting to realize that they were just like us – they just didn’t have the same technology.”

“The way I see it is, no one is left to remember them except for us,” Zemancik said. “So let’s do it.”

The Royal Montreal Regiment Museum is open on Tuesdays from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m, other days by appointment, and whenever the sign is out. Access to the exhibit is free. Much of the exhibit’s collection has been digitized online at rmrmuseum.com/our-collection. To learn more, email info@rmrmuseum.com or call 514- 496-2003 ext. 2328.

Montreal museum sheds light on Quebec vet’s eventful career Read More »

American preacher-singer moves concert to Montreal after Quebec City pulls permit

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 29, 2025 / freedom of expression, Quebec City, Ruby Pratka, Sean Feucht, secularism

American preacher-singer moves concert to Montreal after Quebec City pulls permit

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

An American singer and preacher known for inflammatory statements against abortion, gay and transgender rights, pandemic-era public health restrictions and the principle of separation of church and state was unable to perform at ExpoCité last week after the Ville de Québec revoked a permit for the performance over hate speech concerns.

Sean Feucht, who rose to prominence in American evangelical circles in 2020 by holding crowded revivals in open defiance of COVID-19 restrictions, was supposed to hold a free outdoor event at ExpoCité on July 25 as part of a wider Canadian tour. However, the city pulled the plug two days beforehand.

“The presence of a controversial artist was not mentioned in the contract between ExpoCité and the promoter of the concert scheduled for its site this Friday. With the new information brought to its attention, ExpoCité has decided to terminate the contract and therefore the holding of the event on its site,” the city said in a brief statement.

A city official said the permit was granted to a third-party promoter who paid and signed a rental agreement to use the space, as is standard practice. They added that Feucht was not named on the rental agreement, and the city was initially unaware of who Feucht was. They said they were not in a position to comment further because the issue could end up in court. Similar concert-revivals which Feucht planned to hold on public property in Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton and Vaughan, Ont., were also cancelled or moved to friendlier venues – often evangelical churches – after local officials pulled permits.

After the ExpoCité cancellation, Feucht moved the concert to an evangelical church in Montreal. The City of Montreal slapped the church, Église MR, with a $2,500 fine for hosting an unauthorized show. In a brief exchange with a Radio-Canada reporter, Feucht said he considered the event a church service rather than a concert, “and I don’t think you need a permit to worship inside a church.”

Feucht, a vocal supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, has referred to members of the LGBTQ+ community and those who advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusion and visibility as “groomers,” compared people who are in favour of access to abortion to “demons” and spoken out against state secularism, call- ing for the fusion of church and state.

“ExpoCité is a place where neighbourhood families gather; it’s an open space where a beautiful diversity of citizens come together to enjoy themselves in the park. Hate speech and intolerance have no place here,” said Limoilou Coun. Jackie Smith, whose riding includes ExpoCité. “The city should not make its spaces available to propaganda groups that insult our communities and seek to divide us based on our identities. We don’t want this hatred in our neighbourhoods.”

In a later interview, she acknowledged that deciding who can and cannot perform on public land according to their ideology is “an incredibly slippery slope,” but said it was important for public officials to take a stand against hate speech. “You don’t want to be accused of censorship or cancel culture, but at the same time, you want to create a public space that’s safe for everybody, so you need to make choices. Do we want to open up publicly funded spaces to allow people who are encouraging the violation of other people’s human rights?”

“As elected officials, we’re not allowed to use public spaces for partisan political activities,” she added. “This guy [Feucht] has a political message that I would describe as hateful, so the same rules need to apply to him and others like him.”

The Régroupement des femmes de la Capitale-Nationale, a feminist group that had been among the first to criticize plans for a Feucht concert on city land, said they were “not against freedom of expression” but believed the city had “made the right decision” by following in the footsteps of other Canadian cities and revoking the permit. “We invite [cities] to show more vigilance in the future.”

In a Facebook post on July 28, Feucht said he had returned to the U.S., and listed dates for events in several U.S. cities from Aug. 8-17. “Then back to Canada,” he wrote, using a Canadian flag emoji.

American preacher-singer moves concert to Montreal after Quebec City pulls permit Read More »

Quebec City, Lévis in cleanup mode after flooding

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 23, 2025 / Cassandra Kerwin, climate, extreme weather, Lévis, Quebec City, Ruby Pratka

Quebec City, Lévis in cleanup mode after flooding

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Photos by Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

Residents and business owners around the region are still in cleanup mode after close to 100 millimetres of rain fell in some areas of Quebec City and Lévis on July 17 and 18.

Environment Canada meteorologist Steven Flisfeder described the weather event as a succession of slow-moving summer storms which slammed parts of the city over the course of several hours. “Every storm is different. A run-of-the-mill summer storm would have a downpour over the course of 30 to 60 minutes, and then it would be over, but here we ran into a situation where it’s one after the other,” he told the QCT. The Lévis suburb of Charny received 93 millimetres of rain in a single day, and 87 millimetres were measured in Sainte-Foy.

The hardest-hit area was along Chemin du Foulon, in Sillery, where about 20 people were forced to evacuate, and placed in temporary housing by the Red Cross. Allison McCan, who lives in the neighbourhood, told Radio-Canada she and her neighbours were “in the muck as far as it goes.” Along Rue Champlain, near Cap-Blanc, more than 100 people had to temporarily leave their homes due to water infiltration. By Friday afternoon, all evacuees were able to return to their homes.

Chemin du Foulon was closed between Côte de Sillery and Côte à Gignac until Friday. Avenue Belvedère remained closed from Chemin Sainte-Foy to Côte de la Pente-Douce as of press time on Monday; police are asking cyclists who normally use the Belvedère bike path to detour via Ave. Chouinard. The Escalier du Cap-Blanc, threatened by erosion, remains closed until further notice. Much of the region was without power at the height of the storm, although power has since been fully restored, according to the Hydro-Québec outage tracker.

The city did not hold a press briefing on the storm or its aftermath, but released several statements over the course of the storm. City spokesperson François Moisan said a crisis response unit had been put in place with representatives from the city and emergency services, and plans were made to house evacuees in community centres – plans that ultimately weren’t necessary.

“As soon as the crisis unit was activated, all municipal departments involved swung into action to limit the impact on the population and provide assistance to affected residents and businesses,” said Mayor Bruno Marchand in a state- ment. “I would obviously like to thank the city’s teams for their remarkable work. I am thinking, among others, of the firefighters, police officers and municipal employees, particularly those from the Bureau de la sécurité civile, des transports et des travaux publics, who were deployed to the field at full speed and who were already working late yesterday to clear and clean the streets where traffic had to be restricted. Our priority in the coming days remains supporting citizens and restoring damaged streets and infrastructure.”

“As soon as the first alerts were received, we activated our public safety plan. Our teams were dispatched to ensure the safety of citizens and limit the impacts. We have the resources and teams necessary to respond to this type of situation and adjust quickly,” said Jean-Sébastien Gagnon, public safety co-ordinator at the Ville de Lévis.

Small businesses in Vieux-Québec were still in cleanup mode as the QCT went to press Monday evening. “The flooding had a significant impact on many businesses in Old Quebec. Businesses with basements and semi-basements experienced significant water accumulation. Some streets experience chronic sewer backups during heavy rainfall, particularly on Saint-Louis Street, where significant damage occurred,” said Xavier Bernier-Prévost, director general of the SDC Vieux-Québec, the area’s small business owners’ association.

A memorable downpour

Several longtime city residents told the QCT they couldn’t remember a downpour as heavy as the one on Thursday in such a short period, at least not in downtown Quebec City. “We’ve had heavy rainstorms before – the one that comes to mind right away was in 2004 when the Lorette River overflowed – but rain this heavy in this short a time, I personally have not seen anything like that in Upper Town,” said Moisan, who has worked for the city for more than 30 years.

Marchand, in a later statement on his personal Facebook page, said the experience showed the importance of investing to improve climate resilience. “As we can see, extreme weather conditions are increasing, intensifying, and changing with each season. We don’t know where they will strike next, but we must be prepared. This is why we have set up a financial reserve to adapt our infrastructure, and also why all of Quebec’s cities are calling for increased funding from the governments of Quebec and Canada to make our infrastructure more resilient to climate hazards,” he wrote. “With the right investments and technologies, we can at least mitigate the effects on citizens – and the associated costs.”

Quebec City, Lévis in cleanup mode after flooding Read More »

Guilbault gets $275 million to make third link bridge-tunnel irreversible

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 23, 2025 / Geneviève Guilbault, Lévis, Peter Black, Quebec City, third link

Guilbault gets $275 million to make third link bridge-tunnel irreversible

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault has said on several occasions her goal is to make the “third link” project ir- reversible.

With an election slated for October next year that polls suggest may oust the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government, the window is closing for Guilbault to push the bridge- tunnel plan past the point of no return.

Last week, according to several media reports confirmed by Guilbault’s office, the CAQ cabinet approved $275 million in funding to allow the minister to move forward on the project, one the government has revised, cancelled and then revived again, arguing that a third bridge is necessary for economic and security reasons.

A spokesperson for the minister said the money accorded Guilbault was already in the 2019 infrastructure budget and not “new money.”

In June, Guilbault announced the government’s recommended route for the proposed link, a bridge from Autoroute 40 in Lévis to be connected to a tunnel to be bored somewhere in the Cap Diamant area on the North Shore and exiting to connect with either Boul. Pierre-Bertrand or Autoroute Robert-Bourassa.

At the time of her announce- ment of the route, Guilbault said, “In my mind, I want to make the project irreversible before the next election, and therefore protect it from the outcome of the next election.

“We’re no longer in the ‘for or against’ debate about the third link. We need to create a third link, and I’m working on how to complete it as quickly as possible. We’re going to create the best project at the best price.”

Guilbault said she will reveal more details on the route and the projected cost sometime in the fall. A recent Radio-Canada report cited experts who have pegged the cost of building the third link at between $5.3 and $9.3 billion, not including many associated costs.

The federal government has distanced itself from the project and possible financ- ing. Minister of Government Services and Procurement Joël Lightbound, the MP for Louis-Hébert, said at the time of Guilbault’s route announcement, “The federal government’s position doesn’t really change, because there isn’t a project that has really been put forward.”

In the past, the federal Liberals have said a third link project that gave priority to car and truck traffic as opposed to public transit would not be eligible for funding.

The quarter-billion dollars accorded Guilbault for the third link raised the ire of the Opposition Quebec Liberal Party. In a statement to the QCT, Monsef Derraji, critic for transport, said, “At a time when Quebec is facing serious financial challenges, it’s hard to justify allocating $275 million to a third-link project that lacks a clear route, timeline, or solid scientific backing.”

He said, “While the CAQ government is making cuts to health and education, it is pouring hundreds of millions into a project with no proven necessity. This isn’t just poor planning – it’s a matter of misplaced priorities.”

Radio-Canada also uncovered concrete evidence the third link project is advancing on the ground. It reported geotechnical drilling to determine the quality and composition of the ground is to be done on some 50 sites on both the south and north shores, as well as in the St. Lawrence River itself. The work started in early July and is expected to be completed in September.

The $46-million contract for the work was awarded in February to a consortium comprising French, American and Canadian engineering firms.

Guilbault gets $275 million to make third link bridge-tunnel irreversible Read More »

Drainville walks back education cuts, warns against ‘open bar’

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 23, 2025 / Bernard Drainville, Education, education cuts, labour unions, petition, QESBA, Ruby Pratka, school boards

Drainville walks back education budget cuts, warns against ‘open bar’

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Weeks after asking school boards and service centres to slash their budgets by as much as $570 million, Education Minister Bernard Drainville has reversed course. On July 16, in a post on social media, he announced that the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government had set aside up to $540 million to fund student services.

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

Although Drainville’s announcement made no mention of English-language school boards, officials from the Ministry of Education and Higher Learning (MEES) and the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) both later confirmed that the announcement also applied to school boards; MEES spokesperson Bryan St-Louis also said $29.5 million of the $540 million was set aside for private schools.

The announcement has left school boards and teachers’ unions scrambling to adapt to a radical funding overhaul, for the second time in two months, at the height of summer vacation.

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

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

“The additional funding from the ministry is certainly welcome news. We are presently crunching numbers,” said Jean Robert, chair of the Council of Commissioners of the Central Québec School Board, in a brief email exchange with the QCT. “I am convinced that the minister understood his original proposed cuts would directly affect services to our students.” Robert and QESBA communications director Kim Hamilton said they would know more later this summer about how the funding would be divided and distributed between boards and service centres; St-Louis later said the funds would be distributed between school boards, service centres and eligible private schools, pro-rated to student numbers.

The about-face came a week after a National Assembly petition against cuts to education, sponsored by Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Bérubé and heavily promoted by QESBA and by unions and parents’ groups on both sides of the language barrier, began making headlines (see story in last week’s edition on QCT website). As of this writing, it had received nearly 159,000 signatures. It can still be signed on the National Assembly website until Sept. 15. “We’re pleasantly pleased the public outrage worked, but there are still cuts to be made and services will still be affected,” said Le Sueur.

Drainville walks back education cuts, warns against ‘open bar’ Read More »

City bike rentals soar during Festival d’été

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 23, 2025 / active transportation, àVélo, bike rentals, Festival d'été de Québec, Peter Black, Quebec City, Réseau de transport de la Capitale

City bike rentals soar during Festival d’été

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Although it was obvious to anyone who observed the packed bike lanes during the Festival d’été de Québec, the data now proves the city’s àVélo bike rental service was a huge success – perhaps too much so.

The Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC), which man- ages the service through its Capitale Mobilité subsidiary, reported last week that users of the àVélo service took some 160,415 trips during the 11-day festival, an increase of 56 per cent over last year.

The biggest single evening for àVélo use was July 8, which featured the French rap duo Bigflo et Oli on the Plains of Abraham, with more than 19,000 trips.

Officials said part of the huge increase was due to the strike by RTC maintenance workers that deprived the city of bus service for 10 of the 11 days of the festival. Another factor was the major expansion of the bike fleet as well as the growing popularity of àVélo.

Coun. Maude Mercier Larouche, the city executive committee member who serves as RTC president, said at a July 15 news conference that the “exceptional context” of the bus strike “caused significant challenges for many customers. Under these circumstances, àVélo has represented a valuable mobility solution for thousands of citizens, who have adopted it in record numbers.” With the surge of 160,000 FEQ rides, the total so far for the àVélo season that began in May is 815,000.

Mayor Bruno Marchand, an avid àVélo user himself, said, “Exceptional circumstances or not, citizens’ appetite for àVélo is undeniable. We are convinced that the service will continue to be adopted by an ever-increasing number of people. That is why we remain committed to improving the àVélo offering throughout the territory, as we have done every year since its launch.”

Besides the huge spike in àVélo usage, city officials also tracked a major increase in traffic of personal bicycles on established bike paths, notably on Chemin Sainte-Foy, known as the VivaCité corridor.

On July 8 alone, according to city information, 4,300 bikes used the path, with a total of 32,000 over the course of the festival. The temporary bike lanes on Grande Allée drew more than 34,000 users during FEQ, more than double the traffic of the previous year.

The city plans to expand its fleet of àVélo bikes from the current 1,800 to 3,300 by 2028, and double the number of stations from 165 to 330.

City bike rentals soar during Festival d’été Read More »

City draws on colonial history for road safety campaign

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 23, 2025 / language, Peter Black, Quebec City, road safety

City draws on colonial history in road safety campaign

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

The Ville de Québec is using a catchy, if not controversial, theme in its newly unveiled street safety awareness campaign.

With the slogan Être colon sur la route, c’est dépassé!, the city launched the campaign on July 16 in Place de Paris in the Old City. The slogan plays on an amusing pair of homonyms in Quebec French. The word colon literally means “colonist” and refers to the first French settlers in New France, many of whom were poorly educated soldiers and indentured servants. In local parlance, a colon is an ill-mannered, unsophisticated, classless or ignorant person; the word can also be an adjective referring to ignorant, rude or sloppy behaviour – for example, “C’est colon de laisser tes déchets par terre.” (“It’s ignorant to leave your trash on the ground.”) The city’s slogan translates more or less to “Acting ignorant on the road is a thing of the past.”

In a release, the city said, “While the message is irreverent and striking, it also sends a clear message to the public: risky behaviour on the road no longer has a place.”

Actors in period costumes were on site to unveil the series of slogans to be “visible on various digital platforms, billboards, and radio to ensure broad reach to as many road users as possible.”

The campaign is to run from July 21 to mid-September.

City draws on colonial history for road safety campaign Read More »

Royal Canadian Naval Reserve welcomes new commandant

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 23, 2025 / Cassandra Kerwin, Naval reserves, Quebec City, Royal Canadian Navy

Royal Canadian Naval Reserve welcomes new commandant

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

Under a bright blue sky at Quay 22 on July 19, the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve gave a final salute to its outgoing commandant Patrick Montgomery and welcomed the newly appointed Commodore Beth Vallis. Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), presided over the Change of Command ceremony, which included a parade of Naval Reservists and band.

The Change of Command ceremony marks the transfer of leadership and management of the Naval Reserve. Naval reservists are civilians who work in various fields outside the military while having a military career through part-time service. They generally serve evenings, weekends and during the summer. The Naval Reserve includes 24 units, called divisions, from Newfoundland to British Columbia. Six of them are located in the province of Quebec.

Montgomery began his naval career in 1986 when he enrolled in the Naval Reserve. He has had a fruitful naval career, which included commanding the Maritime Coastal Defence vessels HMCS Edmonton (2008- 2010) and HMCS Saskatoon (2010-2012). As a civilian, he holds a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Alberta and teaches mathematics at Camosun College in Victoria, B.C. When he is not researching gravity currents or working for the Navy, he plays the tuba for the Greater Victoria Concert Band. In his retirement, he plans to continue to teach and do research.

“Commodore Montgomery, on behalf of the formation, the Navy, and all those you have served with such dedication, I extend our heartfelt thanks for your vision, commitment and exceptional service,” said Topshee. “You leave this command with honour, having strengthened the Naval Reserve for the future, and can approach your next chapter with confidence. Commodore Vallis, as you take command today, you do so with full authority, well-earned legitimacy and the trust of those around you. Your career stands as a testament to your unwavering commitment to the institution and your ability to lead this formation to new heights.”

To serve as Naval Reserve commander, a person needs to be able to juggle civilian life and military life while demonstrating impressive leadership qualities. According to an official biography provided at the ceremony, Vallis has extensive experience as a public servant within the Department of National Defence and as head of business development and property for Vallis Law and Strategic Solutions. She is actively engaged as a board governance, risk management and policy consultant for youth, sport and nonprofit volunteer associations. In recognition of her exemplary service and outstanding leadership, Vallis was awarded the Order of Military Merit.

Following tradition, Montgomery departed in a boat and was saluted by the troops standing on the quay as he sailed past them.

Royal Canadian Naval Reserve welcomes new commandant Read More »

Strike averted in provincial parks on eve of construction holiday

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 23, 2025 / labour unions, Ruby Pratka, SEPAQ

Strike averted in provincial parks on eve of construction holiday

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Campers and kayakers across the province are breathing a sigh of relief and loading up their roof racks after unionized employees at the Société des établissements de plein air du Québec (SÉPAQ), the agency which runs Quebec’s provincial parks, voted in favour of a new agreement in principle, avoiding a strike.

Members voted on the agreement on July 17, days before the beginning of the two-week- long construction holiday, a popular time of year for camping. About 75 per cent of voting members approved the agreement, according to the union.

Union locals at SÉPAQ parks around the province are represented by the Syndicat de la fonction publique du Québec (SFPQ) federation. The previous collective agreement between the unions and the SÉPAQ expired at the end of 2023. The union had previously threatened to strike over the June 24 long weekend; that potential strike was averted when the SÉPAQ submitted a new proposed agreement. A strike would have closed most provincial parks, campgrounds and tourist information centres, along with the Aquarium du Québec, several historic sites such as the Manoir Montmorency, and popular SÉPAQ- run hotels such as the Gîte du Mont-Albert and the Auberge du montagne des Chic-Chocs in the Gaspé.

“The high approval rate reflects the members’ satisfaction with this agreement. We are pleased with the positive outcome of these negotiations for all parties, as well as for Quebec vacationers who will be able to enjoy SÉPAQ facilities and the services offered by our members, who are always so passionate and professional,” said SFPQ president Christian Daigle in a statement.

The agreement, valid through the end of 2028, includes “adjustments and raises” that amount to a salary increase of 25 per cent or more, according to the union.

“In addition, there are substantial bonuses for some of the staff, as well as other gains, monetary or normative, related to working conditions. This agreement guarantees our lowest-paid employees will be paid three dollars an hour more than minimum wage for the last three years of the collective agreement. It is thanks to the determination of our members and the hard work of the negotiating team that it was possible to obtain an improved offer. SÉPAQ recognizes more than ever the expertise and contribution of the staff we represent,” said SFPQ vice president and chief negotiator Patrick Audy.

SÉPAQ said in a statement that all reservations made for the summer at SÉPAQ sites would be honoured and sites would remain open. “We are pleased to be able to close this chapter and focus on providing memorable experiences for visitors and conserving exceptional natural areas,” said SÉPAQ CEO Martin Soucy, praising the dedication of SÉPAQ employees and of negotiators on both sides. “SÉPAQ was committed to improving the working conditions of its employees as part of an agreement that respected its ability to pay and did not pass the bill on to visitors.”

Strike averted in provincial parks on eve of construction holiday Read More »

Quebec City to celebrate Pride in August

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 23, 2025 / Cassandra Kerwin, LGBTQIA2S+ community, Quebec City

Quebec City will celebrate Pride in August

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

The height of summer is the perfect time for bright colours, celebrations and a season full of festivals. For four days, from Aug. 28 to 31, the 21st Festival Fierté Québec (formerly known as the Fête Arc-en-Ciel) will colour different areas of Quebec City and host a range of public events celebrating the two- spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (2SLGBTQ+) community.

According to the program, available online at fiertedequebec.ca/en, there will be free concerts and a Winter Carnival cooling station at Place D’Youville and the Passage Olympia, a Pride march along Rue Saint-Jean and a “Queer-tanic” celebration on board AML Louis-Jolliet. Renowned Quebec band Milk & Bone will get the party started on Aug. 29, with festivities on Rue Saint-Jean continuing throughout the weekend. On Aug. 30, festival-goers can enjoy storytime with Barbada at the Palais Montcalm at 10 a.m., a literary panel on growing up queer, a festive “100% Céline” cruise on the Louis-Jolliet ($65), the Pride Gala featuring Mona de Grenoble at 9:30 p.m. and a range of free outdoor performances starring local DJs, drag artists and other performers. For $50, VIP ticket holders get reserved seats to outdoor performances, food and drinks. For $75, they have access to the legendary Drague Cabaret Club.

On Aug. 31, members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and allies are invited to wear their brightest colours during the Pride march, starting at 1 p.m. “We want to remind the public that this is not so much a parade as it is a supportive march, meaning that members and their allies are invited to show and affirm their colours in support and celebration of equality and plurality of the 2SLGBTQ+ community,” said Béatrice Robichaud, president of Alliance Arc-en-ciel de Québec. There will be more entertainment and Zumba at the Passage Olympia, tattoos at the Marriott Downtown hotel on both days and the Queer Market along Rue Saint-Jean on Sunday.

For the first time, Fierté de Québec is partnering with the Winter Carnival. “Their expertise, recognized well beyond our borders, allows us to deliver a coherent, inclusive and ambitious program, while ensuring rigorous resource management and exemplary c-ordination with our various partners,” said Sara Gagné Somarriba, co-executive director of Alliance Arc-en-ciel.

Quebec City to celebrate Pride in August Read More »

New Laurier tower caps Medway’s formula mixing medicine with housing

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 15, 2025 / housing, Peter Black, Quebec City, real estate

New Laurier tower caps Medway’s formula mixing medicine with housing

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

If things go as planned, in the not-too-distant future, a 28-storey tower containing apartments and medical offices will rise from a lot on Boulevard Laurier which was once home to Red Lobster and Burger King franchises.

The as-yet-unnamed $400-million project is the latest – and largest – venture of the Lévis-based Medway company, which already has four new major buildings slated to be delivered in the region over the next year.

They are the Complexe Santé Rivière Saint-Charles, on Boul. Wilfrid-Hamel; the Complexe Santé in Rivière- du-Loup; Le Kali, the site of a former restaurant of that name on Boul. Charest Est; and Le Taniata, in Saint-Jean-Chrysostome.

The projects are all products of Medway’s formula of combining medical administration services with commercial and residential development.

The latest project at 3000 Boul. Laurier typifies the company’s partnership with the medical community in providing health-care offices and infrastructure within a mostly residential complex.

Company founder and president Yan Boudreau explained in a phone interview how Medway has been working with the Groupe de médecine de famille (GMF) Laurier for about two years to devise the plan.

The GMF, comprising some 18 doctors and currently located across Boulevard Laurier in the Delta building, decided last year to cut ties with the local public Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux (CIUSSS) and hire Medway to handle its administration.

The Laurier GMF, which is also a Université Laval- associated teaching facility for family doctors, is the fifth out of six GMFs in the capital region to leave the CIUSSS administration, according to Dr. Caroline Laberge, spokesperson for the unit, as quoted in a Radio-Canada story. It will remain a public clinic.

Boudreau said the latest project follows the pattern Medway has specialized in for the past five years of combining residential housing with medical clinics. “It all starts with a public medical clinic,” in tandem with the city’s “interest in having mixed-use projects [given] all the housing needs.”

Boudreau said his company has worked closely with the city to ensure the project meets the criteria for speedy approval. An important factor, as well, is that the building would be close to the future tramway line.

The building will have 25 storeys with a total of 896 residential units, half of which, Boudreau said, would be designated as affordable housing with rents of less than $1,500 a month. The three bottom floors will be devoted to the GMF once it makes the move to the new building.

Boudreau said he hopes that once the project gets the city’s green light, clearing and excavation of the site would begin in the fall and construction in the spring. Completion is targeted for 2032.

With the Laurier project, Medway now has some 30 buildings in its portfolio, about half of which are mixed medical-residential projects now open or in the works.

Boudreau, 45, is a native of Havre Aubert in the Magdalen Islands who graduated from Western University’s business program thanks to a football scholarship. He left his job in banking 15 years ago and decided to get into real estate.

