K.C. Jordan

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

A British Columbia-based company that has finished the first phase of exploration activities on an area of land spanning several Pontiac municipalities indicated in a January press release it will continue toward a second phase of exploration.

Showcase Minerals Inc. owns about 60 mining claims in the area, spanning about 3,461 hectares across the municipalities of Litchfield, Mansfield and Pontefract, and Otter Lake.

In the release, the company said it had completed the first phase of surveying activities on the land, including geological mapping, rock sampling and ground prospecting, finding rare earth elements (REEs), uranium and other minerals.

“We are excited by the results [ . . . ] These findings highlight the property’s significant rare earth element potential,” Kirk Reed, CEO of Showcase Minerals was quoted as saying in the release.

“As global demand for clean energy technologies and strategic materials continues to grow, the Pontiac Project’s potential as a multi-commodity exploration target aligns with our commitment to advancing projects that support a sustainable future. We look forward to building on these results in Phase II.”

A previous release from September indicated phase two of exploration would involve ​​“trenching and stripping operations” and “further prospecting, geological mapping, and sampling work throughout the property.”

The company did not respond to repeated interview requests, but THE EQUITY was able to determine the company is headquartered in Salmon Arm, B.C., was incorporated in 2020 and listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange in 2023.

In the independent auditor’s report of the company’s most recent annual financial statement, auditor K.R. Margetson Ltd. wrote the company “does not currently have the financial resources to sustain operations in the long-term.”

“The company has incurred net losses of $718,176 since inception, has a working capital deficit of $42,208 and has never made any sales of its products,” the audit continued.

As of Monday, none of the three mayors whose municipalities touch Showcase Mining’s claims had heard about the surveying activity, and neither had MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller.

“At this point there has been no communication with the MRC or municipalities,” confirmed Toller in a message, adding that companies often purchase claims but do not necessarily proceed to the extraction phase.

Mining claims, which are each typically about 10 hectares in size, can be purchased from the province’s natural resources ministry.

“Often, companies speculate or have claims which they announce to draw attention and it could increase stock activity,” Toller said, noting that in her experience as warden, very few claims have amounted to mining activity.

“In the seven and a half years that I’ve been warden, I am only aware of Sphinx [on Calumet Island], and that didn’t work out,” she said. “There could be a lot of claims that are just speculation and interest that will never be followed up on, so I don’t think there’s cause for alarm.”

Region’s mining claims doubled since 2019

According to the online mining claims database available on Quebec’s natural resources ministry’s website, there are currently between 200 and 300 active mining claims in the area Showcase Minerals has surveyed, roughly located between Highway 148 and Highway 301, south of Squaw Lake.

A coalition of mining industry watchdogs found that in 2023 there were over 330,000 active mining claims in Quebec. Per the province’s natural resources ministry, in 2022 only 14 per cent of claims proceeded to the exploration stage.

There were 112,447 mining claims approved in 2023 province-wide, an increase of nearly 40,000 from the year prior. In the Outaouais, the number of active mining claims has more than doubled since 2019.
Carolyn Raab, a co-founder of anti-mining activism group Action Low, said mining claims can be purchased cheaply by companies for less than $80 each.

Raab, who helped form the group to fight a recent increase in mining claims in her home municipality of Low, noted the process happens in several phases. Once the surface-level exam has been done, companies can move to the exploration phase, breaking ground to see if there is enough mineral there to justify mining on a large scale.

She said mining claims can be held on a property without the knowledge of the property owner, but if a company gets government authorization to proceed with exploration, landowners have little-to-no say in the process.

“If it’s private property, you’re going to get expropriated. That typically doesn’t work out well for the landowner, and the landowner has no say in the matter. You don’t own it to begin with, so your negotiating power is pretty minimal.”

Raab explained municipalities can request that certain lands gain a designation called TIAM, or territory incompatible with mining activity, which would exempt land from mineral exploration, and can apply for this exemption if the land falls within an urban perimeter, if the mining activity would interfere with agricultural or touristic areas or with places of historical or cultural importance.

In 2020 the city of Sherbrooke successfully designated all but 77 hectares of its territory as incompatible with mining activity, in response to an increase in mining claims.

