Community Centre

Centre Wakefield-La Pêche nearly folds over lack of help

By Trevor Greenway

Members of the Centre Wakefield-La Pêche (CWLP) co-operative said they were “shocked” and “disappointed” at their 2025 AGM when they could barely get six people to volunteer to sit on the new board of directors.

Just 25 or so CWLP members – out of over 3,000 total co-op members – showed up for the Sept. 24 AGM, and among those just one – former board member Carly Woods – stood up to offer her time and expertise to sit as a new board member. The co-op board consists of a total of 11 seats, however only six are required to form a quorum.

“If we do not have people step forward to be on this board, the co-op will cease to exist,” said La Pêche Coun. Pam Ross, who is the CWLP-appointed municipal representative on the board. “I would argue it’s situation critical.”

Ross’ plea sparked a round of discussions among those in attendance, but it wasn’t enough to encourage anyone else to put their name forward. In the end, board members Archie Smith and John Parker, who were both set to step down, agreed to stay on as interim board members so that the co-op wouldn’t be forced to disband.

Co-op members agreed to begin recruiting other members to replace the outgoing board members. CWLP chair Julie Coté also stepped down, however a replacement was not chosen.

Founding CWLP member Ruth Salmon told the crowd that previous meetings – namely those leading up to and including the building transfer vote – drew hundreds of members because there was a “crisis.” Because members were voting on whether to transfer ownership of the building, which they overwhelmingly voted in favour of earlier this year, to the municipality, the meeting had something at stake for them, she explained.

“I think we need to let people know about this crisis and really put a push forward and say, ‘Hey, this is happening – we might fold because we don’t have enough people,’” Salmon told the crowd. She said that the CWLP board over the years has not maintained a “corporate memory.”

“Every board comes in and they start all over again,” she said. “There isn’t a volunteer committee that has been going on for 10 years, building up the volunteer base. There has never been a fundraising committee.”

While board volunteers and members in general were lacking at the meeting, there was an air of confidence and excitement about the future. Now that the CWLP building transfer is complete, board members no longer have to worry about building maintenance and can focus solely on programming for the centre. And it hasn’t taken long for the centre to get buzzing with a refreshed approach.

“I don’t know if I would have applied for the job had the building not been transferred, to be honest,” said new CWLP general manager Jess Harris. “The outgoing board has worked so hard for the smooth transfer. I think they have done a great job of advocating for the co-op and the community to be able to continue in this beautiful building without the burden of all that this … building requires.”

Harris said the centre will become a truly shared space for all La Pêche residents, rather than a Wakefield-centric centre with mainly English programming.

“I think extending our reach into the francophone community is a huge opportunity right now with the municipality in the mix,” said Harris. “Instead of just being the Wakefield community centre, it’s more of the Wakefield-La Pêche community centre, which is for everyone.”

Small deficit ‘not bad’ says board member (SUBHED)

In terms of financials, the board is in decent shape. However board member John Parker warned members that it’s difficult to get a complete financial picture as everything has now changed with the municipal building takeover.

The centre’s finances show a deficit of $144,000, however most of that is “depreciation of the mortgage,” explained Parker. He added that, with the co-op no longer owning the building, the deficit is significantly smaller.

“The depreciation value is $144,00, so if you take that off the books, we’re at a $4,000 loss this year, which, for the operation of the centre on volunteers, that’s not bad,” he said.

Where the centre fell short was in grants, as board members were able to secure $296,000 in grants in 2024, compared to just $69,000 this year – a more than 75 per cent drop in funding.

Harris said one of her priorities is to recruit grant writers to help the centre take advantage of the money available to community centres for programming. The centre made up much of the shortfall in programming revenue, as visitors paid a total of $127,000 on events at the centre, compared to last year’s $77,000. Rentals increased by nearly $60,000 to $164,000, while community donations also rose from just over $9,000 to $27,000 in 2025. Total revenue for the centre in 2025 was $452,850.

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Forget the leaking toilets, plan a concert instead

Local Journalism Initiative / The Low Down / August 1, 2025 / Centre Wakefield La Pêche, Community Centre, CWLP, Guillaume Lamoureux, Julie Coté, La Pêche, Trevor Greenway

By Trevor Greenway

The municipality of La Pêche is the proud new owner of Wakefield’s $4.9 million community centre, but that doesn’t mean it will be getting into the events business anytime soon.

“The municipality is not in the business of organizing events and all of that, and we really want the co-op to continue focusing on what they do best, which is planning events,” La Pêche Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux told the Low Down. He was speaking just days after the municipality and Centre Wakefield La Pêche (CWLP) signed a deal that sees the municipality become the landlord of the building, while the cooperative becomes a tenant, which will have rent-free access to the centre 24/7.

The new agreement will see the municipality handle everything that has to do with maintenance – fixing leaky toilets, repairing the roof, floors and keeping the lights on, while staffers and board members will continue to focus on programming – increasing classes, events and concerts, and keeping the centre buzzing with activity.

“[The centre] will need support from the community as they did before,” added Lamoureux. “And the fact that the co-op can now really solely focus its energy on community services, that’s paramount.”

The municipality has similar agreements in place with Maison Fairbairn and Place des Arts Farrellton, where La Pêche is the landlord and maintains the buildings, while members run the day-to-day operations.

When board members presented the draft agreement to the membership a couple of years ago, concerns arose around how the member-run community centre could turn into a regional cultural facility, and its English programming could be cut significantly.