“When you want to start in real estate, you either have a lot of capital, which I didn’t have, or you find a niche and you find ways to deliver services and products maybe a lot of developers don’t want to take care of, like medical services, which is our core business.”

Boudreau also credits the Medway team of professionals with a wide set of expertise as a reason for the company’s rapid growth.

When it’s completed, the Medway building on Boul. Laurier would be in a three-way tie for third tallest in Quebec City. The Hilton Hotel and Édifice Jules-Dallaire II on Boul. Laurier are also 28 storeys. The two tallest are Place Hauteville with the Delta Hotel at 34 storeys, and the Édifice Marie-Guyart, the Quebec government building which houses the Observatoire de la Capitale, at 33 storeys.

Boudreau said he felt “excited, to be honest” to be taking on “our biggest project ever.” He emphasized the social aspect of what will inevitably be a high-profile and prestigious building on the city’s main thoroughfare.

“We really want to address the capacity of the population to pay rent, and that’s our bet that we [can] deliver new and really nice-looking units with the affordable rent.”

New Laurier tower caps Medway’s formula mixing medicine with housing Read More »

Celtic Music Festival returns to Kinnear’s Mills this weekend

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 15, 2025 / canadian heritage, James Allan, Kinnear's Mills, Local history, music, Ruby Pratka

Celtic Music Festival returns to Kinnear’s Mills this weekend

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

On the South Shore, Irish tunes aren’t just for St. Patrick’s Day weekend, and Québécois reels and sets carrés aren’t just for le temps des Fêtes. Lovers of Irish, Scottish, Québécois and Acadian traditional music and dance will be able to get their fill at the Kinnear’s Mills Celtic Music Festival, which runs from July 17-20 in and around Sainte- Catherine-Labouré Church in Kinnear’s Mills, between Lévis and Thetford Mines.

The festivities will begin on July 17 with an evening variety show of traditional Québécois music by members of the Thetford Mines chap- ter of the Association québécoise des loisirs folkloriques (AQLF), under the festival tent. The next day, La Famille Leblanc, from Bathurst, N.B., will perform under the tent at 7 p.m. Singers and multi-instrumentalists Robin Leblanc and Rebecca Huot and their three teenage daughters, Mélodie, Rosalie and Charlotte Leblanc, are festival regulars and have made a name for themselves in Canada and Europe with their festive blend of Celtic and Acadian music. Their set will be followed by a square dance, called in English by festival organizer James Allan.

Those familiar with Québécois set dancing, Irish ceili dancing or American square dancing won’t be completely unfamiliar with Allan’s dances, but might be thrown off by slightly differ- ent patterns and steps, or by the terminology, called mostly in English with a few French words thrown in, in Allan’s distinctive singsong cadence as he accompanies himself on the piano. “We call the dances ‘traditional dances of down home,’” he explained. “A lot of the time, callers will throw in dances from other regions – they’ll say, ‘Here’s one from the Gaspé’ or ‘Here’s one from Lanaudière’ – but I stick to the ones I learned here. I’ve kept up the tradition of call- ing in English, and there’s a lot of step dancing in these dances, which people get a kick out of.”

On Saturday afternoon, starting at 1 p.m., fiddler Stéphanie Labbé will per- form, followed by Quebec City-based singer and traditional music booster Philippe Guay, Breton trio L’Heure du Bosco and Montmagny-based traditional accordionist Éric Saint-Pierre. The highlight of the evening will be a second square dance, called by Allan at the nearby English School.

On Sunday, an ecumenical church service will be followed by the now-traditional bagpipe concert featuring three pipe bands from around the region, and a closing concert and jig show by Quebec City-based Irish quartet McCool (dancer and percussionist Maude Filion, fiddler Daniel Fréchette, guitarist Dominic Haerinck and multi-instrumentalist François Matte).

Allan, who grew up in a traditional music-loving Scottish family in the region and has been dancing for most of his life, said the festival started more than 30 years ago with a single bagpipe show, and has grown into a celebration of traditional music and dance and of the area’s rich Scottish and Irish history. The events are free, with the exception of the Friday night show featuring La Famille Leblanc ($20 cash at the door) and the Saturday night dance ($15 cash at the door). Regardless of language, age or level of dance experience, Allan said, “Everyone’s welcome.”

The festival is funded by Canadian Heritage, the St. Andrew’s Society of Montreal, Boralex and the town of Kinnear’s Mills.

Celtic Music Festival returns to Kinnear’s Mills this weekend Read More »

Petition against education cuts crosses language divide

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 15, 2025 / Bernard Drainville, Education, education cuts, Quebec English School Boards Association, Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers, Ruby Pratka, school boards, unions

Petition against education cuts crosses linguistic divide

Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism

Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

The Parti Québécois (PQ) and the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) may seem like unlikely allies, but they have joined forces to denounce the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government’s belt-tightening on education funding. Along with former leaders of French-language school boards, unions and parents’ groups on both sides of the linguistic divide, PQ MNA Pascal Bérubé and the school boards’ association, of which the Central Québec School Board (CQSB) is a member, are joining forces to back a National Assembly petition against cuts to education.

Last month, the Ministry of Education imposed at least $510 million in across-the-board cuts to the public school system; Education Minister Bernard Drainville said at the time that the ministry’s expenses had grown an “unsustainable” seven per cent per year since 2018. Next school year’s increase has been capped at 1.8 per cent – below the rate of inflation – as part of a wider effort to rein in the deficit. Furthermore, autonomous English school boards, which have more control over how funding is allocated than their government-run French-language counterparts, have been told they can’t run deficits or dip into surpluses to cushion the impact of funding cuts. Drainville has encouraged school boards and service centres to “respect the budgets without touching student services … to the extent possible” although school board and union representatives have argued this is impossible.

The petition on the National Assembly website calls on Drainville to walk back the budgetary restrictions to avoid affecting student services. As of this writing, it has nearly 157,000 signatures.

Steven Le Sueur is the president of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT), the union federation representing teachers at English-language public schools. He said the petition was initially drawn up by the Fédération des syndicats de l’enseignement (FSE), the largest federation of teachers’ unions in the province, which encouraged QPAT to get on board.

“It is important to get the public involved to denounce what’s going on,” he told the QCT. “Our students with special needs and at-risk students will suffer the most. The ‘extra’ services which we may have had in the past will be disappearing. This is not going to attract more teachers to the profession and it may drive some of our younger teachers away.”

Le Sueur said promoting the petition in both languages is “sending a strong message that the government is hurting the system, both the English and French system.”

QESBA president Joe Ortona echoed several of Le Sueur’s arguments. “Balancing the budget, with the [funding] the government is giving us, means slashing all sorts of programs that go beyond the bare minimum – music, art, extracurriculars, programs for gifted kids, extra support for kids with special needs, breakfast, tutoring.”

Ortona, who has served on the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) since 2014, said he has “never seen anything that remotely resembles” the cuts Drainville has told boards to brace for. “The government is claiming the budget is going up, but they aren’t taking into account inflation or the impact of the collective agreements [signed with teachers’ unions after the 2023 strikes]. At the end of the day … we wind up with less than what we had before. We pride ourselves on the quality of education we provide, but if the government doesn’t fund us, there is no way we can provide those services.

“A decade ago [when the previous Liberal government announced cuts to education] we were in a recession. We are nowhere near that now. We’re in this situation because the government has mismanaged a billion dollars on SAAQClic, Northvolt, $7 million for the L.A. Kings, $10 billion for the third link, and the kids are paying the price,” he argued. He added that the campaign against the planned cuts would be stronger if French-language school boards, which were converted into service centres in 2020, still had the same autonomy as their English counterparts, which have kept their independence through a long and still unresolved court challenge. “The only [school officials] who can speak out publicly are the elected officials on the English side.”

Le Sueur and Ortona called on parents, graduates and other concerned voters to sign the petition and lobby their MNAs to oppose the looming cuts. “I am hopeful [the government] will look at this and try to appease the population and backtrack a little, or a lot – there is an election coming up,” Le Sueur said.

The QCT asked the Ministry of Education about options available for English school boards to cushion the impact of the cuts, but did not receive a response by press time.

Petition against education cuts crosses language divide Read More »

FEQ declares success despite challenges of transit strike

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 15, 2025 / Festival d'été de Québec, Peter Black, Quebec City, Réseau de transport de la Capitale, SOCAN, transit, transit strike

FESTIVAL D’ÉTÉ DE QUÉBEC

FEQ declares success despite challenges of transit strike

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

As heavy weather threatened the final day of the Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) on July 11, organizers were declaring the 57th edition a “resounding success,” despite facing the first transit strike in the event’s history, and yes, unpredictable weather.

A sometimes emotional Louis Bellavance, head of content and artistic direction for BLEUFEU, the non-profit organization that runs the 11-day event, declared this year’s gathering a triumph for fans “who know what they want” and who “come for the music,” not just to take pictures. At the traditional wrap-up news conference, which began with a video montage of Shania Twain’s performance the night before, Bellavance said, “This year we conquered the entertainment industry.” He said FEQ organizers heard from “dozens and dozens” of artists and their teams who said the Quebec City event “is the best festival in the world.”

He said what happened this year was “a recognition without precedent” for the calibre of events FEQ organizes, which creates a special connection between the performing artists and the fans.

The success he described was despite the considerable obstacle of a strike by Réseau de transport de la capitale (RTC) maintenance staff, which paralyzed city bus service for the duration of the festival, and an unrelated strike which halted service on the Quebec City-Lévis ferry.

BLEUFEU president Nicolas Racine, now with his third festival as boss under his belt, said the threat of an RTC bus drivers’ strike two years earlier helped prepare organizers for the real deal this year.

“We put some measures in place to make sure that people would have less trouble coming in. So we just took that again, and maybe pumped it up a little bit.”

He said he was amazed at how the fans adapted to the transit challenges.

“The fans are great. They came earlier, they shared a car, they used their bike. They walked and parked further and they walked half an hour to come in. So why not – instead of staying in your car for half an hour, why don’t we walk? So that’s what happened. So the impact for us was less than expected.”

One silver lining of the transit strike, Bellavance noted, was that because more fans arrived earlier, there were bigger and more appreciative audiences for the “undercard” acts.

Now with 15 years as head programmer for FEQ under his belt, Bellavance listed some of his personal favourites among the more than 200 shows to take the stage, among them Richard Marx, Marjo, Alessia Cara, Avril Lavigne, Simple Plan and Wyclef Jean.

He had special praise for the artists who made themselves available on short notice due to sudden cancellations.

He singled out Slayer for a notable FEQ record: most T-shirts sold, more than previous top sellers, the Rolling Stones and Metallica.

Above all, Bellavance said, the most satisfying bookings for FEQ this year were Twain, whom the festival had pursued for years, and Benson Boone, the 23-year- old American pop sensation who organizers correctly bet could pack the massive Plains stage.

Racine said organizers are already planning for the 2026 edition, and the success of FEQ 2025 “is a motivation for us. We want to do better. We know we can do better. Our main goal is to make the fans happy.”

There was one sour note among the general good vibes of the festival, with the news that some performers are suing FEQ through SOCAN, Canada’s artists’ rights and revenues agency, for unpaid royalties for “carte blanche” shows for the previous three festivals.

FEQ responded to the public release of details of the federal court suit with a statement on July 12. “The FEQ deplores the timing chosen by SOCAN – in the middle of the festival – to initiate legal proceedings. Discussions between the two parties had been ongoing until very recently.”

FEQ declares success despite challenges of transit strike Read More »

RTC bus service resumes amid unanswered questions

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 15, 2025 / Festival d'été de Québec, Quebec City, Réseau de transport de la Capitale, Ruby Pratka, transit, transit strike

RTC bus service resumes amid unanswered questions

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

On July 13, the Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC) announced that city bus service would gradually resume the following morning, and fully return to normal by noon, putting an end to a 10-day strike by the bus mainte- nance workers’ union, timed to coincide with the Festival d’été de Québec.

A labour tribunal ruling in a separate dispute involving the RTC and its drivers’ union in 2023 found that the RTC was not an essential service. As a result, RTC service was completely halted for the duration of the strike, and people without easy access to a car had to rely on long walks, expensive backup plans, creative car-sharing arrangements, or àVélo bikes – assuming there were some available – to reach their destinations.

“We are relieved that the strike is coming to an end and that our customers will be able to resume services as of Monday [July 14], particularly those who rely on public transit and who were greatly impacted by the complete service disruption. We are also pleased that the drivers will be able to return to work,” said Maude Mercier Larouche, president of the RTC, in a statement.

An indefinite transit strike is not off the table. The collective agreement between the RTC and the maintenance workers’ union, the CSN-affiliated Syndicat des Salariés (ées) d’entretien du RTC, expired in September 2024, and no new collective agreement or agreement in principle has been signed as of this writing. The union held a two-day strike in late May, and in June, 100 per cent of members voted for a strike mandate “potentially including an unlimited general strike.” At the time, union president Nicolas Louazel accused RTC representatives of failing to lay out their demands clearly, “wasting time” and “being unable to respond to simple questions.”

Mercier Larouche said negotiations were ongoing between the city-funded RTC and the union. “We are making every effort to reach a lasting agreement that is viable for both parties and respects citizens’ ability to pay,” she said.