Toller said the MRC has already designated areas along the banks of the Coulonge and Black rivers as incompatible with mining activities.

“In our land management plan, we do have incompatible areas, and those would be two of them,” she said.

“No mining can take place there.”

Toller also said that while there hasn’t historically been much mining activity, she believes it could bring jobs to local workers who travel elsewhere to work in mines.

“It would be great someday if we had some form of mining operation, because we have people who are experienced who could work here.”

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shawville Lions not only victim of waning volunteerism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘We’re open to anyone’

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

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

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

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

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Former Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation chief Gilbert Whiteduck announced in a press release last week he will seek the NDP nomination in the federal riding of Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi for the next election.

Whiteduck holds degrees from Carleton University, the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi and the University of Ottawa, as well as a Certificate in Indigenous Law and an Honorary Doctorate degree for his work in education.

He is the president of the Gatineau Valley Historical Society, has worked as a school principal, and served on the band council of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation before serving as chief for seven years. He is currently working as a therapist for First Nations and Inuit people with mental health and substance use disorders.

Whiteduck said people throughout the riding were asking him if he planned on running, and while he didn’t initially consider it, after some thought he decided to put his name forward.

“It came down to saying, from the experience and everything that I’ve gained, and people that I’ve talked to and what they’ve told me, ‘Can I be a different kind of voice? A more affirmative voice.’”
He said his experience as a councillor and as chief of Kitigan Zibi has given him experience in a wide variety of fields, and with all levels of government.

“It’s not at all like a mayor of a municipality, because you are negotiating land claims. You’re overlooking healthcare. [ . . . ] Our education is strictly under us,” he said, describing the unique nature of his work as chief.

“You’re negotiating provincial, federal, speaking to the MRCs. I did all of that in different ways.”
Whiteduck said while he needs to reach out to more people across the riding to understand their concerns, he has identified a few of his own priorities.

“One of them, of course, is homelessness. The reality that poverty exists in maybe more rural [environments]. And that’s all tied to housing, and everything around housing.”

“There’s also, of course, the economic stuff, and what programs and what supports can be made available differently to medium and small businesses,” he said.

He said he sees agriculture as a big concern for the riding, and while he needs to speak with more farmers to understand their concerns, he sees them as crucial drivers of the economy.

“Farmers for me are important. Maybe because they are close to the land, and as an Indigenous person we have always been close to the land, and I’ve told that to the farmers that I’ve met.”

He said he also sees the issue of the Chalk River nuclear research facility as important to the region.

“The water is so important, whether it be the Kitchissippi, the Gatineau River, are all are important rivers that we need collectively to take care of. It’s tied to biodiversity, it’s tied to taking care of the land.”

Whiteduck added that he is being realistic about the NDP’s chances in this election, but regardless of the election result wants to do right by the people and represent their best interests.

“The NDP has never formed government. Do they have a chance to form? Well, we’ll see,” he said.

“As an MP your role is to influence. Your role is at committees, at different levels, at different contacts with ministers to influence that change that will benefit the riding.”

The Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi NDP nomination meeting will happen on Nov. 30 at 11 a.m. at the Wakefield community centre. The party confirmed Whiteduck is so far the only candidate.

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation happens annually on Sept. 30 and honours the children who endured residential schools, some of whom made it through and some of whom did not, as well as their families and communities.

In this, the fourth year of the national day’s existence, THE EQUITY reached out to Pontiac high schools to see how they are observing truth and reconciliation in their classes.

École secondaire Sieur-de-Coulonge

Sébastien Beaudoin teaches art at École secondaire Sieur-de-Coulonge (ESSC) in Fort Coulonge, and identifies as being of Algonquin descent. This year, he was in charge of supervising activities at the school for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. 

He holds a certificate from UBC in reconciliation through Indigenous education, and has been using his knowledge to support his fellow teachers, who each organized activities in their own classrooms. 

Eight teachers at the school in subjects such as drama, history, French and arts organized activities for Truth and Reconciliation Day, or integrated the material into their curriculum throughout the month of September. 