But the board held a referendum on the issue in June 2022, where 82 per cent of the membership voted in favour of transferring the building over to the municipality.

And if you ask CWLP board chair Julie Coté, she’ll tell you that board members and staff still have control over the day-to-day operations at the centre, and they will now have more time and flexibility to focus on growing the centre’s offerings for members and the general public. She said that throughout the draft agreement process, board members felt confident that the municipality had their best interests at heart.

“Working with [the mayor] has been very enlightening, because he’s very community focused. He lives within an arm’s throw of the centre, and I really believe that he’s been a real help with that positive narrative,” said Coté. “Even if you look on the La Pêche website, you see that one of their pillars is to encourage member-led activities within the municipality, and they really want to be that partner to help assist us with obtaining grants and opportunities that will take our programming to the next level.”

Staffers Rob Passmore and Annie Rompre said they were excited to get to work, especially since they no longer have things like fixing toilets or sourcing flooring prices on their list of daily duties.

“All this maintenance costs a lot, and if there can be more money for programs or staff, that’s amazing, because we have a lot of work to do,” said Passmore.

Former board member Shaugh McArthur spent hundreds of hours working through the draft agreement with the municipality and said what’s key is that the cooperative’s history is cemented into the agreement and that captures the entire spirit of the centre’s initial mandate when it first opened its doors in 2011. McArthur told the Low Down that the move “sets the tone for a new era partnership” between the CWLP members and the municipality.

“The preamble [in the agreement] captures the whole history of the community-led grassroots effort, the founding members, the community really rallying, as well as the municipality having our backs and helping out,” he said.

McArthur said there are a number of clauses in the agreement that “ensure that the community centre always remains a community centre,” and another that allows the CWLP membership to cancel the agreement and revert back to the initial agreement should both parties become unsatisfied with the new agreement.

The CWLP will host an AGM this fall, where it will look to elect a new board and chair, as Coté is ready to step down after serving on the board since 2023.

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Wakefield community centre: not-for-profit or co-op?

Local Journalism Initiative / The Low Down / March 13, 2025 / Community Centre, La Peche, Trevor Greenway, Wakefield

By Trevor Greenway
Local Journalism Initiative

There could be a move afoot to disband the Centre Wakefield-La Pêche (CWLP) cooperative and merge it into a not-for-profit organization.

But before that happens, the centre needs to finalize its agreement with the municipality to take over ownership of the building. That agreement should be finalized by the summer.

But in the meantime, Wakefielders Bob Gibson and Karen Bays of the Membership Involvement Group (MING) at the CWLP have been tasked with studying the cooperative model and have recommended to the Wakefield community centre board that it moves forward with disbanding the current model.

Their argument is that the Wakefield community centre should not be managed under a cooperative model, as it doesn’t properly serve the community in which it operates.

“It may be the only [community centre] in Canada, if not North America, that uses a coop model,” Bays recently told the Low Down, referring to the Wakefield community centre. Bays has since stepped away from MING and the centre to allow them to focus on the building transfer, but she still believes that once the transfer is complete, the board should consider moving away from the cooperative model.

“You have to be a member to participate,” said Bays. “Basically, you’re supposed to give as much as you get in a coop. But we have a centre where people want to come to events, but they don’t want to run the centre.”

Bays and Gibson presented their findings during the Wakefield Recreation Association last November, however they aren’t sure where things are at because of the building transfer.

“We’re not here to promote anything or to argue about co-ops at all at this point,” said Gibson during the November meeting. “Based on research reported, we recommend that the centre’s board begin the process of moving out of the co-op model and into one of a non-profit or not-for-profit organization.”

A non-profit’s purpose is to serve the public good, while a not-for-profit’s purpose is to serve its members and their interests. The two models also have differences related to tax and profits.

Gibson’s comments fueled immediate tension in the meeting, which is unsurprising given that members have been at odds over how the CWLP has been run and managed since the end of the pandemic. The centre has been embroiled in controversy ever since, with public firings, unstable governance and infighting between past and current board members.

This tension has also centred around the CWLP membership’s vote this year to begin negotiating a building transfer to the municipality of La Pêche after it became clear that maintaining the physical building was too much for the cooperative to manage. That deal, which is currently being negotiated, will see the municipality own the building, with the CWLP using the centre rent-free to manage programs, staffing, and other internal matters. The municipality will essentially be the landlord of the building and will take care of repairs, snow removal and maintenance, while the board will continue to run the centre and its programming.

It’s unclear how things would change under a non-profit or not-for-profit model, but former CWLP board member Carly Woods was adamant at the November meeting that the idea is only that – an idea.

“I think around the table, we can all agree, probably – that the co-op model doesn’t necessarily work for the centre,” said Woods. “The seed has only been planted, and it’s not going anywhere yet, and we’re not watering it the slightest.”

Former CWLP president Irene Richardson told the crowd there’s no reason to disband the co-op because the centre already operates under a not-for-profit model. The CWLP partnered with Outaouais Philanthropy to provide tax receipts to donors. However, the CWLP isn’t its own registered charity.

“We are not-for-profit. That means we get all the tax breaks that are out there,” said Richardson. “I think it’s a great model; we report to our members. Does it work? Well, we have to make it work, and it wouldn’t matter what we called it; it’s the people that have to make it work,” said Richardson.

She said another changeup at the centre would be costly and time-consuming and wouldn’t change anything operationally.

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