Lac Gauvreau

By Madeline Kerr

The municipality of La Pêche will continue its search for a suitable place to build a municipal garage after council voted to reject a controversial site near Lac Gauvreau in Masham. 

In July council passed a resolution to look into the feasibility of building a garage that could be used to store machinery, repair trucks and possibly also store gravel and salt on a lot situated along Hwy 366 west of Masham. 

This immediately rankled some residents, including Claire Gauvreau, who told the Low Down the site “was problematic in every way.”

“[The location] didn’t make any sense,” Gauvreau asserted, explaining that the entrance to the site would have necessarily been on a steep hill, which is often slippery in the winter. She said that cars often travel faster than the 80 km/h limit on that stretch of road, making the coming and going of large trucks a further safety concern. 

She added that some residents living around Lac Gauvreau worried about the possible environmental hazards of having a garage so close to the lake, including the possibility that pollutants would leak into the lake. The Lac Gauvreau community has already been battling an invasion of Eurasian milfoil for roughly the last 15 years. 

Masham Coun. Pierre LeBel echoed some of Gauvreau’s sentiments, telling the Low Down that safety and environmental concerns were the main reasons his constituents wanted council to forgo the site. 

Another problem with the proposed site according to LeBel was that noise from the garage could carry easily across the lake, disturbing nearby residents and cottagers. 

LeBel said that obtaining approval to use the site from the Ministry for the Environment was projected to take up to five years and could cost as much as $1 million. The zoning for the land would also have to be changed.

At a council meeting on Sept. 8 LeBel put forward a resolution to reject the site, which was passed with a vote of five to two. 

Edelweiss Ward Coun. Richard Gervais and Wakefield Coun. Claude Giroux voted against the resolution. At the meeting Giroux explained that given the “prohibitive” cost of fuel he believes municipal buildings should be located in the same general area. 

“For logistical and operational reasons and because it’s better for the economy … the centralization of the garage is an important consideration,” Giroux said.

LeBel told the Low Down that the municipality has been looking for a site to build a garage for a number of years. But he said, “If we’ve been looking for six years, what’s another six months?” 

He said that he’s aware of other sites that the municipality is eyeing for a future garage, but added that he’s not at liberty to disclose the locations.

At the Sept. 8 meeting, La Pêche Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux said that the municipality would “Go back to the drawing board” to find other possible sites for the garage, adding that with municipal elections taking place on Nov. 2, the decision will be made by a future council.