He said some teachers focused on the loss of culture, others on the loss of language, but also stories of people who found these things again, including a young boy who reconnected with his culture via traditional dance. 

Beaudoin was happy with what the staff was able to put together: “At ESSC I’m proud of our team, and we have some incredible projects,” he said.

In his own classroom, Beaudoin set up a “babillard culturel,” or a cultural bulletin board, where students posted their research according to the topic Beaudoin chose: missing and murdered Indigenous women.

In 2015, the Canadian government launched an independent national public inquiry into the disproportionate violence experienced by Indigenous women and girls, as well as the systemic causes behind this violence. Indigenous women’s groups estimate the number of missing and murdered to be over 4,000. 

Beaudoin said he helped students find statistics online, and then contextualize them using stories of some of the missing and murdered Indigenous women. 

“I make available information like government statistics, but also to give them an idea of the reality of this issue in Canada,” he said.  

“We talked about the emptiness that it causes when a person disappears, in families and communities, and the fear that comes with it.”

He said understanding what happened is just one of the first steps toward reconciliation, and that these learning experiences can lead to deeper classroom discussions. 

“It’s to show the students how Indigenous women have been targeted,” Beaudoin said. “We also spoke about the lack of protection [ . . . ] we’re still lacking a lot of the tools to help the families.”

But even though learning is the first step, he said it can only go so far. He knows that the intergenerational harm caused by settler colonialism isn’t going to be unravelled overnight. 

“Reconciliation is going to take time. It could take generations. It’s a huge word; there are so many important aspects that we have to cover before discussing concrete reconciliation.”

But at the very least, he said, it is his duty to teach the history.

“We’re on Algonquin territory, and we owe them this. We owe them that respect. Doing our homework of educating ourselves and coming toward a reconciliation — we owe them that.”

Beaudoin said he hasn’t been able to bring in anyone from local Algonquin First Nations to speak to the students, but he is in consultation with them about how to teach this subject. 

“There are steps that need to be taken,” he said. “We’re working with them, and in the future I’m sure more things will happen.” 

Pontiac High School 

At PHS, it was the youth leading efforts to honour and remember the national day of remembrance. 

PHS teacher Matt Greer had a group of students in his leadership class run a series of events, including an orange shirt day on Sept. 30 and some activities the week prior.

Grade 11 students Jaxson Armstrong, Liam Mulligan, Alexander Burke and Katelyn Zimmerling all collaborated on a PowerPoint presentation explaining why it’s important to recognize the day, and presented it to the class.

Armstrong said it enabled them to go beyond what they learned about in the classroom and to do their own research. 

He was surprised to learn that the last residential school closed in 1996. “My parents were in high school then,” he said. “It’s something to think about.” 

He said learning about the history was a humbling experience, but he still feels good about how far we have come in recognizing it. 

“It makes you feel pretty guilty when you realize what our ancestors did to the Indigenous [people], but we’re in a different time now, in a better place. It’s nice to see how far we’ve come,” he said. 

Mulligan agreed that we’ve come a long way since then when it comes to recognizing past traumas, but he also acknowledged the effects of colonialism are long-lasting and not easily reversible. 

“You can never stop the intergenerational trauma,” he said, adding that there are likely many lasting impacts of colonialism that we don’t yet know about. 

Zimmerling is also glad that the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is being recognized in schools, but said that more concrete actions are needed to arrive at reconciliation. “I feel like there’s only so much we can do,” she said.

Agreement signed with renewable energy company, former Terry Fox organizers honoured, FRR2 funding announced at monthly mayors meeting

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

At last week’s MRC Pontiac council of mayors meeting in Campbell’s Bay, a group of residents from Alleyn and Cawood dominated the question period, expressing their concerns over how the MRC calculates municipal shares.

The residents formed a task force this spring to fight what they believe to be an unfair property evaluation process; this after last winter learning their property values had increased by 370 per cent.
This increase affects both the amounts the municipality pays in both police and school taxes, as well as the amount it has to pay to the MRC in municipal shares.

On Wednesday the group was hoping the council would adopt a bylaw, presented by the group at August’s council meeting, which would do away with the use of the comparative factor in determining municipal shares to be paid to the MRC.