“As an organization that defends the rights of low-income people, we support union efforts to achieve better working conditions,” said Émilie Frémont-Cloutier, community facilitator and spokesperson for the Collectif TRAAQ, which advocates for low- income transit users. “However, we cannot ignore the negative social impacts that a complete shutdown of public transit will have on the most vulnerable populations. Thousands of people, primarily women, seniors, people with dis- abilities and those living in isolation, will be cut off from all means of transportation. This means they will be unable to get to the grocery store, the pharmacy, medical appointments or even community outreach centres. During the first strike on May 22 and 23, a Radio- Canada report highlighted these concrete impacts: reduced use of the La Bouchée Généreuse food assistance program, and families forced to pay for expensive alternative transportation to get to school or work.”

Mercier Larouche said bus pass holders would be reimbursed for the impact of the strike, but that a reimbursement system would only be set up once the RTC and the union reach an agreement in principle.

No one from the maintenance workers’ union or the CSN had responded to requests for comment from the QCT by press time.

Editors’ note: Transit users, how did you work around the strike? If you’d like to share your strike story with us, please email editor@qctonline.com.

RTC bus service resumes amid unanswered questions Read More »

Quebecers celebrate a damp 158th Canada Day

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 15, 2025 / Canada Day, Cassandra Kerwin, Quebec City

Quebecers celebrate a damp 158th Canada Day

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

From coast to coast to coast, Canadians celebrated the 158th anniversary of Confederation on July 1. In Quebec City, Mother Nature joined the fun by dropping more rain on Canada Day festivities. The ceremonial flag raising on Dufferin Terrace was cancelled, but crowds of people lined up in the rain to get their slice of Canada’s birthday cake prepared by the chefs of the Château Frontenac.

For almost an hour before the cake was served, people lined up outside and watched through large windows as the final touches of icing were applied.

Sticking to the schedule, at noon, some 2,000 pieces of the huge traditional cake, decorated to resemble the Canadian flag, were distributed from a side door of the hotel near the Champlain monument.

Regulars at the annual party tasted something different. Did the chefs dare change the recipe? Besides the usual 600 eggs, 360 egg whites, 11 pounds of white sugar, 50 pounds of flour and 90 pounds of butter, the head pastry chef added apple sauce to moisten the cake and used Quebec-made flour to make it more authentically Canadian. The result was delicious!

Slices of cake were served from under a tent by Jean-Yves Duclos, MP for Québec Centre; Lt.-Gov. Manon Jeannotte; Quebec City councillor David Weiser; and the director general of the Château Frontenac, Jean-François Vary.

While waiting for their cake, people waved their small Canadian flags. “I love coming to this event. I never miss it,” said Kasandra Pelletier. “I always meet people I know and haven’t seen in a year. Canada is a wonderful and welcoming country. I am so happy my grandparents chose to move here from Greece.”

On the Plains of Abraham, the National Battlefields Commission hosted an afternoon of family-friendly festivities. In the World Zone, families discovered various cultures that make up Canada’s multi- cultural society at the numerous booths, such as making bubbles at the SOIT (Service d’orientation et d’intégration des immigrants au travail) booth, traditional West African drums at the Djembé Québec booth or tasting tea while learning about Quebec’s English-speaking community at the Morrin Centre tent.

Children had their faces painted by the Kromatik Make-up before jumping around on the numerous bouncy castles. Parents had to keep a watchful eye due to the rainy weather making things more slippery. People were captivated by five performing acts on the nearby stage. Dragon and Drum, Kumquatz and the Old Men and the Sea roamed the site giving one-on-one performances. People stopped by the Trivia Canada table and photobooth for memorable experiences.

The sky finally cleared and the sun shone briefly over Quebec City before it set, just in time for the grand finale of the Canada Day celebrations. At 8 p.m., the duo Maxime Landry and Annie Blanchard gave a Western-style show at the Edwin Bélanger bandstand – The Country of Our Idols. They had the crowd line dancing in cowboy boots and hats to the tunes of the Daraîche Family, Patrick Norman and Renée Martel. The celebrations and the show ended with the Boréalis immersive laser show.

Quebecers celebrate a damp 158th Canada Day Read More »

Quebec City celebrates 417 years of existence and 40 years as heritage site

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 15, 2025 / Bruno Marchand, Cassandra Kerwin, Fête de la Ville de Québec, Quebec City

Quebec City celebrates 417 years of existence and 40 years as heritage site

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

On July 3, Quebec City celebrated its 417th anniversary since French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded the New France colony in 1608. This is also the 40th year since the historic walled district of Old Quebec was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

To begin the festivities, at 11:15 a.m., dignitaries, residents and visitors gathered for the official ceremony in the Jardins de l’Hôtel-de-Ville. As Old Quebec City is recognized as the only walled city in North America with a functioning military citadel, built by the British between 1820 and 1831, and home of the Royal 22e Régiment since 1914, members of the regal regiment and its band opened the ceremony with a colourful parade, including Bâtisse the goat, the regiment’s official mascot. This was followed by speeches, MCed by re-enactors portraying Samuel de Champlain and former mayor Jean Pelletier (1977-1989).

“Every summer, Quebec City’s anniversary is a unique occasion to assemble and to vibrate to the rhythm of our city,” said Mayor Bruno Marchand. “Whether it be in one’s district or in the heart of the Old City, I invite you to celebrate together what makes Quebec City strong: its energy, its creativity and its spirit of community. Together, we have preserved our heritage and our historic district. It is in our DNA to care for and promote our unique heritage.”

If it weren’t for pioneering city councillors and businessmen in the 1960s, the Old City of Quebec might have been lost to history. Under Mayor Jean Pelletier, they restored and preserved the historic district, and applied for the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation, which it received in 1985. In 2017, under Mayor Régis Labeaume, the city was recognized for its unique cultural presence in North America and received its second UNESCO title as a Ville de Patrimoine Culturel, part of the Réseau des Villes créatives. Under Marchand, the city has applied for its third UNESCO designation as an international Biosphere Region.

To celebrate Quebec City’s culture, history and heritage, numerous free activities took place throughout the city.

Starting at Place d’Armes, guides led groups on tours around the Old City, recounting facts about the people and structures that marked its history and society. City Hall was open to visitors during the afternoon. Celebrations continued in the different districts of Quebec City during the late afternoon and early evening.

Quebec City celebrates 417 years of existence and 40 years as heritage site Read More »

Bus strike? They took a bike! FEQ fans find ways to attend shows

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 15, 2025 / Festival d'été de Québec, Peter Black, Quebec City, Réseau de transport de la Capitale, transit, transit strike

Bus strike? They took a bike! FEQ fans find ways to attend shows

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

There were nightmarish traffic jams, armies of pedestrians on long marches and thousands upon thousands riding bicycles. Others took taxis or ride-shared. Whichever way they used to get there, fans found a way to show up in the usual vast numbers to take in Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) events.

A strike by Réseau du Trans- port de la Capitale (RTC) mechanics and maintenance workers marked the first time ever the festival got underway without public bus service. Last year, for example, RTC buses, including special shuttle buses for the festival, transported some 300,000 people to the event zones.

The maintenance union, with 363 members, has been without a contract since September, and in May had staged a two-day strike as a negotiating tactic. Reports said the union was seeking a 30 per cent pay increase over five years, but other sources say the demand is between 18 and 22 per cent over five years.

Other work issues are also on the table, according to the union. Talks were set to resume on July 8. Members had voted massively in favour of a 10-day strike during FEQ and threatened an unlimited strike if no progress was made.

In the meantime, some 3,000 city bus drivers plus support staff are off the job.

The city’s popular àVélo service, managed by the RTC, was not affected by the strike. Two years ago, the bus drivers’ union threatened a strike on the eve of FEQ, but a last- minute agreement avoided a transit shutdown.

Not only is a bus strike complicating the lives of commuters, but another strike has shut down the ferry service between Quebec and Levis during FEQ for the second year in a row.

The 13-day strike by some 200 unlicensed workers also affects government-operated ferries serving Matane, Baie-Comeau and Godbout.

As for the bus strike, city officials say they cannot give in to union demands; Mayor Bruno Marchand said he is happy to be called a “dictator” by the union if it means dealing with taxpayer dollars responsibly.

While the city took some steps to alleviate the strike impact, such as expanding temporary bike lanes and drop-off zones, mayoral candidate Sam Hamad said the Marchand administration failed to be prepared.

In a statement, the head of Leadership Québec said, “It’s surprising that Quebec City didn’t see fit to have a real Plan B, even though it knew that a service interruption to the RTC was possible dur- ing the festival. In a context where the FEQ’s brand image and that of Quebec City as a tourist destination are at stake, this lack of preparation sends the wrong message.”

Hamad said if his party were in power it would have brought in such measures as working with FEQ to set up shuttle services, called upon businesses to make parking lots available and made parking free for carpoolers.

FEQ officials said they rejected the idea of having bus shuttles on standby, as they did in 2023, in the event of a strike, since the cost was prohibitive. A private bus company, meanwhile, has stepped into the void, offering rides for return trips from selected sites for $20 on buses used during the day for transporting day camp counsellors.

Bus strike? They took a bike! FEQ fans find ways to attend shows Read More »

The MCQ presents the human stories of the Titanic

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 15, 2025 / Cassandra Kerwin, History, Musée de la Civilisation, Quebec City, Titanic

The MCQ presents the human stories of the Titanic

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

Most people know the fatal story of the Titanic’s maiden voyage, but what about the people on board? For its latest exhibit, open until Jan. 11, 2026, the Musée de la Civilisation (MCQ) presents Titanic: The Human Story.

Even before stepping into the MCQ, visitors encounter Titanic written out in large red letters on a single blue block beside the replica bow, where people can mimic Jack Dawson from the iconic 1997 movie: “I’m the king of the world!”

Entering the exhibit, visitors travel through time to April 1912 to meet the workers, architects and engineers of the Titanic, the crew and pas- sengers on board and the ships that rescued the survivors. Listening to the audioguide, in French or English, they discover the stories behind the 200 displayed objects (clothes, jewelry, journals, tickets, docu- ments, life jackets, silverware, dishes and more); the models of first-, second- and third- class rooms; and the ship in all its glory and in its current condition, sitting in two large pieces at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. They also find authentic journals, leather shoes, postcards, papers and a diamond necklace that inspired the countless films and stories that have stemmed from the fatal night of April 14, 1912.

“Every time we’re able to host a major international exhibition here, the magic happens, and audiences from all over turn out,” said Julie Lemieux, MCQ executive director. “Titanic is the human story behind the great history, an approach faithful to what distinguishes the MCQ, a museum of society par excellence.”

The creative geniuses be- hind this exhibit are from the Spanish museum Musealia. To create Titanic: The Human Story, they worked with one of the world’s leading Titanic experts, Claes-Göran Wetterholm, who has made four research voyages to the wreck. “What moves us most about the story of the Titanic is not just the facts of its tragedy, but the lives tied to it: the choices, hopes, and consequences that shaped an era,” said Luis Ferreiro, president and CEO of Musealia. “With this exhibition, we attempt to go beyond the myth to reveal the world from which it emerged, and the people who embarked and perished on board during that voyage. Presenting it for the first time in Canada, within the walls of the MCQ, is a privilege – this is where this story should be heard.” It has been presented in Barcelona; Stockholm; London, England; Mexico City; New York; Brisbane and Sydney, Australia; and now, Quebec City.

“I have seen many exhibits presented at the MCQ. This is one of the best, if not the best,” said Laura Blouin. “Often, when I learned about the Titanic, I imagined the ship, the crew in the [crow’s] nest, the iceberg, the musicians, the freezing water and the wreckage. Now, I see beyond the steel and wood. I feel like I’ve met the passengers and crew, thanks in part to the extremely well-written and narrated audioguide. The enormous piece of ice in the middle of the exhibit is a nice touch and reminds people just how cold the waters were that night.”

For more information, visit mcq.org/en/discover/exhibitions/titanic.

The MCQ presents the human stories of the Titanic Read More »

28th Fêtes de la Nouvelle-France offer free access to history

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 15, 2025 / Cassandra Kerwin, Fêtes de la Nouvelle-France, Quebec City

The 28th Fêtes de la Nouvelle-France offer free access to history

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

Quebec City is once again preparing to celebrate its rich history. From Aug. 7 to 10, Quebecers will step back into the 17th and 18th centuries for the 28th Fêtes de la Nouvelle-France (FNF).

Once again, the FNF is work- ing in partnership with various historic sites to offer visitors an interesting and interactive journey through history. In Lower Town, for the second straight year, the Îlot des Palais will host the Last Intendant’s Treasure activity for $50 per backpack ($20 off with the medallion).

In Upper Town, the Cathe- dral-Basilica Notre-Dame de Québec will offer self-guided tours, while the Garrison Club hosts history lectures for me- dallion holders. The National Assembly offers similar lectures for free.

The highly popular FNF Treasure Hunts at the Jardins and Place de l’Hôtel-de-Ville are returning with five free new quests for children ages five to 13. At the same location, people will discover a range of audiovisual tours for all ages in the evening.

“Although access to our main sites is free this year, people who purchase the iconic medallion for $20 will receive benefits, including augmented reality with the Scan Your History app access and discounts,” said Marie-Ève Jacob, executive director of the festival. “By opening the sites to free admission, we are making it easier for the high number of tourists in Quebec City.

We can share our history and heritage with more people. It is a calculated risk.”

“It is really breaking away from traditional methods of presentation and present- ing history differently,” said Jérôme Déchêne, director of programming. “Yes, we have historical events; yes, we have musical performances; yes, we have more traditional activities, artisans, of course, but we try to surprise people.”

