LJI reporter

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

A conversation amongst farmers questioning the request they adapt their practices to protect threatened grassland birds dominated a presentation about climate-friendly agricultural practices given at the Little Red Wagon Winery last Wednesday evening.

The event, co-organized by the Pontiac and Gatineau chambers of commerce, saw cattle farmers from across the Outaouais pack the venue to hear from agronomist Nathalie Côté on best practices for reducing methane gas produced by their animals and for supporting on-farm biodiversity.

Côté, herself a cattle producer who works with Les Producteurs de bovins du Québec, highlighted that 10 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in Quebec are produced by the agricultural industry.

“We have some responsibility in the agricultural sector to take steps to reduce our GHGs,” she said to the crowd, making the case that the reduction of emissions from agricultural practices is a convenient consequence of increasing on-farm efficiency, and framing her presentation in terms of the latter.

She discussed various techniques for increasing farm efficiency so as to produce more meat in less time, with fewer inputs, including ways to optimize feed to reduce methane produced by the animal and tips for improving livestock efficiency through genetics and strategic culling.

It’s thanks to practices like these and others that Canada’s beef industry has been able to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent between 2014 and 2021, according to a 2024 report published by the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. The roundtable figures the industry is responsible for 2.4 per cent of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and has committed to reducing this contribution by a third before 2030.

But it was when Côté’s presentation turned to discussing some of the ways in which farmers can support biodiversity on their agricultural land that attendees started asking questions, the first of which came from Clarendon farmer Ron Hodgins.

“When did these wild birds become so important? [ . . . ] What is the purpose of a Bobolink?” he asked, following several slides highlighting precautions being taken by Quebec farmers to limit disturbance of the Eastern Meadowlark and the Bobolink, grassland birds which for over a decade have been considered “threatened” by Environment Canada, only one stop short of “endangered”.

Governments and conservation groups are concerned for these birds’ survival, as increased agricultural activity in their nesting grounds over the last half century has caused a decrease in their populations.

An Environment Canada report published in 2019 found that since 1970, the population of grassland birds has decreased 67 per cent.

Farmers are being encouraged to modify hay production practices during the weeks the bird is nesting in their hayfields between April and July, a period that usually, and inconveniently, coincides with the most effective time to harvest their hay.

The precautions shared by Côté included slowing mowing speed to 10 kilometres an hour or less, or mowing a hayfield from its center to its perimeter, rather than the reverse, so the birds are able to get out of the way.

“Before 2020, I never talked about birds to my producers,” Côté said, in answer to Hodgins’ question, adding she saw governments start paying more attention to biodiversity efforts in the last five or so years.

At the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, 200 countries committed to protecting 30 per cent of their country’s land and freshwater ecosystems by the year 2030. Quebec’s Ministry of Environment committed to this target a year earlier.

“All those new orientations of the government gets us aware that [ . . . ] our production can do more for biodiversity. So it’s a positive thing for our production,” Côté emphasized.

But Hodgins expressed what he found to be a contradiction between the first part of her presentation, which encouraged practices such as cutting hay early to optimize its nutritional content, and the second part, which encouraged delaying hay cutting to protect grassland birds.

“We’re slowing down our haycutting procedure so they can fly out of the field. Well that’s not saving the environment and methane, and we’re burning more fuel to get that crop off,” he said. “One hand’s not working with the other.”

‘Everybody’s got to do a little bit’

For Victor Drury, who runs a 295-head cow-calf production with his father in La Pêche, supporting on-farm biodiversity is not his priority, but neither is it at odds with his regular production methods.

He works with the Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) program, which pays him for every acre he sets aside to use for grazing or hay later in the season.

“They’ll pay you for the reduced quality of your hay, if you’re cutting it for hay, or the later pasture, if it’s not as vegetative,” Drury explained, noting setting aside certain land fits well within the rotational grazing he already practices.

“That just happens to promote biodiversity. Now, that’s not my goal. My goal is to raise cattle and feed my family,” he said. “The advantage of doing this particular program is it doesn’t cost me anything, and I happen to be doing this other benefit that people seem to think is valuable.”

Blake Draper is the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais representative for Les Producteurs de bovins du Québec. He also works with ALUS to protect certain parts of his land.

“As far as what I’m doing, I’m just allowing [the birds] a little more room to work, And, birds eat insects,” he pointed out, following Côté’s presentation. “I figure everybody’s got to do a little bit.”

Stanley Christensen is a cattle farmer from Lac-Sainte-Marie in the Gatineau Valley, and also the Outaouais-Laurentides representative for Les Producteurs de bovins du Québec.

During the conversation about why farmers should care to change their practices in favour of supporting biodiversity, he said he believes making efforts to do so is critical to maintaining the trust of the general public that farmers are, as they have always been, caretakers of the land.

“We’ve got to find ways of averaging things out and showing that we are good citizens, we are taking care of the environment, and that we are of benefit to all of Canadian society by using things like this,” Christensen said.

“So I push as hard as I can to try to develop these programs, and find a way to benefit producers. And if we do get compensation per acre, that’s part of it, but the first thing is to convince society that we’re doing a good job taking care of the future of Canada.”

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

A new kind of support is now available to farmers across Canada who may be struggling with their mental health – a crisis line that can be called at any hour of the day, 365 days a year.

The free service, accessible by dialing 1-866-FARMS-01, is completely confidential and available in both English and French.

It is being run by the Canadian Centre for Agricultural wellbeing thanks to a three-year, $1.5 million investment from crown corporation Farm Credit Canada, and is for farmers, their family members, farm employees, and spouses and dependents of farm employees, 16 years or older, who are either in crisis or just need to talk to somebody about how they are doing.

The service’s website lists everything from financial stress and succession challenges to feelings of burnout and isolation as just some of the reasons calling the phone line might help.

Callers will be connected with a mental health professional who has received a special training to support members of the agricultural community. They will listen, offer coping strategies, and connect the caller with other forms of support, if needed.

While this phone line, launched earlier this month, is not yet a well-known resource in the Pontiac community, it’s being received as a welcome upgrade to the ag-specific mental health support already available to Pontiac farmers. 

Audrey Arcand is a Pontiac-based farm wellness worker with Écoute Agricole, a non-profit that offers mental health services to farmers across the Laurentians and the Outaouais, including in the Pontiac.

She said while her organization offers the benefit of being able to meet with farmers in person and support them over the course of longer periods of time, the team she works with cannot be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“We only work regular nine to five [hours], Monday to Friday, usually. But we are definitely not a crisis call line,” she said. “When people need to reach us outside of our hours, it’s important for them to have a place where they can call, and I think a place that is adapted to their reality, and their special needs.”

The need for a crisis line in the Outaouais is particularly heightened, according to Arcand, who explained there is no general suicide helpline in the region. She said people who call the province-wide option – 1-866-APPELLE – will be redirected to the provincial 8-1-1 health line, where they might encounter longer wait times.

“For a person in a crisis state, [that’s] not the best option,” she said.

Gema Villavicencio, owner of Pure Conscience farm in Bristol and vice-president of the Pontiac chapter of Quebec’s union of agricultural producers (UPA), said she believes there are many in the Pontiac farming community who could benefit from this kind of industry-specific mental health support.

“It’s a different reality. I think not everybody understands the reality of a farmer,” she said, noting one of the challenges to be the relatively isolated nature of the work. “We all go through the winter blues, especially around this time of the year.”

Despite what Villavicencio describes to be a fairly common experience of isolation, numbers from Écoute Agricole’s 2023-2024 annual report show not many farmers in the region are benefiting from the mental health support offered by the organization.

Of the 367 agricultural producers in MRC Pontiac, only 10 were supported by the organization in the 2023-2024 reporting year. Another 13 producers in the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais also sought help from the organization.

Half of the people helped were referred by someone else, while the other half reached out themselves.
Arcand emphasized how critical it is that the support be provided by professionals who are well acquainted with the realities of being a farmer.

“In the case of a crisis, there are many aspects to take care of. It’s the farm that’s at risk sometimes,” she said.

“For someone to get help, especially in a crisis situation, the whole farm needs to be taken care of, because they’re not going to call if they’re not sure their animals will also be taken care of.”

Villavicencio said she was happy to learn of another form of support being offered to farmers.

“It’s very complementary to what Écoute Agricole is doing. We just need to make it more known.”

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New regulations for different risk zones

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘A wait-and-see game’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trash-parency in Otter Lake

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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