“We want the comparative factor removed completely,” said resident Angela Giroux of the current method of determining municipal share amounts.

The comparative factor is a number determined in the property valuation process. According to the MRC’s website, it is “established based on sales on the municipality’s territory during the previous year, compared with the value deposited during the first year of the triennial roll.”

It is calculated by dividing the sale price of a property by its municipal evaluation. For example, if a lot is valued at $12,000 and it sells for $40,000, the comparative factor would be 3.333.

In year one of a triennial roll, this number is determined by type of lot such that residential, forestry, vacant and cottage lots each have their own comparative factor.

However in years two and three of a triennial roll, only one generalized comparative factor is used to determine all new property valuations, even if the value of vacant lots has increased by far more than the value of residential lots.

The sale of over 120 vacant lots in Alleyn and Cawood in just two years led to a high comparative factor of 3.7 last year, causing all property values, including those of full-time residents, to increase by as much as 370 per cent.

While the municipality can change its mill rate to reduce the impact of higher property valuations on the municipal taxes residents pay, it still has to pay municipal shares to the MRC based on the inflated comparative factor from last year’s general assessment, and its this process that Alleyn and Cawood residents and elected officials are taking issue with.

“How would you guys feel if [ . . . ] you’re planning your budget and you get a big bill from the MRC where your shares went from $114,000 to $300,000?” asked Alleyn and Cawood director general Isabelle Cardinal, addressing the mayors around the table at Wednesday’s meeting.

Cardinal said of the $800,000 the municipality will collect in municipal taxes this year, around $300,000 of it will be paid to the MRC.

She said with a senior-based population, many residents cannot afford a tax increase that would be needed to cover this increase in the amount owed to the MRC, and so her municipality didn’t raise taxes, forcing the council to instead cut funding to other services in order to pay its shares.

“We had some roads that were not gravelled this year because we can’t afford it, and [ . . . ] we’ve cut activities that we planned,” Cardinal said.

“We think it’s fair that we pay shares based on the same rate that we tax our ratepayers.”

Alleyn and Cawood presented a bylaw to the mayors in August requesting the comparative factor be removed altogether as a method of determining municipal shares, and some of Wednesday’s attendees from that municipality were expecting that bylaw would be adopted at this month’s meeting.

When only a motion to work on a bylaw was moved by the council, some ratepayers became angry.
Warden Jane Toller said the motion must be tabled first before the MRC can proceed with drafting and signing a new bylaw.

“At a further time we will be coming back with what we think is the fairest and best plan,” Toller said.

“There is no intention of trying to relay or defer things; it’s just the way it has to be done.”

In a media availability session after the meeting, Toller said she understands the concerns of the Alleyn and Cawood ratepayers, and that the MRC is looking into a solution that will benefit the entire Pontiac.

“Our job is to make sure that we listen and respond, and whatever our decision is, it’s going to benefit all municipalities and not target or hinder any one in particular,” she said.

She said the MRC will evaluate if there is a better way to evaluate the calculation of municipal shares, and will hopefully have an answer for October’s council of mayors sitting.

The task force’s presence at last Wednesday’s meeting was only the latest in many months of efforts to change the property evaluation process both at MRC and provincial levels, which included circulating an online petition requesting changes from the province.

The petition received more than 4,000 signatures and was presented to the National Assembly by Pontiac MNA André Fortin last week.

This month Alleyn and Cawood received its year one triennial roll, which offered a more nuanced evaluation of properties based on type of lot and brought down the general 370 per cent increase for residents.

But members of the task force are still adamant the evaluation process be changed and the comparative factor be abandoned in the determining of municipal shares so municipalities aren’t settled with what the task force referred to as distorted tax and municipal share bills going forward.

Innergex

With the passing of a resolution at Wednesday’s meeting, the MRC announced its intention to sign an agreement to work with Innergex, a Quebec-based renewable energy company, when Hydro-Québec releases its call for solar energy project proposals later this year.

At last month’s meeting the MRC announced the signing of a confidentiality agreement with Innergex, following its response to the MRC’s call for submissions for solar energy projects in February. Since then the MRC has been in discussion with Innergex about the terms of the agreement.

MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller said before the MRC signed an agreement it wanted to make sure that it would have the freedom to work with other companies on other projects if it so desired.

“Innergex has asked for exclusivity only with the projects that we have identified for them,” said Toller, adding that the MRC could potentially work with other companies even though no specific projects have been announced yet.

The MRC also wanted to make sure that the project would be well-received by Pontiac residents. It hasn’t done any public consultations yet, but does plan to in the future.

Toller said the agreement is just an agreement in principle to work together, and isn’t tied to any project in particular.

“The collaboration agreement is established solely as a framework for collaboration between parties; it doesn’t create financial obligations,” she said.

MRC director general Kim Lesage said the MRC Pontiac is the first MRC in all of Quebec to put out a call for interest for a solar energy project, and that it hopes to be well-positioned when Hydro-Québec comes out with its call for projects, hopefully later this year.

Two potential sites that have been identified for a possible location for a solar project are the industrial park in Litchfield, and a stretch of land just south of the Ultramar in Bryson.

The official partnership agreement hasn’t been announced yet, but Toller said they will likely have it ready before the October council of mayors meeting.

Terry Fox run organizers recognized by MRC

The MRC Pontiac presented longtime Shawville Terry Fox Run organizers Rick Valin and John Petty with scrolls in recognition of years of service to the Pontiac community.

The two men organized the event for over 40 years before stopping in 2022. The pair have raised over $500,000 over the years in support of cancer research.

The MRC presented each man with a Pontiac Paddle of Accomplishment, an engraved canoe paddle featuring the MRC Pontiac logo that, according to Warden Jane Toller, is the “highest award that anyone can receive from the MRC.”

Then, Toller handed the mic over to the two men and gave them the floor.

“I would like to thank the MRC for your support over the years,” said Petty, who also thanked the public for its continued support and donations.

Petty said he enjoyed raising money for a good cause, but he also enjoyed seeing all the people who came out to support the event.

“Money is important, but seeing people is also an important thing.”

Then, Valin took the mic, saying they have had the chance over the years to meet several members of the Fox family, including Terry’s mom, Betty Fox, when she came to visit Pontiac High School.

“I’m so proud to be a member of the Pontiac community, but especially at the school,” he said.

The run returned this year after a year’s hiatus, thanks to new organizers Jennifer Mielke and Carolann Barton. Both were on hand to announce the run’s results.

“I am happy to report that as of five o’clock this evening we had raised $7,735 for cancer research,” said Mielke.

Warden Toller presented both women with flowers for their role in the event’s revival.

FRR2 funding approved for 11 projects

Also at the monthly council meeting, the mayors approved the distribution of $597,992.21 of provincial funding for 11 community projects across the Pontiac.

The money comes from component 2 of the province’s Regions and Rurality Fund (FRR2), which is dispersed every year by the MRC to projects that advance local and regional development.

This year the MRC received 25 applications for the $600,000 it had available in the FRR2 pot. The 11 successful applicants were determined in August by a committee, the members of which were appointed by the council of mayors.

The projects receiving FRR2 funding this year are:

• The Municipality of Shawville received $87,321 for phase two of improvements being made to Mill Dam Park
• Zec Rapides des Joachimes received $20,336.63 for phase two of replacing its southern welcome centre
• The Pontiac Community Players theatre group received $5,908.72 for building a portable lighting system
• The Chutes Coulonge park received $100,000 fo phase one of its park expansion project
• The Chapeau Agricultural Society received $57,600 for teh second phase of construction of the farmers market building
• The Chapeau Gallérie and Allumette Island tourism committee received $75,438.49 for phase one of repairs to the Chapeau Regionale Gallerie
• The Municipality of Alleyn and Cawood received $29,371.34 to revitalize its municipal library
• The Municipality of Bristol received $31,328.27 for the Norway Bay pier revitalization project
• The Municipality of Bryson received $39,977.60 to install a shade structure at the Bryson beach and Havelock Park
• The Municipality of Fort Coulonge received $96,980.68 to install an self-cleaning toilet at the Village relais rest stop

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

CISSSO’s Pontiac director Nicole Boucher-Larivière is hoping the package of financial incentives offered this summer to radiology technologists in the Pontiac will help attract more applications to the region’s hospital. 