For more information, visit nouvellefrance.qc.ca/en/programmation.

28th Fêtes de la Nouvelle-France offer free access to history Read More »

Journalist Marianne White runs for Marchand team in St-Louis-Sillery

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 1, 2025 / 2025 Municipal Elections, Bruno Marchand, Marianne White, Peter Black, Quebec City

Journalist Marianne White runs for Marchand team in Saint-Louis–Sillery

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Veteran journalist Marianne White, most recently a senior editor at Le Journal de Québec, is leaping into municipal politics as the candidate for Mayor Bruno Marchand’s party in the Saint-Louis–Sillery seat.

White made the announcement on June 25 in front of the city library on Ave. Maguire, with nine other Québec Forte et Fière (QFF) candidates and the mayor at her side.

White, 47, will be seeking to succeed current QFF councillor Maude Mercier Larouche, the member of the executive committee responsible for transit, who announced she is not seeking a second term for family reasons.

In an interview with the QCT, White said she was very surprised she had been approached by QFF representatives about running for the party.

“We had lunch with two representatives of the party and when they pitched that to me, my jaw dropped, literally. I didn’t see myself doing that. But they made a really good pitch – and thinking back on it, I think they were right in the fact that I think I’m the right person to do this. I have what it takes to be there.”

White said, “They wanted to have someone who was from the community, and I‘ve been living here for six years. I think I could do that. I’m driven. I’m a good communicator.”

She told the party reps she would consider the proposal, and then she and her partner embarked on a planned three-week island-hopping vacation in Greece. “There couldn’t be a better place to reflect than Greece.”

After weighing the pros and cons, and keenly aware of the demands on politicians from having covered them as a journalist for many years, White decided to go for it.

“At the end of the day, what really drove my decision is I want to get more involved in my community. I want to be in a more active position … part of building the city for the future, for what we want to leave to the next generation.”

Upon her return, she handed in her resignation to Le Journal de Québec, where she had worked since 2012. Prior to Le Journal, White had worked in various French and English- language media for some 27 years after graduating from Université Laval with a communications degree.

In 2018, she wrote a book on Jean Lapierre, the politician and media commentator who died in a plane crash in 2016.

She has also written a foodie column, focusing on restaurants in the city.

White said she had no doubts that if she were to run, it would be for Marchand’s QFF. Part of that is the party’s commitment to the tramway project, which has relatively strong support in the Sillery district, according to polls.

“I think people are looking forward to this project going ahead. We’ve been talking about it for 20 or so years in Quebec,” White said.

“That’s not to say it’s going to be an easy project and there’s not going to be some problems when we try to put that into effect. There’s going to be roadwork and other inconveniences, but the job of the city is to try and make sure that this has the least impact on residents.”

White, whose father John White was a philosophy teacher at Cégep de Sainte-Foy, said her father encouraged her and her siblings to attend French school, and so, despite her anglo ancestry, she identifies as a francophone. Her precise English, however, has allowed her to work in English-language media.

She said she recognizes “there’s a vibrant English community in Quebec,” particularly in Sillery, and “people are proud of their roots.”

When the time came last week to step to the podium and announce her political baptism, White said, “It was fun, exhilarating even. I could say it was very different from what I’ve been doing for the past 27 years. I’ve been used to being on the other side of the podium for most of my life. But it’s a good thing. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I wanted to do something different in my life and now, I think, is a good time to do it.”

The addition of White to the QFF team brings to 17 the total number of candidates the party has in place for the 21 districts.

Municipal elections will be held across Quebec on Nov. 2.

Journalist Marianne White runs for Marchand team in St-Louis-Sillery Read More »

‘Galleon’ tower to be anchored at the peak of Grande Allée

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 1, 2025 / Peter Black, Quebec City, real estate

‘Galleon’ tower to be anchored at the peak of Grande Allée

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

After nearly 15 years of battles with City Hall and in the courts, developer Louis Lessard appears to be on the verge of realizing his ambition to build a luxury tower on Grande Allée Est.

Lessard was in attendance at a public consultation meeting on June 16 where he announced his plan for Le Galléon, a 20-storey building on the site where Saint- Coeur-de-Marie church stood until it fell into ruin and was demolished in 2019.

Lessard, who acquired the property in 2010, 13 years after it had been abandoned by the Catholic diocese, said in brief remarks that the building would be “absolutely magnificent.”

If the city grants a build- ing permit by August, Le Galléon, containing 200 residential rental units and a number of commercial spaces, would take 18 months to build. No dollar amount for the project has been made available.

The project website describes the building in grand terms: “Between sky, city and river, Le Galléon – a timeless design inspired by the site’s heritage. Anchored at the highest point of the iconic Grande Allée, Le Galléon is reinventing the art of living in Quebec City.”

Some 58 people attended the information session in person and another 60 online; both the Galléon project and a 10-storey addition to the 153-155 Grande Allée Est building were presented.

The city councillor for Cap-aux-Diamants and executive committee member responsible for urban planning, Coun. Mélissa Coulombe-Leduc, attended and explained how the two large projects on Grande Allée were being fast-tracked under a new law to accelerate housing construction in areas of high demand.

Coulombe-Leduc noted that buildings of 20 storeys and more are not uncommon on Grande Allée. “We’ll hear what people have to say. We’ll see if it directly affects the project or if there are indirect consequences that might allow us to work in a different way. We’ll weigh the pros and cons. We’ll see if there’s a need to make changes or not.”

The Galléon developers have already made several changes to the project design in response to comments from the city’s urban planning commission, said Jonathan Brisson, head of Circum Architecture, the firm heading up the project.

For Lessard, the city’s sudden enthusiasm for his proposal for a 20-storey tower marks a stunning reversal from what has transpired since 2010. In 2017, his company had proposed an 18-storey building, which was rejected by the city.

It had been, according to Lessard, the 12th design proposal submitted to the city since he bought the site, which included the abandoned church. Several of the early proposals included concepts that retained parts of the church structure.

Frustrated by the city’s refusal to accept a tower high enough to be profitable, in 2022 Lessard submitted a design for a nine-storey parking garage that he believed conformed to existing zoning. The city rejected the proposal and changed the zoning to block such a project. Lessard then took the city to court, but lost in a decision rendered in June 2024.

What happened between Lessard and the city after that court decision that led to the submission of a comprehensive architectural plan for a 20-storey tower a few months later was not discussed at the consultation session.

There were few questions about Le Galléon posed at the three-hour meeting. One did concern the process that would be used to excavate the four-storey underground garage. Brisson was not able to be specific but conceded blasting would likely be required, given the rock upon which the structure would be built.

‘Galleon’ tower to be anchored at the peak of Grande Allée Read More »

Possible transit chaos, Twain gift in busy FEQ buildup

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 1, 2025 / Festival d'été de Québec, food security, Peter Black, Quebec City, Réseau de transport de la Capitale, Ruby Pratka, Service de Police de la Ville de Québec, Shania Twain

Possible transit chaos, police weapons upgrade, Twain gift in busy FEQ buildup

Peter Black and Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative reporters

The 57th edition of the Festival d’été de Québec opens July 3 with another sell-out of the 11-day event, but with the threat of a transit strike looming and the presence of police carrying assault weapons.

Known as Canada’s biggest summer music gathering, with upwards of 200 shows on six stages, including the mammoth Bell stage on the Plains of Abraham, FEQ will welcome up to 80,000 fans for headliner performances.

This year’s marquee biggies include Canadian megastars Shania Twain and Avril Lavigne, as well as legendary crooner Rod Stewart, breakout American pop heartthrob Benson Boone and classic British rock band Def Leppard.

Just as a point of novelty, the program features Canadian pop star Alessia Cara, not to be confused with up-and-coming Quebec singer Alissa Clara.

This year, the alternating stages return to Place George-V in front of the armoury, where one highly anticipated show will be a tribute to the 30th anniversary of Céline Dion’s record-breaking D’eux album, featuring a parade of Quebec vedettes.

Dozens of shows are free on stages across from the National Assembly and in Place D’Youville. There’s a program for children, called Petit FEQ, happening on weekends.

Twain, perhaps the festival’s biggest draw this year, is not just bringing her top-selling repertoire to Quebec City. As part of her Shania Twain Foundation, the superstar is funding some 375,000 meals for people facing food insecurity.

Each of five tour cities – Calgary, Moose Jaw, Ottawa, Toronto and Quebec City – will receive a $25,000 donation for food programs. Twain plays the second Saturday show of FEQ on July 12.

A late replacement to the lineup is indie rocker Lauren Spencer Smith, subbing in for British singer/model Suki Waterhouse, who cancelled her gig opening for the Irish fusion band Hosier on the Bell stage on July 10.

New weaponry for city police

While most circumstances of the festival have stayed the same, one new and possibly disturbing element would be the presence of city police officers carrying the HK 416 semi-automatic assault rifle.

The Service de police de la Ville de Québec (SPVQ) will deploy a certain number of officers trained in the use of the weapon as both a tactical device and a deterrent.

Capt. Alain Bernier, the officer in charge of weapons training, told Le Journal de Québec the guns “will provide increased precision, range, and ballistic capability compared to the service weapon. We will be able to take action more effectively and from a distance that would normally be inaccessible to us.”

The report said the SPVQ made the decision in response to recent incidents of vehicles driving into crowds, such as in Vancouver and New Orleans.

The SVPQ says the weapons had been available for use in the past, but for the first time, officers will be making them visible.

As yet unconfirmed is whether the city will also install vehicle-intrusion barriers for FEQ, as is the case in a pilot project on Rue Saint-Jean this summer.

Bus strike still possible

As this newspaper went to press on June 30, the threat of a transit maintenance workers’ strike, which would paralyze Réseau du transport de la Capitale (RTC) bus service, still hung over the festival. Unless an agreement is announced by 3 p.m. on July 3, the strike could begin as early as July 4, the second day of FEQ, and continue through July 13, shutting down both regular bus service and shuttles to the festival, Valérie Drolet, executive director of network development and customer experience at the RTC, told a City Hall press conference on June 30.

She noted that the strike could last anywhere from one day to the full ten, and service would return to normal gradually after a strike. “As soon as the RTC knows the union’s intentions, all its communication and information channels will be activated to inform regular customers and festival-goers,” Drolet said, adding that riders who bought Festibus passes and tickets would be reimbursed in the event of a strike. She would not comment on the ongoing negotiations.

The QCT requested an in- terview with a representative from the maintenance workers’ union – the Syndicat des salariés et salariées d’entretien du RTC–CSN – through several channels but did not receive a response by press time.

The àVélo bike sharing program, Flexibus service and adapted transit services will not be affected in the event of a strike, although the city is anticipating increased demand for those services. An additional àVélo station will be set up near the Joan of Arc Garden for the festival. The city will also put in place pick-up and drop-off zones for cars at the Gare du Palais and along Ave. Brown between René-Lévesque and Grande Allée.

City officials and FEQ organizers advised people driving to the festival to consider carpooling and leave plenty of time – at least an hour – to find parking. “We want people to get on board and come have fun with us, and I think that’s going to happen, but you just need to take a little more time to get there,” said FEQ CEO Nicolas Racine.

For up-to-date information on FEQ, go to the festival website at feq.ca/en.

Possible transit chaos, Twain gift in busy FEQ buildup Read More »

Sillery, Valcartier groups receive heritage funding

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / July 1, 2025 / Local history, Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network, Quebec City, Ruby Pratka, Sillery, Valcartier

Sillery, Valcartier groups receive heritage funding

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Heritage preservation groups in Sillery and Valcartier are among the 15 organizations across the province that have received funding from the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) through the SHARE grant program, a Canadian Heritage-funded initiative to support projects “sharing the diverse history of English speakers in the province,” Sherbrooke-based QAHN announced last week.

SHARE program co-ordinator Julie Miller said she was “very pleased” about the diversity of the selected projects, which span the province from the Outaouais to the Gaspé, via the Laurentians, the Eastern Townships, the historically bilingual Pontiac region in Western Quebec, and Quebec City.

The Société d’histoire de Sillery (SHS) has received funding to contribute to the creation of a vast, bilingual archive of Quebec culinary history, from a multicultural, local perspective. “It’s an immense project to do an inventory of what exists in terms of culinary history, particularly anglophone and Indigenous culinary history – the Fédération Histoire Québec is doing a project on the scale of Quebec. We’re going to focus on the anglophone history of Sillery,” said SHS president Jean-Louis Vallée. The project will centre around inventorying, digitizing and translating recipes and stories about ingredients, traditions, communities and companies that have left their mark on local cuisine, writing articles which make those stories accessible to the general public, and indexing the content to make it easier to search. Vallée also said the SHS planned to conduct oral history interviews with older members of the anglophone community, to discuss culinary traditions and memories around food and cooking.

“Sillery has an interesting anglophone history that we haven’t made a lot of room for in the past 20 years,” Vallée said. “The population was 50-50 [francophone-anglophone] in the 19th century, and I don’t think we had a francophone mayor until the 1930s. There was a strong proportion of people of Irish ancestry, but every cultural community came here with its cooking methods and its recipes.”

Author Rose-Hélène Coulombe, a retired civil servant and self-described “memorialist” who has written three books on the culinary history of Quebec, is one of the project’s co-ordinators. She said the Sillery project will be the first step in expanding the wider project, dubbed Patrimoine ~ Identités, to the anglophone community. “We will have articles, recipes, updated recipes, talking about products and food that are key to identity,” she said. “We are working with students as well; I have a student who has done an article on the history of pouding chômeur, on how we used to use buttermilk, that sort of thing.” The ultimate goal, Coulombe and Vallée said, is to create a provincewide archive, using Sillery as a pilot project.

The Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier Historical Committee has received funding to finish a documentary about Valcartier Elementary School, to mark the school’s 75th anniversary. The project began shortly before the pandemic and was paused due to public health measures. “We finally finished the interviews last spring,” said historical committee president Debbie Chakour. “We have multigenerational families and seniors sharing their experiences. It was easy to find families where three generations went to the school. One of the seniors we spoke to was the daughter of a teacher; she was actually born in the school building and lived there as a baby!”

Chakour said the small school was deeply linked with the local English-speaking community and the growing bilingual community on the nearby military base. “Twenty- five years ago, there were about 50 kids; now there are closer to 120, and they almost sit on top of each other. They may need to build a new school in the next few years, which is another reason why we want to document it. Let’s celebrate the memories while we have them!”

Chakour hopes the film will be completed by the end of February, 2026. “The deadline is the end of March, but you can’t really do anything in March in Valcartier because there are too many Irish things going on,” she said.

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

Sillery, Valcartier groups receive heritage funding Read More »

Quebec High School honours the Class of 2025

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 27, 2025 / Cassandra Kerwin, Education, Quebec City, Quebec High School

Quebec High School honours the Class of 2025

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

As spring turned into summer on June 20, Quebec High School (QHS) congratulated the Class of 2025. Dressed in the traditional blue caps and gowns, graduating students lined the corridor of the school before entering the gym to celebrate with their friends, family and teachers.

This year, the school was honouring a special group, dubbed the “COVID Cohort” because they started high school amid the pandemic. Vice-principal JoAnne Arsenault reminded them of that challenging time, when each group was restricted to a classroom and colour-coded areas as indicated by the colour of their masks. They missed out on key aspects of a typical high school experience: mingling between classes, participating in extracurricular activities and sports and moving from classroom to classroom. That changed once pandemic restrictions were lifted, life returned to normal and students were able to socialize more freely; yet, this period left a mark.

These points were also mentioned in the guest speaker’s address. QHS graduate, retired teacher and vice-principal Gina Farnell gave several pieces of advice: “Learn to let it go! You will meet precious people that you will treasure, and you will meet toxic people; in both cases, you will have to learn to let them go. Life will throw you some curveballs. Life is not fair. You will have to learn to move on,” she said. “You will also have to learn to persevere. Fulfil your dreams, and set goals that can be reached. No one knows where life will take you. There is a difference between stubbornness and perseverance. You will have to figure it out.”

Following her wise words, the ceremony continued with the distribution of diplomas and gold cords for those with averages of 80 per cent or higher. Awards were then distributed; Victor Sweeney, Benjamin Rouleau, valedictorian Ophélie Bernier and Freya Turner-Dufour received five each, and salutatorian Cedrick Goulet-Ratté received four.

Bernier gave the closing speech. “I chose QHS because it is a small school, which means that your business is everyone’s business. This means that we know each other. That sense of closeness between the 63 of us is something special,” she said. “Tonight is the end of a road, one that we have been on for five years. Just as we are starting to know who we are, getting used to the routine and people, we are thrown once again into the void. The imprint of QHS ties us together.”

A reception in the cafeteria followed. A full list of graduates and award winners can be consulted on the QCT website.

Quebec High School honours the Class of 2025 Read More »

Mayoral hopeful Hamad proposes SRB transit plan rejected by Caisse

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 24, 2025 / Peter Black, public transit, Quebec City, Sam Hamad, TramCité, Tramway de Québec

Mayoral hopeful Hamad proposes SRB transit plan rejected by Caisse

Peter Black

peterblack@qctonline.com

Mayoral candidate Sam Hamad has unveiled his promised alternative to the tramway plan. It is based on the service rapide par bus (SRB+) plan initially proposed in 2015 but subsequently rejected.

Hamad, a former Liberal provincial transport minister and engineer by profession, revealed details of SRB+, which he acknowledged was not a fully fleshed out proposal, at a June 18 news conference at a hotel on Boul. Laurier.

Hamad, vowing that the tramway would be dead if he and his Leadership Québec team win on Nov. 2, said his plan would be less disruptive to build, cost much less and provide greater service to the suburbs.

The key difference from the current tramway plan is the mode – a train of elongated buses in dedicated lanes instead of rail cars running on tracks – and the central trajectory – Boul. Charest between Université Laval and Saint- Roch, as opposed to Boul. René- Lévesque.

As a prelude to Hamad’s presentation, Daniel Lessard, former longtime head of engineering services for the city, gave an overview of transit plans dating back to 2015 under the administration of then- mayor Régis Labeaume.

Lessard concluded, “For over 25 years, I have planned and managed this city’s infrastructure. The SRB+ is the most realistic, technically robust and quickly deliverable project to meet the mobility needs of Quebec City residents.”

Hamad said the project, based on reams of previous studies, creating 29 kilometres of SRB lanes serving the Lebourgneuf, Charlesbourg, D’Estimauville and Le Gendre sectors, could get underway by 2029 and be completed in two years, at a cost of $4.2 billion.

He said, “It’s time to turn the page on the uncertainties sur- rounding the tramway and move forward with a realistic, credible project that’s resolutely forward-looking and based on the best available technical recommendations. This project is the modern, sustainable and immediate solution that Quebec needs.”

A plan for an SRB system running along Boul. Charest had been proposed in 2015 by the Labeaume administration, partly to accommodate the demands of the city of Lévis. At the time, Hamad was a minister in then-premier Philippe Couillard’s cabinet, responsible for the capital region.

When Lévis changed its mind about the project, as Labeaume recounted in his recent memoirs, Quebec City also abandoned the plan. In 2018, the city presented the first edition of the tramway plan, and quickly won support and a funding commitment from the federal government.

Since then, delays and associated mounting costs prompted the Quebec government to commission the Caisse de depot et placement infrastructure division (CDPQ Infra) to study the region’s transport needs and offer solutions.

In June 2024, that study was released containing the recommendation to build a scaled- down tramway system, with the central corridor running along Boul. René-Lévesque. The study rejected an SRB system as providing inadequate capacity for future needs, but did include the mode for subsidiary routes.

Whereas a key element of the tramway system is the complete electrification of the rolling stock, Hamad said the SRB system would not be powered by diesel, but when a call for tenders is made, “we’ll see what technology there is that responds to what we need. So hybrid (gasoline-electric) would be a good choice.”

He named several cities in the world that have electric SRB systems.

As for how he plans to convince the Quebec government that has committed to funding 50 per cent of the tramway to support his plan, Hamad said, “In my experience, usually the [Quebec] government responds to the mayor who is elected by the people.”

He said his plan’s $4.2-billion budget is half that of the current system, and given the government’s current financial situation, “This is an advantage for us.”

Mayoral hopeful Hamad proposes SRB transit plan rejected by Caisse Read More »

Critics slam Hamad’s transit plan as obsolete

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 24, 2025 / 2025 Municipal Elections, Bruno Marchand, Peter Black, public transit, Quebec City, Sam Hamad

Critics slam Hamad’s transit plan as obsolete

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Leadership Québec mayoral candidate Sam Hamad denies the coming election will be a referendum on the choice of transit system for the city.

Yet, given his vow to kill the current tramway system and replace it with one based on rapid bus service (SRB), transit is bound to be the central issue of the campaign.

A recent Segma poll showed Mayor Bruno Marchand leading Hamad by six points (38 per cent to 32 per cent) before Hamad released his transit plan last week. The poll also found nearly 30 per cent undecided, so the race for City Hall likely will be a battle to convince voters who has the better plan.

Hence, a day after Hamad unveiled his plan, Marchand delivered a harsh rebuke at a City Hall news conference. Marchand said Hamad’s proposal is “purely a political game. There are no facts, no science, no data to demonstrate that his project – without integration with a major axis – is relevant.”

Calling it a plan drawn up by “volunteers,” Marchand said it would do nothing to reduce the congestion problem in the most heavily populated corridor of the city, along Boul. René-Lévesque.

“We’re talking about Mr. Hamad’s feelings versus 20 years of studies, consultations, science and facts,” the mayor said.

“Do we want another election in Quebec City driven by nostalgia, a return to the past, the dream of 2015? I think the people of Quebec City are fed up,” Marchand said.

Opposition and Québec d’Abord Leader Claude Ville- neuve told reporters, “Who re- ally believes that Sam Hamad can deliver a mobility project? How many mobility projects have progressed in Quebec while Sam Hamad was minister of transport? How many in Quebec City? You know the answer: zero.”

Transition Québec Leader and Limoilou Coun. Jackie Smith said she “feels like [she’s] watching a bad comedy” with Hamad’s transit announcement.

“I don’t think what people want is to resume the debate where it was more than 10 years ago, when the idea Mr. Hamad is bringing back was rejected. The [CDPQ Infra] plan already includes the passage of an SRB on Boul. Charest; Mr. Hamad simply wants to start the plan backwards. The heart of the network congestion problem is on Parliament Hill and that’s what we’re tackling first with the deployment of the first phase of the tramway.”

Nora Loreto, co-founder and spokesperson for the pro- tramway citizens group Québec Désire Son Tramway, told the QCT Hamad’s proposal “shows that he’s got no clue about the growth of the city and the planned growth over the next 20 years. Seeing that he wants to push all the traffic onto Charest and leave the status quo in Upper Town is just not an option because at the end of the day the blockage for the traffic [stays] in Upper Town.”

Loreto said, “There’s a reason why all of the experts have not recommended this plan, and we think that it would be very prudent for Mr. Hamad, in an area where he is clearly lacking some knowledge and expertise, to listen to the experts on this one.”

Hamad’s plan did garner the support of Stevens Melançon, leader of Équipe Priorité Québec, who is reported to be considering joining Hamad’s team. He told Le Soleil, “I defend the citizen; I defend a project that respects the citizens’ ability to pay and that will serve my citizens.”

As for Marchand’s dismissal of Hamad’s plan, Melançon said, “I find it hard to understand why the mayor, whose project is not socially acceptable, is lecturing people.”

Critics slam Hamad’s transit plan as obsolete Read More »

Threat of transit strikes looms over FEQ

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 24, 2025 / Festival d'été de Québec, public transit, Quebec City, Réseau de transport de la Capitale, Ruby Pratka

Threat of transit strikes looms over FEQ

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

The union representing maintenance staff at the Réseau du Transport de la Capitale (RTC), Quebec City’s public transport network, has formally raised the possibility of a transit strike during the Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ).

On June 19, the union announced in a statement that it had submitted a strike notice for a 10-day work stoppage beginning July 4, the first day of the festival.

The collective agreement between the bus maintenance workers’ union – the Syndicat des salariés et salariées d’entretien du RTC–CSN – and the city expired in September 2024; negotiations for a new agreement began in October, according to the union.

“The goal is not to strike at all costs, but to apply pressure on the eve of the busiest time of year to quickly reach a settlement that is satisfactory to both parties,” explained union president Nicolas Louazel.

Frédéric Brun is the president of the Fédération des employées et employés des services publics (FEESP), a division of the CSN union federation, of which the RTC maintenance workers’ union is a member. He and Louazel struck a reassuring tone regarding the likelihood of a strike.

“The parties are entering into an intensive negotiation blitz – day, evening, night, weekend – and experience tells us that it is entirely possible to reach a settlement quickly,” Brun said. “The concrete threat of a strike during FEQ is only an incentive to prevent the employer from falling back into its habit of marking time and dragging things out.”

The union had previously submitted a notice for a one- day strike planned for April 30, which was cancelled on April 25 after progress at the negotiating table.

The last time RTC transit service was halted was in July 2023, when the Syndicat des employés du transport public de Québec métropolitaine (SETPQM), the union which represents the RTC’s more than 900 drivers, went on strike. That strike ended with an agreement on July 6 – five days after it had begun and hours before the beginning of FEQ. No service was offered during that strike, after a labour tribunal ruled that transit was not an essential service, angering advocates for low-wage workers and people with disabilities who depend on the service.

RTC spokesperson Raphaëlle Savard said 13,000 people use the RTC every day during FEQ. She said the RTC had twice requested that the union “agree on a minimal level of service to offer in the event of a strike.”

“This request aims to limit the impact on regular RTC customers, many of whom rely on public transport to get around, as well as on occasional customers who use RTC services to get to FEQ,” she said.

“The RTC acknowledges the strike notice and will communicate the impacts on service delivery as quickly as possible to provide maximum predictability to its customers. The RTC reiterates its availability to negotiate at any time, including weekends, to reach an agree- ment and avoid any impact on customers,” Savard said. She invited people with questions about bus service to visit the RTC website or call customer service at 418-627-2511, option 1.

The union said in a state- ment that it would make no further comment for the time being, “in order to concentrate on the negotiations.”

Separately, the union representing personnel operating and maintaining the Québec- Lévis and Matane-Godbout ferries, also a CSN affiliate, gave notice for a strike beginning July 4. Members of the ferry operators’ union, which negotiates directly with the Treasury Board, have been without an agreement since April 2023. “The lack of serious progress at our negotiating table has made us understand more than once that for the government, we are not among its priorities,” said union president Patrick Saint-Laurent.