Last week, four radiology technologists were slated to leave their jobs at the Pontiac Hospital for higher-paying jobs in the urban centre, until the government offered an additional $4,000 to the $18,000 bonuses they were already set to receive. 

This equalized the amount offered in Pontiac, Wakefield and Maniwaki hospitals with the $22,000 bonuses offered to techs at the Gatineau, Hull and Papineau hospitals. 

After this news, three of the four technologists who were still considering moving to city positions ultimately decided to stay in their current posts, while the fourth is still following through on their departure.   

Boucher-Larivière said CISSSO is happy to have avoided a break in service at the Pontiac Hospital, but noted that even after the majority of technologists decided to stay in their Pontiac jobs, there are still three out of eight full-time technologist positions that need to be filled. Two of these positions are currently being staffed by retirees who have returned to help out part-time. 

Boucher-Larivière said it can be hard to attract applicants, but hopes the $22,000 in bonus money, which will also be extended to new hires, will help bring in applications. 

“They also got an increase when they were working during the summer to make sure the holidays were covered, plus the $22,000 in premium. So when you put all the measures together it probably adds up closer to $30,000,” she said, explaining the total increase in salaries during the two years these measures will be applied strengthens the Outaouais’ ability to compete with jobs in Ontario.  

She said a provincial committee has been put in place to examine how to retain more healthcare workers in the province and the region, beyond this two-year period.

“We want to look at what our needs and human resources will be in the next couple years and what we’ll be graduating in the next couple of years, and should we be looking to graduate more of certain job titles?”

She said the Pontiac has some advantages compared to other areas when it comes to attracting applicants. 

“There’s a lower cost of living in this area as opposed to the city,” she said, adding that they offer on-the-job placement for new grads, which allows them to get a wide breadth of experience. 

But she also said there are challenges to hiring healthcare workers in the region. 

“Sixty-five per cent of my population is anglophone, and to hire bilingual staff makes my pool a lot smaller in Quebec,” she said, adding that the pool of graduates is already far smaller than it used to be. 

“One of our major issues is not just Pontiac, but it’s province-wide, as baby boomers are retiring quicker than what we’re graduating.” 

Five of six full-time techs to stay in Pontiac

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Radiology technologists in four rural Outaouais hospitals, including the Pontiac Hospital in Shawville, will receive an additional $4,000 bonus, matching the $22,000 bonuses offered previously to technologists in Gatineau, Hull and Papineau hospitals, per an announcement by the union representing the technologists on Saturday.

The APTS (Alliance du personnel professionel et technique de la santé et des service sociaux) and the province’s treasury board engaged in discussions last week, finally coming to a decision on Friday night.

In a French tweet to X over the weekend, provincial health minister Christian Dubé said the committee working on the negotiations received “information” about the “complete movements of labour in the Outaouais” that led it to take action.

Four of the six radiology technologists working full-time at the Pontiac hospital were slated to leave their positions as of Monday, which was the official start date of their new jobs in higher-paying jobs in Gatineau and Hull.

On Monday morning, CISSSO’s Pontiac representative Nicole Boucher-Larivière confirmed that four of the five full-time techs who had applied to Gatineau have withdrawn their applications and are staying in their jobs at the Pontiac hospital.

APTS Outaouais president Guylaine Laroche said the final result helped avoid a possible staffing crisis at the hospital.

“As of Monday morning there would have been the departure of the technologists to the city, so we would have found ourselves in a break of service in the hospital, which could have led to the closing of the hospital because the radiology department is important for medical diagnostic services,” she said in a French interview with THE EQUITY last week.

Laroche said her members are generally happy about the result. “We are satisfied that there is a regional parity for all of our members in radiology,” she said. 

She said it’s good for the technologists, many of whom are deeply connected to the community.

“Our technologists live in that community, they are connected to that community, so it’s good for our technologists, but I also think it’s a great decision and agreement for local services.”

Judith Spence, spokesperson for Citizens of the Pontiac (CoP) and also a former nurse, has been a vocal supporter of the radiologists receiving equal bonuses.

She said she was happy with the result because it’s what they deserve.

“It’s a wonderful thing. It says [the radiology technologists] have value equal to all their other peers.”

As a former nurse Spence has seen how essential the work of the technologists is, and by retaining them, she said, the hospital avoids losing an essential diagnostic service.

“Doctors will have [ . . . ] radiology services, one of the three tools to make a diagnosis for a patient,” she said.

Spence, who helped in canvassing the public to raise funds via GoFundMe to give the technologists a bonus, will now return that money to the donors, save for a small percentage that will be retained by GoFundMe.

The announcement of the bonus didn’t come without questions from the union, though. The government’s decision to offer an additional $4,000 to rural technologists comes with a condition: technologists must work six shifts in other Outaouais hospitals, according to the employer’s needs, a condition her members have questions about and will continue to negotiate going forward.

Going forward, the hospital will retain five of its six full-time radiology technologists. But Laroche pointed out the hospitals are already operating with a shortage of technicians and lack radiology service at night, and that there are vacant radiology positions at all of CISSSO’s hospitals. She said the loss of any number of technologists is going to be felt.

“At a minimum you need people to cover both day shifts and night shifts. They are already below what they would need to operate at full capacity,” she said in French.

“So if there were people who had to leave for the urban centre, certainly there would be fewer appointments available.”

Boucher-Larivière said with the five technologists staying and the two retirees that help out, they will be able to maintain current levels of services at the hospital.

Going forward, the condition of the bonus will allow CISSSO to move around employees from different hiospitals to cover shifts in case of a breach of service.

She said they will negotiate with the local union this week to discuss specifics of what staffing decisions are going to look like going forward, but she said the priority is going to be for emergency services.

“Emergency and high-priority cases [ . . . ] like diagnosing cancer. Those are things that are going to be a priority, but things that are more done as a routine or done as a preventative measure might have to wait a little bit longer.”

Laroche was happy with the result of the bonus, but she said her union’s fight is not over.

These bonuses only apply to full-time technologists, and she said the union will continue to fight for all the part-time technologists that are so far not benefitting from this incentive.

“We are happy, but at the same time there are some of our members who do not benefit from the bonus, and that’s our part-time technologists. They work shifts that are often undesirable, like at night or on weekends, so for us we won’t be fully satisfied until our part-time members will also be able to get these bonuses.”

Laroche said her union will continue to fight for full-time and part-time technologists alike.

THE EQUITY reached out to the province’s health ministry to try and understand why the bonus money wasn’t released sooner, but did not receive a response before going to publication.

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

The MRC Pontiac is looking into what would be involved in hosting a solar energy farm in the region, and at the Council of Mayors meeting on Aug. 21, the mayors approved for the MRC to sign a confidentiality agreement with Quebec-based renewable energy company Innergex to further explore this possibility.

In February of this year the MRC put out a call for submissions for solar energy projects and received several responses, including one from Innergex, a company based in Longueuil that develops and operates solar, wind and hydroelectricity projects.

MRC Pontiac economic development agent Rachel Soar-Flandé said the MRC is currently in the process of studying a partnership agreement with Innergex, further details of which will be discussed in a meeting at the end of September.

“It is to commence building a relationship with Innergex, because they have shown a lot of interest in the territory,” she said.

“There is a strong potential for solar energy within the MRC.”

According to data from Environment and Climate Change Canada, portions of the Pontiac have some of the greatest photovoltaic potential in all of Quebec.

THE EQUITY reached out to Innergex to find out more about their vision for the project and why they are interested in working with the MRC, but it declined an interview.

“We are in the very early stages of engaging with the MRC, so we do not have further information to share,” communications representative Guillaume Perron-Piché wrote in an email.

Soar-Flandé wouldn’t explain what kinds of information are kept private with a confidentiality agreement, but said some of it may be shared at the end of September when they have a clearer picture of what a possible agreement could look like.

She listed other benefits of having a solar farm in the region, including creating local employment and bringing awareness to the possibility of solar energy.

“It could also be beneficial for educational purposes,” she said.

“We are in the process of building a relationship with Innergex. It’s positive, and nice that a very large, multinational company is showing interest in our territory.”

The MRC cannot yet say where it would put a solar farm, but Warden Jane Toller said on Aug. 21 in conversation with THE EQUITY it doesn’t want to put it on agricultural land.

She said the MRC is looking at a model where, instead of just a solar farm, they can take solar panels and put them on community infrastructure like arenas and community centres, a move she believes might make it easier for such community buildings to cover their electricity bills.

K.C. Jordan, LJI Reporter

There were strikes and spares aplenty at Pontiac Pride’s first bowling event, hosted Saturday afternoon at Chapeau’s Harrington Community Hall.
Participants, mostly members of the Pontiac Pride group, laughed and joked with each other as they tried their hand at Chapeau’s retro five-pin lanes. The soundtrack to the afternoon was set by member Erica Ouimet, who is known as DJ Erica Energy behind the turntables.
The hall’s bowling alley is a blast from the past. The two edge-grain lanes have been around since 1964, according to bowling employee Yogi Brisard. They feature pink art-deco pinsetter machines and orange, space-age looking ball returners.
Brisard said they are the only bowling lanes in the upper Pontiac, and he is “pretty sure” the closest operational alleys are in Aylmer, near Gatineau.
The bowling event was the third put on by Pontiac Pride this year, after a square dance in February and a drag show earlier this month.
According to Pontiac Pride’s Facebook page, they are a county-wide organization that “aims to grow 2SLGBTQAI+ representation and visibility within our community.” The group is still relatively young, founded in 2022.
Chapeau resident Darlene Pashak started the group. Living close to the Ontario border, Pashak had seen other municipalities in the Ottawa Valley like Pembroke and Renfrew raise Pride flags in the streets, and she wanted to see the same in the Pontiac.
“We wrote letters to the municipalities and said, ‘why don’t you fly the Pride flag?’, and had great success.”
Alongside Ouimet, who uses they/them pronouns, and their partner Mitch Gagnon, Pashak continued that momentum forward. The new organization held the Pontiac’s first-ever Pride festival in 2022, with about 250 people in attendance.
But the second festival didn’t go as smoothly. Ouimet said they had to hire security because they were receiving hate from the community.
Le Patro, the community organization that hosted the festival in its first year, was “facing harassment almost daily for hosting us there,” Ouimet said.
“They were getting threats. There was talk of protests.”
Pashak said attendance at their Pride events has since dropped. Ouimet says many people are scared of coming to events like these, for fear of backlash.
“It’s a pretty difficult environment right now,” they said. “There’s a lot of hate being spewed across the U.S. and Canada, and we’re finding that a lot of the queer community is fearful of being in an open environment.”
Ouimet is part of the events committee, and they say they just want to create inclusive spaces where people can feel safe expressing themselves.
“We simply have events. We invite anybody. We’re happy to have anybody come bowling with us, or check out our festival. But we’re not telling anyone they have to participate.”
Being a smaller Pride community, they take inspiration from communities in Pembroke, Renfrew and Deep River. Ouimet said seeing these groups thrive gives them hope for what Pontiac Pride could become.
“Those are also small rural communities that are fighting the same uphill battles that we are,” they said. “I would like to bring representation for kids who are facing the same things that I did, and as an adult I’m still facing, because of backlash in my community and just wanting a space of our own.”
Saturday’s event at the bowling lanes in Chapeau was just that — a space of their own. Maybe, in part, because nobody seems to know the lanes are there. Ouimet said they chose bowling for the event because the committee had only recently learned about the lanes, and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to help people discover a hidden gem.
Going forward, Pashak wants to expand Pontiac Pride’s offerings. She wants the group to be doing more advocacy, but said first it needs more members to help with outreach.
“The committee is pretty much the same people as it was at the beginning,” she said. “We are always accepting new members.”
She says geography is one of their biggest challenges in pulling together events.
“We’re having our event in Chapeau today, and I’m the only one in the committee in Chapeau. The next closest is Coulonge, and the bulk of our committee members are from Shawville. It’s hard to get the feeling like we’re servicing the whole area.”