Threat of transit strikes looms over FEQ Read More »

Faubourg elevator reopens after major repairs

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 24, 2025 / Peter Black, Quebec City

Faubourg elevator reopens after major repairs

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Pedestrians will once again have more convenient access between Upper and Lower Town with the reopening of the refurbished Faubourg elevator.

Located on Rue Saint-Vallier, the historic lift and the compact café next to it had been closed since March 17 for major renovations to the interior and exterior.

The work was done in two phases, the first being last fall, with the cleaning of the adjacent cliff and repairing brickwork and windows on the structure.

The second phase involved the complete replacement of the elevator and entrance areas. Some work will continue until July 13, according to a city news release, but it will not affect use of the elevator by the public.

The overall cost of the project is $1.47 million. According to the city, the elevator, “designed in 1942 by architect Wilfrid Lacroix … has served both a utilitarian and indispensable purpose for over 80 years, as well as being a representative example of Art Deco public architecture. While 200 to 400 users use it daily, renovations carried out in 1997 gave it its current appearance.

Faubourg elevator reopens after major repairs Read More »

Government slashes funding to school boards, service centres

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 24, 2025 / Central Québec School Board, Education, Jean Robert, Quebec City, Ruby Pratka, school boards

Government slashes funding to school boards, service centres

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Quebec’s English school boards reacted with alarm and frustration after the Ministry of Education imposed at least $510 million in across-the-board cuts to the public school system. Education Minister Bernard Drainville told reporters last week that the ministry’s expenses have grown by seven per cent per year since 2018, a rate he called “unsustainable.” Next school year’s increase has been capped at 1.8 per cent – below the rate of inflation – as part of a wider effort by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government to rein in the growing deficit.

“The direction I have given to school service centres is to make this money work better, to be more efficient, to respect budgets without touching student services, or without touching them as much as possible,” Drainville said.

“School boards and service centres across the province were informed [June 12] that a staggering $510 million in additional cuts would be expected throughout the Quebec education system, on top of the $200 million already slashed earlier this school year,” the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) said in a statement. “These new cuts are expected to take effect in July, allowing only one day of consultation for school boards and service centres to react.”

“This government is expecting us to make these astronomical cuts on the backs of our students, which is completely unacceptable,” said QESBA president Joe Ortona. “The government has given school boards just 24 hours to respond to what can only be described as a direct assault on the viability of our public education system. This financial crisis was not created by school boards, and we will not allow our school system’s integrity to be sacrificed to solve this government’s deficit.”

Jean Robert is the chair of the council of commissioners of the Central Québec School Board (CQSB), which oversees English-language public schools in the Quebec City region, Mauricie, Saguenay and parts of northern Quebec. On June 20, he estimated the board would have to cut about $6 million from its budget. That was later revised downward to around $3 million, but the board was told it could not run a deficit or dip into its surplus. Robert said officials were still looking at ways to tackle the problem.

Robert expressed frustration at the ministry’s decision to announce the cuts in mid-June, after school boards had confirmed staff contracts for the coming year. “Because of the collective agreements, we need to do our staffing for September by June 1,” he said. “Had we been given a little more time, we would have been able to make adjustments like having one class of 34 [students] instead of two classes of 17, but we can’t do that at this point. … Why did they decide, at the last minute and without consultation, that they were going to cut?”

Education ministry spokesperson Bryan St-Louis said the board had been asked to “optimize its expenses” by eliminating $2.37 million in spending. He said boards had been informed of the cuts as soon as information was available.

Robert told the QCT boards would normally dip into their surpluses to absorb the impact of the cuts. The CQSB “does have a surplus … and it’s there for unforeseen circumstances, but now we’re being told we can’t use it.” He said the restriction on the use of surplus funds was contrary to the spirit of a recent Superior Court ruling affirming the English-speaking community’s right to govern its own schools. (Last month, the Quebec government announced its intention to apply for leave to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.)

Robert said the ministry could limit the impact of the cuts by allowing boards to use surplus funds or spread the cuts out over several years. “We’re hopeful that the government will see how this will impact student learning, and then we will have to look at whatever options are available.”

The QCT contacted Drainville’s office for comment but did not receive a response before press time.

Government slashes funding to school boards, service centres Read More »

KWE! celebrates Indigenous cultures at the Grand Spectacle

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 24, 2025 / Cassandra Kerwin, Indigenous, Indigenous Peoples' Day, Quebec City

KWE! celebrates Indigenous cultures at the Grand Spectacle

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

On the Summer Solstice, Canadians celebrated National Indigenous Peoples Day. In Quebec City, the eighth KWE! Meet with Indigenous Peoples festival crowned the celebrations with a free concert, this time, on the steps of the National Assembly.

All day, people stopped to listen to the soundchecks. Artists jokingly said, “If you want to hear the rest of the songs, you’ll have to come back this evening.” They did and in great numbers, filling every space from the stage, around the Fontaine de Tourny to the remparts, even climbing on top of them. Hundreds of spectators watched and listened in awe, admiration and respect.

As the hot, cloudless first day of summer came to an end, KWE! celebrated the 11 First Nations and Inuit of Quebec with a free concert in partner- ship with the Quebec govern- ment. Public officials including Quebec minister responsible for relations with First Nations and Inuit Ian Lafrenière; Ghislain Picard, the former grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations Québec-Labrador; Wendat Grand Chief Rémy Vincent; Lt.- Gov. Manon Jeannotte, former chief of the Mi’kmaq Nation of Gespeg and the first Indigenous lieutenant governor of Quebec; and city councillor Maude Mercier Larouche were present for the opening ceremony.

Northern Voice set the beat on a ceremonial drum to the breathtaking throat singing by Sandy Emudluk and Janice Parsons as dancers performed a traditional powwow dance.

Internationally renowned violinist and composer Geneviève Gros-Louis then came on- stage. From her first note to her last, she captivated the growing audience under the setting sun. The Wendat composer skilfully and melodically blended music inspired by Indigenous traditions with modern elements. Through her work and art, she addresses important concerns such as mental health and women’s issues. She has composed music for the National Geographic Channel series Life Below Zero and the Cannes Film Festival event presenting the Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon, honouring the Osage people. This evening was all about her heritage and that of the 11 First Nations and Inuit of Quebec. Singer Keyara Gros-Louis and traditional dancers accompanied her performance.

Following this outstanding opening set, Abenaki actor and entertainer Xavier Watso got the crowd laughing. “We are here this evening to celebrate our culture with you and to show everyone that we are strong and proud,” he said. “Let’s make enough noise to make the statues on the Parliament building behind me shake!” He then named the different First Nations to discover who was from where, with the loudest cheer coming for the nearby Wendat Nation.

Members of each nation stepped onto the stage to sing in their native language. Punctuated by throat singing, one by one, they sang “Un musicien parmi tant d’autres” by Serge Fiori, to enthusiastic applause.

They then left room for the performers of the evening: Florent Vollant and his guests, including Zachary Richard, Maten, Dumas, Ivan Boivin- Flamand, Hauterive, Scott-Pien Picard and Vincent Vallières.

KWE! celebrates Indigenous cultures at the Grand Spectacle Read More »

Hamad recruits two sitting councillors for City Hall team

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 18, 2025 / 2025 Municipal Elections, Anne Guérette, Bruno Marchand, Claude Villeneuve, Isabelle Roy, Jackie Smith, Louis Martin, Peter Black, Quebec City, Ruby Pratka, Sam Hamad, Stéphane Lachance

Hamad recruits two sitting councillors for City Hall team

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Mayoral candidate Sam Hamad now has two sitting municipal councillors on his own slate of candidates.

Isabelle Roy, councillor for the Robert-Giffard district in Beauport, and Louis Martin, councillor for Cap-Rouge–Laurentien and former speaker of the city council, will run under Hamad’s Leadership Québec banner.

Both were councillors for the opposition Québec d’abord party, but in March leader Claude Villeneuve booted Roy from the caucus when reports surfaced she had talked to Hamad about joining his party. Martin, who had also had discussions with Hamad, quit the party on his own shortly afterwards.

As members of Québec d’abord, both councillors supported the tramway project, an initiative of the previous administration of Régis Labeaume. Hamad opposes the project in its current concept as a costly system citizens do not want.

Both councillors, when the QCT contacted them, offered explanations for the change of position. Roy said, “I don’t think I’ve been the biggest cheerleader for the tramway project in the last three years. The abandonment of the D’Estimauville branch of the tramway was the breaking point for my support.”

She said, “The citizens of Quebec deserve efficient mobility across the entire territory, and the project Mr. Hamad will be putting forward is a step in that very direction.”

Martin said, “I’ve always been in favour of improving public transit in the city. It does not matter what vehicle – tramway, subway, bus – we need more transit, quickly. I saw Mr. Hamad’s proposal and I am convinced that it’s the best project to improve public transit in the city, quickly, for all neighbourhoods, at a price we can afford.”

Martin said Hamad plans to unveil his alternative transit plan as early as this week.

As far as why she joined Hamad’s team, Roy said the former provincial Liberal MNA and minister “is an authentic leader, capable of bringing people together and moving major issues forward by rallying the right people around the table.”

The addition of Roy and Martin now gives Leadership Québec seven confirmed candidates so far for the 21 districts. Hamad does not plan to run for a council seat as some mayoral candidates have chosen to do.

Québec d’abord now has only two sitting councillors who plan to run again, Patricia Boudreault-Bruyère in Neufchâtel–Lebourgneuf and Véronique Dallaire in Saules–Les Méandres. Longtime councillor Anne Corriveau announced earlier this month she does not plan to run again in her Pointe- de-Sainte-Foy district.

Besides the two incumbents, the other Québec d’abord candidates are Rosie-Anne R. Vallières in Vanier-Duberger, a seat being vacated by Alicia Despins, and Sophie Gosselin in Lac-Saint-Charles–Saint-Émile. Villeneuve, who is running for mayor for the first time, is the councillor for Maizerets-Lairet.

The large field of mayoral candidates became even larger over the weekend when former City Hall opposition leader and mayoral candidate Anne Guérette announced she was running for mayor again under the banner of the newly created Parti du Monde – Équipe Anne Guérette. Since stepping down as leader of the now-defunct Démocratie Québec party in 2017, Guérette, an architect, has become a vocal opponent of the tramway project. She joins incumbent mayor Bruno Marchand, Villeneuve, Hamad, Transition Québec leader Jackie Smith and Respect Citoyens leader Stéphane Lachance on the lengthening list of candidates. Municipal elections will be held across Quebec on Nov. 2.

With files from Ruby Pratka, LJI reporter

Hamad recruits two sitting councillors for City Hall team Read More »

First step of Promenade Champlain Phase 4 to feature pedestrian bridge

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 18, 2025 / Peter Black, Promenade Champlain, Quebec City

First step of Promenade Champlain Phase 4 to feature pedestrian bridge

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

The Coalition Avenir Québec government is moving ahead with the fourth and final phase of the Promenade Samuel-De Champlain shoreline redevelopment plan.

Phase 4, spanning from Rue D’Estimauville to Montmorency Falls, would complete the project, which began as a legacy gift to Quebec City from the Quebec government to mark its 400th anniversary in 2008.

The 8.1 kilometre length of the final phase is longer than the combined total of the first three phases, running from the bridges to the yacht club along the promenade. Phase 3, completed in 2023, comprises a beach and pool area.

Phase 4 itself comprises redevelopment of five zones in separate stages.

Jonatan Julien, the minister for infrastructure and minister responsible for the capital region, made the announcement June 10 at Le Pivot community centre in Beauport, alongside the vice president of the city executive committee, Coun. Pierre-Luc Lachance (Saint-Roch-Saint-Sauveur); Montmorency MNA Jean-François Simard; and André Roy, director general of the Commission de la Capitale Nationale du Québec (CCNQ), which manages Promenade Samuel-De Champlain.

The Phase 4 plan was selected from three consortia who were finalists in an “ideation” com- petition to stimulate concepts for the projects. A total of 32 teams from around the world submitted concepts. The winner is a Montreal-based group comprising Atelier L’Abri, Écoterritoire, Ghost and Le Picbois.

The centrepiece of the first stage of Phase 4 will be a bridge for pedestrians and cyclists to be built between Rue D’Estimauville and the Baie de Beauport, where a privately managed beach area has been in place for several years. It will pass over tracks for a CN railway marshalling yard.

The bridge, Julien said, “is the first step toward enhancing this fantastic site. This ambitious project will improve active mobility and enhance the quality of life for residents.”

Julien said he hopes to see the pedestrian bridge completed next year, with $5 million already invested in preparing plans. As for other components of the project, Julien said he was not in a position to provide a specific timetable, except that it would take several years. No overall budget has been drawn up either.

Besides the D’Estimauville sector, the four other sectors are defined as Rivière Beauport, Boul. des Chutes, the former cement works and Étang de la Côte.

A key component of the project is the transformation of the Autoroute Montmorency in the target sector into an “urban boulevard” making the shoreline more accessible and reducing the impact of a freeway.

The objective of the project contains five principles, as outlined in briefing documents: “Reclaim the shoreline and balance mobility, preserve existing biodiversity and natural environments, regenerate and rewild the shoreline, reconnect neighbourhoods to the shoreline, and create a resilience laboratory for urban development.”

Although CCNQ is the lead agency on the Promenade Samuel-De Champlain project, other partners include the ministry of transport, the Port of Quebec and the Quebec City administration.

Details of the project are available on the CCNQ website.

First step of Promenade Champlain Phase 4 to feature pedestrian bridge Read More »

CELEBRATING THE CLASS OF 2025: CEGEP Champlain-St. Lawrence honours graduates and teachers

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 11, 2025 / Cassandra Kerwin, CEGEP Champlain-St. Lawrence, Education, graduation, Quebec City

CELEBRATING THE CLASS OF 2025: CEGEP Champlain-St. Lawrence honours graduates and teachers

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

The Class of 2025 of CEGEP Champlain-St. Lawrence (SLC) entered the darkened hall of Le Montmartre on June 6 to the sound of Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance.” Hundreds of graduates dressed in caps and gowns, and their families and friends, attended a ceremony to mark a milestone in their academic lives.

Graduates and parents lingered outdoors for photos be- fore being called into the hall. At 7:30 p.m., the ceremony began with speeches given by communications advisor Emma Lawrence and director of the constituent college and director of studies Edward Berryman.

Before the graduates and student award winners were named, the school honoured its dedicated faculty. This year, the AQPC Excellence in Teaching Award went to history professor Geneviève Ribordy. The students selected her fellow history professor Thomas Welham for the SLC Student Association Recognition Award.

The Highest Academic Achievement awards went to Hirad Haghbayan (science), Ève Richard (social science), Charlie Tremblay Groleau (P.W. Sims Business Program) and Harun Trtak (arts, literature and communications). Haghbayan also received the Highest Overall Academic Achievement Award, the Champlain Regional College Board of Governors’ Merit Award and the Governor General’s Medal. The prestigious Loran Honour Citation went to Tristan Massicotte. The Lieutenant-Governor’s Award went to Merrick Marshall and Paloma Calleja.

Of the 30 awards presented, Tremblay Groleau received four: the Puissance Onze Award, the Ernst and Young Award, the Beneva Resilience Scholarship and the Highest Academic Achievement Award in the P.W. Sims Business Program. As president of the SLC Student Association, he also gave the closing speech.

“I am truly honoured to have this chance to speak on behalf of the Class of 2025,” he said. “After our time here, we have come to understand that St. Lawrence is much, much more than an anglophone CEGEP in a francophone city. It is because we are small that we were able to have such a memorable and personal CEGEP experience, whether it was with our classmates or the dedicated faculty through extracurricular activities, studies, sports and clubs.” He concluded, “On behalf of the class, I thank you, St. Lawrence, and to the Class of 2025, continue to make a positive reputation.”

A full list of graduates and award winners follows below the photos.

CELEBRATING THE CLASS OF 2025: CEGEP Champlain-St. Lawrence honours graduates and teachers Read More »

Quebec City prepares for the Grand Spectacle de la Fête Nationale

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 11, 2025 / Cassandra Kerwin, Fête nationale, Quebec City

Quebec City prepares for the Grand Spectacle de la Fête Nationale

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

With summer just around the corner, Quebecers are preparing to celebrate Fête Nationale, which marks the summer solstice and honours the patron saint of French Canadians – Jean Baptiste, or John the Baptist.

On June 23, the annual Grand Spectacle on the Plains of Abraham will feature Garou, Claude Dubois, Ariane Moffatt, Sarahmée, Alaclair Ensemble and Bleu Jeans Bleu, among others, to celebrate Quebec culture and honour legendary singer-songwriter Gilles Vigneault. The show will be broadcast on TV and radio for all to enjoy.

“The Grand Spectacle de la Fête Nationale in the capital is part of a 25-year tradition for Télé-Québec,” said Télé-Québec CEO Marie Collin. “This year, the excitement is at its peak as we also take the production reins with various partners. True to our mission of promoting Quebec culture, we are delighted to bring together and excite the entire province of Quebec by sharing this immense moment of pride … We are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Quebec’s unofficial anthem, ‘Gens du Pays,’ a tribute to Gilles Vigneault.”

“Our national holiday celebrations on the Plains showcase the artistic talent of Quebecers throughout the province,” said Mayor Bruno Marchand. “This annual musical event in the heart of the capital kicks off the festive season in Quebec City, a vibrant season in every corner of the city.”

This year, the traditional patriotic speeches will be delivered by television and radio personalities Sébastien Diaz and Bianca Gervais. “The 2025 celebration falls at a pivotal moment. Let’s face it, our world is a bit turned upside down,” said Gervais, co-spokeperson of the 2025 celebrations. “It’s a good reason to celebrate our expertise, our talents, to let our personalities shine, to pull together, to buy local and to rekindle our pride in our identity.”

Street performers, dancers and face painters will entertain passersby on Avenue Cartier and Grande Allée. The party continues on the Plains of Abraham when the gates open at 6 p.m. The Grand Spectacle begins at 9:30 p.m, with warm- up acts beginning at 7:30.

For the occasion, the Réseau de Transport de la Capitale (RTC) will increase its regular service on June 23 from 6:30 p.m. to 12:45 a.m. on June 24. In addition, free park-and-ride lots will be available. For more information, visit rtcquebec.qc.ca.

Télé-Québec will broadcast the show live on TV, online at telequebec.tv and on the Télé-Québec mobile app. Local radio stations Rouge FM and iHeartRadio will also broadcast it live. There will be a rebroadcast on June 24 at 6 p.m. and on June 27 at 10:30 p.m. On June 25, TV5Monde will broadcast the show on its digital platforms throughout the French-speaking world. Festivities continue on June 24 with the official flag-raising ceremony at the Grand Marché.

Quebec City prepares for the Grand Spectacle de la Fête Nationale Read More »

Women march for equality and an end to poverty

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 11, 2025 / Bread and Roses, Cassandra Kerwin, feminism, gender equality, Quebec City, women's rights

Women march for equality and an end to poverty

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

To mark the 30th anniversary of the historic 1995 Bread and Roses March, women across the province held commemorative events. In Quebec City, women and men assembled beside the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec on June 7 for speeches before marching along Grande Allée to the National Assembly and to the Parc de la Francophonie for celebratory cake and refreshments.

Françoise David played a key role in the 1995 march as president of the Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) and later became an MNA, serving as co-spokesperson for Québec Solidaire. She said she still feels there is much work to be done in the name of gender equality and the fight against poverty, despite the progress made over the last three decades. “On the legal level, in terms of laws, we can’t say that women have taken a step backwards in Quebec,” she said. “The creation of a network of childcare centres was essential for women to be able to work, and recently, given the rise in reports of sexual assault against women, the creation of a specialized court. So, there has been progress for women.”

“It is a good thing to celebrate this milestone now, especially in these international political times,” said social worker Elizabeth Lopez. “We cannot allow the toxic masculinity and patriarchy rising from the south to undo all the work we have done in the past decades. That is why I skipped school to march back then and that is why I am here today.” She added, “It is great to see so many men among us and support[ing] us.”

“It is amazing to see how much has changed in 30 years,” said Amélia O’Connor, a retired social worker and volunteer in a women’s shelter in Montreal. “The demands we made back then still resonate with us today.” According to the FFQ, the marchers’ main de- mands included pay equity, social programs for women with potential jobs, security benefits and unemployment insurance, social housing, and an automatic child support collection system. This year, women walked for equality, social justice and an end to poverty.

Much has improved for women since the initial Bread and Roses March in 1912, a strike of immigrant workers at a textile factory in Lawrence (near Boston), Mass. Over the past century, women in North America have gained the right to vote, hold office, have careers outside the home and keep their jobs after giving birth and while raising young children. The gender salary gap has decreased, abortion has been legalized and shelters for women who have escaped domestic violence have become more accessible, although challenges remain.

Much remains to be done, as demonstrated by the hundreds of women and men present in Quebec City this past weekend. Among them were some of the original 1995 “godmothers” (sponsors and co-organizers) and newly appointed “godmothers,” including freelance journalist and broadcaster Ariane Émond, Sen. Chantal Petitclerc, Indigenous rights activist Michèle Rouleau, artist Marie-Claire Séguin, Radio- Canada anchor Marie-José Turcotte, and former executive director of the Maison d’Haïti and Montreal-based immigrant rights activist Marjorie Villefranche.

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TRAM TRACKER: Prep work ramps up; consortia compete for big contracts

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 11, 2025 / Peter Black, Quebec City, tram tracker, TramCité, tramway, Tramway de Québec

TRAM TRACKER: Prep work ramps up; consortia compete for big contracts

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

There will be several visible signs and a foretaste of the level of disruption over the coming months as preliminary work for the tramway project ramps up. At the same time, the selection process for principal contractors for the project has reached an important milestone.

Last week the city unveiled a list of worksites mostly along Bouls. René-Lévesque and Laurier, as well as in Saint-Roch, involving the relocation and modernization of underground networks for water, natural gas and telecommunications.

A few examples of the projects are the installation of valves for the water supply network on streets perpendicular to Boul. René-Lévesque as well as near 1ère Avenue in Limoilou and Charlesbourg; reconstruction of three access shafts for telecommunications networks at Avenues Holland, Brown and Cartier; and creation of a temporary connection zone at Parc Victoria and Rue de la Maréchaussée.

The city says it will inform affected residents and businesses as work rolls out and take measures to “maintain access to homes and businesses, ensure mobility and safe travel in neighbourhoods and reduce nuisances, such as noise and dust, caused by construction sites.”

Any questions about these projects can be directed to the city’s citizens’ relations centre by calling 311.

Meanwhile, the process to build the actual tramway net- work has taken a leap forward with the selection of consortia that will bid on the two biggest contracts of the project.

The Caisse de Dépôt et Placement de Québec infrastructure division (CDPQ Infra), which the Quebec government has commissioned to manage the tramway project, has picked three consortia of companies each to bid on the contracts for civil construction and for systems.

In a June 5 release, CDPQ Infra describes the civil work as including “the excavation of the tunnel under Parliament Hill, construction of buildings, construction and repair of bridges, viaducts and other engineering structures.”

The systems contract covers “railway tracks, traction power systems, as well as electrical, communication and road and railway signalling systems.

The six qualified consortia will have until the end of the year to submit proposals for evaluation by project manage- ment experts. Once the winning bidders are chosen early next year, the implementation stage will be set in motion towards a 2027 start for full- blown construction. The system is targeted for completion in 2033.

Some companies – Pomerleau and AtkinsRéalis (formerly SNC-Lavalin), for example – are contenders for both contracts.

Phase 1 of the $7.6-billion TramCité project comprises 19 kilometres of track for electric trains, with 29 stations from Cap-Rouge to Charlesbourg.

TRAM TRACKER: Prep work ramps up; consortia compete for big contracts Read More »

Developer vows to limit inconvenience in adding 10 floors to Grande Allée building

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 11, 2025 / Peter Black, Quebec City, real estate

Developer vows to limit inconvenience in adding 10 floors to Grande Allée building

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Work could get underway soon on a project to add 10 storeys to an apartment building on Grande Allée that already has 11 floors.

The city is expected to grant approval in the coming weeks for Bildodeau Immobilier to raise the roof on 153-155 Grande Allée Est, a building that was completed in 2020. Bilodeau also owns the apartment building behind the new one, Le Montmorency, on Avenue Wilfrid-Laurier.

As for the seeming negative impacts of a construction site on top of a building housing several hundred tenants, the developers say, “During construction, several elements are being put in place to mitigate inconveniences.”

In an email exchange with the QCT, Éric Bilodeau, general manager of the family-owned company, said the building had been designed with an addition of up to 12 stories in mind.

“The structure, configuration and anchors are already installed and planned for this purpose. The structure has the capacity to accommodate the additional 10 floors without any worries,” Bilodeau said. “The same is true for the interior installations, as a third elevator shaft already exists and is ready to accommodate the third elevator, among other things.”

As for the actual construction, Bilodeau said the impact will be contained largely by the building work going on “at height.” This will limit “the footprint on public roads and sidewalks.”

He said, “A protection will be installed over a width of about 10 feet, all around the building from the 13th floor, during exterior construction. This protection will make all balconies accessible and walk- ing on the sidewalk possible. A demarcated sidewalk will be installed, with open containers and a construction flagger will be present on site as much as necessary to assist with crossing and traffic.”

Bilodeau said steps will be taken to keep Rue Galipeau, which borders the site on the west, open to traffic and pedestrians. Construction workers’ vehicles will be parked further away at designated lots.

As for the usual convoy of de- livery trucks for a construction site, Bilodeau said a system will be in place so that “trucks will have to wait to be called in turn, from a parking lot that will be established on our Boul. René-Lévesque property.”

Because there is no excavation work to be done, issues of noise and dust will be limited, he said.

Another mitigating feature, Bilodeau said, would be that the usual trailers for construction workers will be cantilevered over the build- ing. “Movement between the ground floor and the building will therefore be limited. They will use the fire escape leading to Rue Galipeau, but will have no access to the interior of the upper floors.”

Bilodeau said, “We intend to make this construction a success both in its method of execution and in the final product.”

Among the company’s other properties are the Woodfield- Sillery condo-apartments and the recently acquired Catholic diocese building and land on Boul. René-Lévesque.

Developer vows to limit inconvenience in adding 10 floors to Grande Allée building Read More »

Author name: The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph