LJI reporter

Invasive plant species found in two local lakes

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Community briefed on presence of Eurasian milfoil in Farm Lake and Petit Lac Cayamant

Charles Dickson, LJI Reporter

Sixty-five people attended a public forum in Otter Lake on Saturday morning to hear from the municipal council about Eurasian water milfoil, an invasive plant species that has been found in Farm Lake and Petit Lac Cayamant.
The meeting, held at the RA Centre, was opened by Otter Lake mayor Terry Lafleur who then turned it over for presentations by councillors Jennifer Quaile and Robin Zacharias.
As described in the presentations, milfoil is a perennial plant that grows profusely in summer and dies in the fall, using up oxygen as it decomposes, choking the lake and killing native plant species and fish.
Councillor Quaile described how anything that disturbs the plants such as boats, waves and people raking them can easily cause fragments to break off and move to another location where the leaves become roots that latch onto the bottom of the lake and produce new plants.
Dense mats of the plant can make swimming unpleasant and can wrap around propellors and paddles making boating difficult, if not impossible.
Economic consequences include reductions in waterfront property values, lost tourism causing local businesses to suffer, and high costs of controlling the problem which can lead to higher taxes.
Councillor Zacharias outlined a range of strategies to eradicate milfoil including laying large burlap tarps on top of the plants to suffocate them, hiring divers to pull the plants out by the root, and using a Health Canada-approved herbicide to kill the invasive species.
Methods of preventing the spread of the plant within a lake include marking milfoil patches with buoys to help boaters avoid driving through them, as well as limiting boat traffic around launch areas where the problem is at its worst, especially in July and August when the plant has grown up to the surface of the water.

“The most common way it propagates, it gets chopped up in a prop, and then it just goes and floats through until it clings somewhere and starts growing again,” Mayor Lafleur told THE EQUITY.
“We really want to try to get a handle on it, especially at the boat launch because, if you’re just docking your boat and you’re going in and you’re taking off, well you’re chopping up a whole bunch of it.”
Boat washing is a key means of preventing the spread of milfoil from one lake to another. Otter Lake set up a boat washing program in 2020.
Public education, citizens reporting sightings of milfoil patches, and shoreline management to keep nutrients that promote the plant’s growth from flowing from the land into the water all feature in the municipality’s proposed plans.
Late last year, after finding Petit Lac Cayamant and Farm Lake listed on a Ministry of Environment website as possibly containing Eurasian water milfoil, the municipality hired a biologist to inspect the lakes who confirmed the presence of the invasive species.
One of the municipality’s next steps will be to inspect six more lakes in the area: Clarke, Leslie, Otter, Hughes, Little Hughes and McCuaig.
“Doing nothing is not an option. We’ve got to do something,” Councillor Zacharias said. “The question is what do we do?”
In the lively question and answer period that followed the presentation, members of the audience brought forward many ideas that promise to help answer Councillor Zacharias’ excellent questions. Originating in Europe and Asia, Eurasian Water Milfoil was carried to North Americas in the ballast of large ships.

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Pontiac High School theatre hits new heights

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Glen Hartle, LJI Reporter

Pontiac High School’s theatre program presented the musical In The Heights over three days last week and left theatre-goers in awe.
Running Thursday through Saturday evening, with an added matinée Saturday afternoon, all four productions of the show sold out, each one ending in a lengthy and deserved standing ovation from the audience.
Producing a Tony and Grammy award-winning musical with a small-town high school production would be daunting to some, but director Phil Holmes, in his playbook message, said, “It was a challenge I was excited to take on knowing I had a cast and crew that could rise to the occasion.” This is understatement at its finest.
The extensive list of cast and crew entertained with a high quality production which strung together two acts consisting of 24 musical numbers on a stage rife with creative outlay in a comfortable theatre with quality sound and lighting. Yeah, they rose to the occasion. All of them.
This musical is a difficult ask for any company and it speaks to Holmes’ and co-director Debra Paquette’s ability to connect and inspire that they were able to bring Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2005 story of life in New York City’s Manhattan borough to Shawville’s Maple Street.
The story of the layered struggles of a tight-knit community was told through dialogue, dance, rap and song. The opening rap by Callum Maloney in the role of Usnavi set the tone for what was to follow as he launched onto stage and used the full of it while he rapped, “I’m getting tested; times are tough”.
He was entirely believable as a rugged young man who knows the street and who shares his tale with a flair for rhyme and requisite gesticulation.
Opposite Maloney’s intonations was his character’s love interest, Vanessa, played by school theatre stalwart Ollie Côté. Côté played the title role in last year’s Jesus Christ Superstar (What then to do with this Jesus of Nazareth. THE EQUITY, May 3, 2023) and once again helped anchor this production with their phenomenal vocal abilities and stage presence.
Maloney’s sidekick was delightfully brought to life by Griffin Lottes as Sonny, Usnavi’s younger cousin. Having a pint-sized and wise-cracking sprig of a boy offer relationship advice to a towering Maloney added delightful humour to the production and one could almost sense audience anticipation for when Sonny would next grace the stage.
Faith Hamilton took on the role of Nina, the girl who made it out of the general economic poverty of the neighbourhood to attend Stanford University on scholarship, only to fall back into it after dropping out of her first year of college.
Hamilton’s portrayal of the complex emotions that just such a life journey might involve was emphatic and her vocal delivery left you feeling as if you might be watching any of a number of auditions for international talent shows. Add to that her linguistic acuity and a young Puerto Rican woman from the New York City neighbourhood in which the musical is set manifested on stage.
Isaac Graham played Benny, love interest to Nina while also on her father’s payroll as a taxi dispatcher. Graham’s delivery added appropriate vulnerability to his character and in so doing added authenticity to the plight of romantics everywhere, making him an instant fan favourite. His star is on the rise and that he tackled a truly challenging role with such aplomb suggests that the sky really is the limit for the young actor.
Laura Graham’s saucy take on Daniela, a fast-talking Latina, was fun to watch as was Brooklyn Pachal’s opportunistic Yolanda attempting to step up and replace Vanessa as Usnavi’s love interest.
Adding to the lead roles were Grace Kelly as Abuela, Allie Benoit as Carla, Ethan Paulin as Nina’s father, Ava Schellenberg as Nina’s mother, Darcy Bowie as “the water guy”, Robin Lottes as Graffiti Pete and Jackson Knox as Jose.
Nothing was as surprising, however, as when Schellenberg’s character Camilla stepped into the spotlight in the second act. While delivering only dialog in the first act, Schellenberg nearly brought the house down with a singing solo that felt like the production had been holding back on a reveal. It was poignant and irrevocably brought the audience closer.
What was noteworthy beyond the entertainment value was just how the actors on stage entered into their roles. There was no holding back. They were all in. Bowie’s nerves settled during his solo as did Paulin’s, and they owned the stage.
Kelly became every grandma and Benoit was the finger-snapping smart-mouthed sidekick we dreamed of having as a friend. It was believable. All of it. And that is theatre at its best.
While this article does not articulate specifics on all of the cast and crew who made the production possible, director Holmes’ message perhaps best pays tribute to the team effort that went into bringing this story to life on stage.
“I could not be prouder of our team,” he wrote in the playbook. “The cast and crew of In The Heights have worked so hard over the past six months and that hard work has certainly paid off.”
And the community, both on the stage and off, are the better for it.

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Drag Queens take the stage in Fort Coulonge

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Guillaume Laflamme, LJI Reporter

Drag queens brought high fashion and flair to Café Downtown in Fort Coulonge on Saturday evening, with performances including dance numbers and lip syncing to songs by popular pop artists like Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga.
The three-hour show was hosted by drag queen Maddie Longlegs along with DJ Martin Leguerrier and featured performances from Ottawa’s Miss Capital Pride winner Devona Coe, Canada’s Drag Race contestant Aimee Yoncé Shennel and rising star Bae Root.
Maddie Longlegs, known offstage as Matthew Armour, was happy to see such a positive reception from the community. “The energy’s really good,” Armour said. “I haven’t had one show in the cafe where the energy hasn’t been high.”
Armour said he has always been an entertainer, explaining that being able to go on stage and be free with people who are loving and supporting means a lot.
“It’s art,” said Armour, who lives in Gatineau but hails from Fort Coulounge. “I’m usually not like this. Outside in real life I usually have a beard and I’m very masculine. And to be able to transform myself into a performer. It’s very, very uplifting.”
Armour said the shows are meant to provide a safe and inclusive space where everyone can be themselves.
Natasha Lamadeleine, who co-owns the bar with her husband Alexandre Romain, believes the event offered a nice change of pace for the region.
“We needed something new, something diverse,” Lamadeleine said. “I think it’s perfect for people to have a safe space.”
Event attendee Annie Graveline, while not a drag performer herself, noted the importance for people to have a space in the community.
“It means that people leave their stereotypes at home and just come and encourage people to be themselves,” said Graveline. “I’m not a drag queen, but I love to dance. So these people really relate to me.”
During the show, Armour encouraged people who might be less familiar, or perhaps uncomfortable with drag performance to refrain from putting up barriers and instead maintain open dialogue.
“Talk about it. Ask all those questions and then after if you still feel indifferent about them that’s on you,” Armour said. “We all want to be loved and accepted.”

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Shawville and Chichester rescind incinerator support

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Sixteen mayors oppose warden’s incinerator newsletter

Charles Dickson, LJI Reporter

The municipal councils of Shawville and Chichester have both rescinded their support for the incinerator project at their April meetings.
Shawville’s decision was rendered in a unanimous vote at its meeting last Tuesday evening, Apr. 23, and Chichester’s vote took place at its meeting on Monday Apr. 8.
“It was discussed and everybody felt that this has gone too far, we’re sick and tired of this, it’s not going anywhere, so let’s get it over with,” Shawville mayor Bill McCleary told THE EQUITY on Wednesday.
“There could possibly have been some jobs in this, but is it worth risking the environment and the health of your residents for a few jobs? Probably not,” McCleary said.
According to the mayor, the Shawville resolution includes a plan to look into the circular economy and zero waste as alternative approaches to dealing with municipal waste.
Chichester’s municipal council voted at its regular meeting on Apr. 8 to rescind its earlier resolution supporting the incinerator project.
“The council’s position was that we didn’t have enough information to justify that resolution, so we rescinded it,” Chichester mayor Donnie Gagnon told THE EQUITY last Wednesday.
“What I’m hearing, it’s all about your health and health issues, and I think that unless they can prove to me, with documentation and experts, to say that it’s okay, right now it’s a definite no,” he said.
Asked whether they would support a motion at the MRC table to stop the project, both the mayors said they would.
“Yes, right at the moment, I would say stop it, because we need more information,” Mayor Gagnon said.
“If the motion would arise that we want to put a stop to this project, I would probably vote to support that. It would depend on the circumstances and how it’s worded, but I would probably support stopping this in its tracks, because we’ve wasted enough time on it,” McCleary said. “It’s time to move on to the next project.”
At a recent MRC presentation on the incinerator project, Pontiac warden Jane Toller was asked what tipping point would need to be reached for the MRC to abandon this project.
“It would be when 10 mayors decide they don’t want to study this any further,” the warden replied. “But we also are not planning to have a vote for a while, so there’s nothing to vote on,” she said.

Shawville and Chichester were among the majority of municipalities in MRC Pontiac that passed resolutions last year expressing support for the incinerator project, and are now among the seven which have since rescinded their support. The councils of Litchfield and Otter Lake have remained opposed to the project from the beginning.
Of the 18 municipalities of MRC Pontiac, nine have now formally registered their opposition to the project: Bristol, Chichester, Clarendon, Litchfield, Otter Lake, Shawville, Sheenboro, Thorne and Waltham.
Warden’s incinerator newsletter voted down
A special meeting of MRC Pontiac mayors was held on Monday morning (Apr. 29) to consider a proposal by Warden Toller to distribute a newsletter to all residents of the Pontiac on the incinerator project.
The warden said that, despite a series of five presentations on the subject made across the Pontiac in recent weeks, most people were not adequately informed. She said the problem could be remedied with the distribution of an information sheet summarizing the findings of the initial business case developed by consulting firms Deloitte and Ramboll. Such a document was drafted by Allumette Island mayor Corey Spence and shared with fellow mayors last week.
In a meeting that lasted more than an hour, critical questions and comments were heard from members of the audience and mayors alike. The overwhelming sentiment of the room was one of opposition for myriad reasons to the newsletter idea. With the exchanges at times raucous, the warden gavelled on multiple occasions and threatened several members of the audience with expulsion from the meeting in her efforts to restore order.
When the motion to allocate $3,000 from the warden’s budget to print and distribute the proposed newsletter was finally put to a vote, Portage du Fort mayor Lynn Cameron cast the only vote in favour, with the 16 other mayors voting it down. Thorne mayor Karen Daly-Kelly was absent.

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Pontiac farmers protest, ‘fed up’ with lack of provincial support

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Reporter

A group of Pontiac farmers took to the streets of downtown Gatineau in their tractors and trucks on Wednesday morning, joining over 50 agricultural producers from across the Outaouais region in a protest demanding greater financial support from the Quebec government.
The Pontiac contingent of about a dozen farmers gathered at Ferme Stépido on Alary Road in Luskville early that morning to line up their tractors and await the police cars that would escort their convoy all the way to their destination for the day – Casino du Lac-Leamy.
The protest was one of many organized by the Quebec farmers union, the Union des Producteurs Agricole (UPA), across the province since the 2024-2025 budget was tabled in March.
“We’re fed up,” said Stéphane Alary, president of the UPA’s Outaouais-Laurentides branch and owner of Ferme Stépido.
“We’re as essential as the health ministry and the education ministry. You need to eat before you can learn or work,” he said. “Everybody says farmers are essential, but where’s the money?”
Just under one per cent of the provincial budget is destined for the agricultural industry, “peanuts” according to Alary’s son Justin, the fifth generation to work on the family’s dairy and grain farm.
Of the $380 million marked for the agricultural sector over the next five years, $50 million will be used to create a new investment fund to help the next generation of farmers buy land. Another $50 million will be used to help farmers make sustainable agricultural investments.
The bulk of the remaining funds, about $240 million, will be used to continue the province’s farm property tax credit program.
Farmers gathered in Luskville pointed to the high cost of farming inputs like fertilizer and fuel, growing debt loads and high interest rates, and the vulnerability that comes with a changing climate as the biggest stressors in their field.

Justin Alary said he is frustrated with the lack of financial support and increased regulations for farmers, who he said are increasingly pinched between pressures from all directions.
“We often talk to our governments and they don’t really listen. They don’t really see all the impacts of all the new regulations and the standards,” Alary said, adding he found the support offered in the budget to be inadequate, and out of touch with the reality of running a farming business.
“You can no longer just work on a farm. It takes someone who can do all the paperwork, do the follow-ups, apply for programs,” Alary said. “You have to always be perfect, but sometimes it’s not our fault. We lived through a hail storm. We lived through the derecho.”
He said taking care of his cows alone takes 10 hours a day, leaving very little time for him to spend with his family, let alone do all the other work needed to keep the business afloat.
For Blake Draper, a cow calf producer in the Municipality of Pontiac, these funding programs are appreciated, but not nearly enough.
“The government has cut so many programs over the years that were essential to the farmers,” said Draper, who has been in the business for 50 some years.
“They’ve added so many environmental regulations that we have to adhere to but they don’t want to help us with any money to make these changes, like leaving land empty for frogs, birds, and things like that.”
Stéphane Alary said he too would like to see greater financial support for the climate-friendly transitions the province is encouraging across the agricultural sector.
“We’re there to be part of the solution but they need to put a lot more retribution for the farmers because the cost of the asset is so much. If you want me to put land for biodiversity, I can’t just give it away.”
THE EQUITY requested clarity from the province’s ministry of agriculture (MAPAQ) regarding funding programs available to farmers, but did not receive a response before publication deadline.
Quebec farming income
on the decline
Alary said the slice of the provincial budget dedicated to the agricultural sector has not changed over the past 10 years.
Meanwhile, the agricultural sector across the province is suffering.
In a February press release, the UPA cited data from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) that predicted Quebec’s net farm income would drop 49.2 per cent in 2023 and 86.5 per cent in 2024, this despite net farm incomes reaching record highs in Canada for those same two years.
“However, the reality varies greatly from province to province, as shown by the results for Quebec,” the press release reads. “AAFC forecasts that net farm income in Quebec will fall from $959 million in 2022 to $487.1 million in 2023 (-49.2 per cent) and $66 million in 2024 (-86.5 per cent), the lowest levels in 86 years.”
For Stéphane Alary, it’s more than just a business that’s lost when a farmer decides to leave the industry, it’s a culture and a way of life.
“We’re losing knowledge of farming when we lose a farmer. You can spend a lot of money on a museum, but if you lose a farm that’s like losing a museum too. And the rural areas are getting poorer and poorer.”

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Incinerator again dominates questions at meeting of mayors

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Charles Dickson, LJI Reporter

At the April meeting of Pontiac County mayors, held last Wednesday at the MRC office in Campbell’s Bay, questions about the proposed garbage incinerator project were again the primary focus of the public participation section of the agenda.
Christine Armitage led off with her inquiry about the fate of a document known as the initial business case for the energy-from-waste (EFW) project. Produced by two consulting firms, Deloitte and Ramboll, it lays out their analysis and recommendations for how the project could be structured.
The MRC commissioned the study last November under a sole-source contract at a cost of approximately $120,000 and received the report in late January. Citizens engaged in the incinerator debate argued that since the document was paid for with public funds, it should be released to the public.
Regardless, the warden and mayors withheld the document through a series of public presentations of its findings that they convened over recent weeks. Their explanations for why it was not being released included that it was very technical, Pontiacers wouldn’t get much out of it, and no one would come to hear the MRC’s presentation of the report if they could read it for themselves.
They did commit, however, to publishing the document after the series of presentations had concluded. Though it was finally posted on the MRC website on the afternoon of Thursday, Apr. 11, it had disappeared by Friday morning, which led to Christine Armitage’s question at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Council of Mayors.
“Late last Thursday, the Deloitte and Ramboll EFW documents were briefly posted, then the links were subsequently removed the following morning. Can you explain why?” Armitage asked.
“The reason for that was that it came to our attention that, according to the contract with the consultants, that there was some confidential information,” Warden Toller explained.
“We just wanted to make sure that there is no possible violation of the contract,” she said. “And so, at this point, what we are doing is we are working with the consultants, and we do hope to be in a position to be able to repost it.”
“But it is very fortunate that, in the time period that it was posted, that many groups received it and posted it on their website,” the warden added.
In a statement issued on Monday of last week (Apr. 15), the MRC alluded to an apparent disagreement between MRC Pontiac and Deloitte over a detail of the contract governing publication of the document.
“We were advised Friday morning by the parties involved that releasing these documents violated a third-party confidentiality clause that was written into the contract to commission the analysis. In our opinion, these documents are in the public domain since they were paid for with taxpayers’ money. That said, we have for the time being removed the links to the documents while we carry out legal verifications concerning the publication of these documents,” the MRC statement read.
On Monday of this week (April 22), the MRC provided THE EQUITY with the text of the confidentiality clause:
Limitation on use and distribution. Except as otherwise agreed in writing, all services in connection with this engagement shall be solely for the Company’s internal purposes and use, and this engagement does not create privity between Deloitte and any person or party other than the Company (“third party”). This engagement is not intended for the express or implied benefit of any third party. No third party is entitled to rely, in any manner or for any purpose, on the advice, opinions, reports, or Services of Deloitte. The Company further agrees that the advice, opinions, reports or other materials prepared or provided by Deloitte are to be used only for the purpose contemplated by the Engagement Letter and shall not be distributed to any third party without the prior written consent of Deloitte Canada.

At last week’s meeting of mayors, Armitage also asked about plans regarding one of the recommendations of the report, the proposal to conduct a second business case that would provide information not covered in the initial report.
“Some mayors have stated to their residents at council meetings that they require more information to make a decision,” Armitage said. “You’ve said it would be borne by grants or other partners that seem to be ill-defined . . . ”
“I think we’ve said that we’re going to secure the funding, and the funding will not come from MRC Pontiac,” the warden replied.
“On what basis would this council decide on moving forward with a second business plan?” Armitage asked.
“At this point, Deloitte and Ramboll gave a list of the things that were not included in the initial business case,” the warden responded. “And we all feel that more information is important. We don’t have enough information right now. A majority of people at this table believe we don’t have enough information.”
“And we’re certainly hearing this from the public because, even with our town hall meetings, there were a total of 350 people in attendance [THE EQUITY estimates there were more than 500] . . . and we have a population of 14,700 so we need to find a way to get information to every household, and we’re working on that plan,” Toller said.
“Even with adopting zero waste – which is an excellent aspiration, we all think it’s a good idea, but it will take a long time – and we’re concerned that after the recycling and composting, we’ll have about 50 per cent of our waste that will need to go someplace other than landfills, because landfills may not stay open and we do not support landfill,” the warden said.
Asked by Armitage whether a second business case would be based on 400,000 tons of garbage or a smaller volume of 70,000 tons, the warden replied that it is too early to say.
Pat Shank, a resident of Calumet Island, picked up on the theme of obtaining more information and offered to help.
“You mentioned you need more information . . . what if I was able to, on these screens, to get real professionals that can talk to you about common sense and how zero waste and a circular economy really works, without an incinerator on the Ottawa River which you all were to protect?” he asked, suggesting the name of Dr. Paul Connett, a long-standing critic of garbage incineration who came to local notoriety through a video that has circulated on social media.
“We’ve already heard from Dr. Connett,” the warden responded. “We actually have been very fortunate over the last six months to have the global lead in the world on technologies, and this person has been directly involved with energy from waste.”
When Shank continued to speak, the warden thanked him and repeatedly asked him to sit down or she would have to ask him to leave the meeting.
“And zero waste, Pat, is a great idea and we’re going to look into it . . . but it’s not realistic, and it won’t just cause 50 per cent of our waste to disappear. And so, that’s our answer at this point, but we need more information,” she said as she moved on to the next person with a question.

Warden draws distinction between mayors’ role at municiple vs county tables

“Reading the paper every week, and I’m wondering why a few councils, especially Shawville, are not bringing this [incinerator issue] to a vote with their council members, and I’m wondering why,” an unidentified man asked.
“It’s the decision of each council, it’s not something that is decided here at the MRC,” the warden responded. “The mayors around this table are part of a regional council, and then they also have another responsibility in their own municipality. What happens in their municipality, we don’t get involved in,” she said.
Audience member Sylvie Landriault commented that it was unacceptable to see 20 plastic water bottles distributed around the council table.
“An excellent point,” the warden replied. “I agree with you. Tonight, we’ve used these; we won’t use these again, to set an example,” she said.
Sylvie Landriault also asked if it would be possible to have the meeting agenda posted online ahead of the meeting, to which the warden and several members of the staff responded, saying they would try to post it on Mondays, 72 hours ahead of the meeting.

Outspoken critic of the incinerator project, Linda Davis, challenged the warden on comments she had made at the MRC’s presentation in Campbell’s Bay the previous week. A woman in the audience at that meeting said she had been an expert involved in the operation of Ottawa’s failed Plasco project to convert municipal waste into electricity that would be sold to the public grid. The woman argued that there were features of the Plasco technology that bore certain similarities to the incinerator proposed for the Pontiac that should be of concern.
In response, the warden made reference to the person leading the Ramboll team working on the Pontiac incinerator project.
“We have the global lead from Ramboll, her name is Bettina Kamuk. She sat at the meeting that Mr. Bryden pitched Ottawa before the facility was built,” the warden said. “She stood up and she said, ‘I have to tell you right now, this technology will not work.’ And she was the only one that was correct,” Toller said.
“So, I am really sorry that that has always been described as a real fiasco to us. We would never want to have a Plasco in the Pontiac,” the warden said in the Campbell’s Bay meeting.
In her intervention at last week’s mayors’ meeting, Davis asked the warden whether she had been suggesting that Rod Bryden was prepared not to listen to an engineer who said his multi-million-dollar project wouldn’t work.
“You’re suggesting that this engineer gave advice in a room full of men, and they didn’t listen to her – are you standing by that comment or not?” Davis asked.
“I wasn’t there, but I have it on good authority that it was Bettina Kamuk, and no one else in the room that said it would not work. So, I was impressed with that story because it showed me that she knows what she is talking about,” the warden replied.
Pressed by Davis as to whether she was violating Kamuk’s confidentiality, the warden replied that she was not violating anything, with which she concluded the public question period.

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Incinerator town hall series wraps up

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Stopping the project requires 10 mayors to vote against it, but there is no plan for another vote, says warden

Charles Dickson, LJI Reporter

The series of five town hall-styled meetings hosted by MRC Pontiac to present its “initial business case” on the proposed garbage incineration project concluded last week with the final sessions held on Tuesday evening in Campbell’s Bay and on Wednesday evening in Otter Lake.
At both events, Jane Toller, the warden of MRC Pontiac, welcomed the people gathered, estimated to be slightly more than a hundred in Campbell’s Bay and slightly fewer in Otter Lake.
Both meetings opened with the image of a 2008 issue of THE EQUITY projected on the screen, featuring a front-page story about the plan to build a garbage incinerator near Shawville. The warden described how subsequent councils explored options for an incinerator up until 2012.
“In the end, there was insufficient tonnage to move forward,” she said, explaining that there was a suggestion at the time to investigate possibilities to secure garbage in Gatineau and Ottawa.
“So, I think that this clarifies a lot about our history, and that it [the proposal for a garbage incinerator] hasn’t just started this year with the current MRC Council of Mayors,” she said.
When the warden turned things over to Corey Spence, mayor of Allumettes Island, to make the presentation, he prefaced his remarks with a description of the warden’s motivation in advancing the project.
“Over the past year, Warden Toller diligently navigated the complexities of the energy-from-waste issue, with the hope of exploring a project where the Pontiac could play a leading role in the new paradigm of the circular economy,” he said.
Spence continued with a reference to a video recording in which Dr. Paul Connett, a long-standing critic of garbage incineration, enumerates a range of his concerns about the environmental, health and economic consequences of the technology.
“Unfortunately, a video was widely circulating in social media effectively sowing fear and uncertainty with regards to waste-to-energy technologies, even before the MRC had a chance to fully contemplate the project,” Spence said.
In the ensuing exchanges at both gatherings, much of the same ground was covered as in previous presentations, both in terms of what was presented and how the audience reacted. Farmers raised their concerns about the effect that pollution from the incinerator falling on agricultural lands could have on consumer demand for their products. Some raised the issue of the potential contamination of Pontiac’s environment and the impact it would have on tourism in the area. Others expressed worries about the health implications, including cancer, and our already over-burdened health care system. Concern was raised about the impact on our highways. And, as with the previous meetings, the audience of a hundred people, plus or minus, was overwhelmingly opposed to the project.
Colleen Larivière, the mayor of Litchfield, the municipality in which the MRC intends to locate the proposed incinerator, was in the audience at the Campbell’s Bay meeting.
“The Litchfield municipal council has made very clear their stand on the incinerator. We oppose it, we adopted a motion that we’re opposed,” she said.
“We have 5,000 tons of garbage in the Pontiac. That’s what we should be talking about,” she said to loud applause. “We’ve been talking about composting and recycling at the MRC for three years now. We haven’t gotten very far. Let’s work on that,” Larivière said.
In light of the opposition at both meetings, the warden commented that it is a minority of the people who are opposed to the project who come to the meetings, while people who support it stay home. She said that the environmental assessment, when everyone is consulted, would provide a better indication of the level of support for the project.
One man asked what tipping point would need to be reached for the MRC to abandon this project.
“Or do you intend to carry on with this despite angry meetings all over the place? If you’re not getting the drift by now, I don’t know if you ever will,” he asked.

“It would be when 10 mayors decide they don’t want to study this any further,” the warden replied. “But we also are not planning to have a vote for a while, so there’s nothing to vote on,” she clarified.
MRC posts initial business
case online and then takes it down
Meanwhile, the initial business case produced by consulting firms Deloitte and Ramboll, the subject of the series of public meetings which the warden had promised would be made available to the public as of last Thursday, was initially posted on the MRC website and then pulled down.
In a statement issued on Monday of this week, the MRC alluded to an apparent disagreement between MRC Pontiac and the two firms over a detail of the contract governing publication of the document.
“We were advised Friday morning by the parties involved that releasing these documents violated a third-party confidentiality clause that was written into the contract to commission the analysis,” the statement read.
“In our opinion, these documents are in the public domain since they were paid for with taxpayers’ money. That said, we have for the time being removed the links to the documents while we carry out legal verifications concerning the publication of these documents.”

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Junkyard Jaws of Life training for Bristol fire department

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Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Reporter

The Johnson Auto Wreckers junkyard in Danford Lake offered itself as an ideal playground for a team of Bristol firefighters on Sunday.
At the back of the junkyard, amidst rows of rusted and mangled cars, eight of the department’s firefighters spent the day getting acquainted with its recently acquired Jaws of Life tools – one spreader tool and one cutter tool.
“This is just one of our next steps in trying to improve our department,” said Alex Mahon, officer in training with the department, noting the two tools were the latest big purchase the department made since buying an emergency rescue boat in 2022.
“It’s good that we’’ll be able to be more independent and depend less on Shawville,” said Fire Chief Kevin Kluke.
He explained that for years, both Shawville-Clarendon and Bristol fire departments have had to be called to any accident that happens on Highway 148 in the Municipality of Bristol, just in case the Jaws of Life are needed.
“Once the course is done and they’ll all be certified, Bristol will man their own section of the 148,” Kluke said.
The two tools purchased cost a total of about $37,000, half of which the department has already paid using money from previous fundraising efforts.
After a day of in-class lessons on Saturday, the firefighters ran through different scenarios they might encounter when responding to a car accident, guided by instructor Stéphane Dubreuil.
On a small silver Mazda hatchback, they learned how to perform a dash lift, a procedure that takes apart the front of the car so that it can be lifted to free a victim’s legs from under its dash.
In this exercise, the team got to a point where the spreader and the cutter were no longer fit to tackle the job as the car’s frame was too rusted.
They then moved on to tackle a bright turquoise Mini Cooper as though there were two passengers stuck in the car, one in the front seat and one in the back, and the doors were jammed.
“Right now the cars are getting stronger. The way the car is designed, when they crush, they’re not supposed to crush the cab of the vehicle, but it will crush the engine compartment and push it into the doors such that you can’t open the doors,” Mahon explained.
“So for the most part, it’s just a door removal. But if [the victim] is injured you’re removing both doors or the complete roof. There’s never two accidents the same.”
Mahon said his department is lucky – that it only responds to 15 to 20 car accident calls a year, and that they rarely need to use the Jaws of Life.
While it’s been at least five years since he’s personally responded to an accident where the Jaws of Life tools were needed, “it’s one of those tools that you’d rather have than need it.”
“Not every call will have eight of us on it,” Mahon said. “So the more of us that are trained, the more chance there’s going to be a firefighter trained on the Jaws that’s going to make it to the scene.”
Mahon and Daniel Johnson, who works as a firefighter for both Bristol and Pontiac departments, spent the weekend prior building the wooden blocks used to stabilize the cars.
Johnson’s uncle owns the Danford Lake junkyard and donated the three cars that were dismembered on Sunday as well as the five or six that will be used for lessons this weekend.
“We’re trying to save as much money as possible,” Mahon explained.
Kluke, chief of both Bristol and Campbell’s Bay fire departments, and Bristol firefighter Chris Brazeau both already have their Jaws training, which means 10 of 21 members of the department will be equipped to use the tools when needed.

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Citizen scientists needed to help save endangered turtles

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Glen Hartle, LJI Reporter

Why did the turtle cross the road? Because it had to. And that’s a problem.
Road mortality isn’t just an issue for the Sûreté du Québec and the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec. It is also an issue for a raft of organizations representing Mother Nature and they have mobilized in support of their mandate.
An Outaouais environmental organization, the Conseil régional de l’environnement et du développement durable de l’Outaouais (CREDDO), has stepped up and undertaken a four-year project working to mitigate road mortality amongst the turtle populations of the region.
The initiative hopes to protect all turtles, but of particular concern are two species currently on the provincial, national and global endangered species lists: the Blanding’s turtle and the wood turtle. A third species, the northern map turtle, is additionally targeted by the project due to regional and national concerns.
The overall objective of the project, as articulated at its official launch in Sept. 2023, is to reduce the extent of road mortality of turtles in the Outaouais region by prioritizing actions targeting Blanding’s, wood and northern map turtle populations.
More specifically, the goal is to confirm the hotspots of turtle road mortality suggested by available mortality data.
Cénédra Poulin, the activity lead for CREDDO, indicates that while the project officially launched in the summer of 2023, the first phase is about to get under way.
“I think it’s going well so far. We had all the subsidies we asked for and we have a lot of volunteers interested in helping,” Poulin said.
During this initial phase, forecast to last from the middle of May to the middle of July, the project aims to confirm certain road mortality hotspots in the Outaouais through volunteer citizen mortality monitoring in several sectors of the region.
In the Pontiac, the initiative will be specifically focused on busy roadways in the municipalities of Bristol, Clarendon, and Shawville.
“We are searching for people that could spend a few hours per week between mid-May and mid-July, to survey always the same part of a road on a turtle watch,” Poulin said.
Areas of high mortality risk will also be identified, including locations where live turtles are spotted near roads.
“The MRC has a direct role in turtle protection,” said Kari Richardson, MRC Pontiac’s environmental coordinator and its representative for the project. She encouraged residents to report turtle sightings on the Nature Conservancy of Canada portal (https://carapace.ca).
“Once we know exactly where the hot spots are across the Pontiac, we can target awareness efforts, signage and perhaps even fencing, if it is required.”
Subsequent phases of the project will aim to implement measures to reduce road mortality at sites identified as hotspots during the first phase. These mitigation measures will include signage, fencing and wildlife crossings.
Partnering with CREDDO are the Outaouais’ four MRCs (Collines-de-l’Outaouais, Papineau, Pontiac and Vallée-de-la-Gatineau), la Fondation de la Faune du Québec, Nature Conservancy Canada, the National Capital Commission, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, the provincial and federal ministries of environment, and le Groupe de rétablissement des tortues du Québec.
From local to global
Locally, the conversation around conservation is ongoing, and turtles have been on the radar before. Regional art association artPontiac hosted a special “Call of the Turtle” exhibit in 2022 drawing attention to their plight and invited several experts from various organizations, including the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), to speak at the grand opening.
Provincially, Quebec’s environment ministry indicates that the Blanding’s turtle is considered threatened, meaning that it could disappear in short order. The wood turtle and northern map turtle are considered vulnerable, meaning that survival is considered precarious in the long-term.
At the national level, the Committee on the Status on Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) lists the Blanding’s turtle as endangered, meaning it is facing imminent extirpation (regional extinction) or global extinction. The wood turtle is listed as threatened, meaning that it is likely to become endangered if nothing is done to reverse the factors leading to its extirpation or extinction. The northern map turtle is listed as being of special concern, meaning that it is particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events.
At the global level, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List (IUCN Red List) lists both the Blanding’s turtle and the wood turtle as endangered. This list of threatened species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species and is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity. It is not an honour to appear on the list, rather, it is a call for action.
No matter how you read the above categorizations and classifications, the turtles are in danger, and CREDDO is hoping to change that reality by working with various stakeholders on environmental issues in mounting this conservation effort.
If you would like to be a part of the turtle project, contact cenedra.poulin@creddo.ca or k.richardson@mrcpontiac.qc.ca. Information and social media links can be found at: https://creddo.ca.

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Warm, dry spring brings bushfires to Bristol, Pontiac

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Guillaume Laflamme, LJI Reporter

Firefighters in the municipalities of Bristol and Pontiac responded to a seasonally high number of bushfires in the last week of March and first few days of April, attributable to the unusually warm and dry conditions the region experienced in what has been a relatively early spring.
Mario Allen, director general for the Municipality of Pontiac, said the fire department responded to 10 bushfires over the course of that period, including a fairly large fire that broke out on Cain Line, just off Lac-des-Loups Road.
“We were lucky to have the help of Bristol and La Pêche,” Allen said. “That way we were able to protect the big forest right beside it. Without them we could have ended up losing many acres of forest.”
Allen said firefighters from the three municipalities worked mid-afternoon until 11 p.m. on Apr. 2 to put out the fire that was, at its largest, 4-5 acres large.
Allen said there were also several smaller grass and bush fires that had to be put out in his municipality, many over the Easter long weekend when people cleaning up their yards and burning leaves and old branches lost control of the burn.
“It was quite a few years that we didn’t have so many as we’ve had in the last two weeks,” Allen said, attributing the unusually early fire season to prime conditions created by a lack of precipitation combined with a surplus of dead, dry vegetation covering the ground.
“We were about to send out an advertisement saying no burning but the snow came on Thursday and that solved a lot of the problem.”
Alex Mahon, who has been a firefighter for Bristol for five years and is currently completing his officer course, said the warm spring has forced a running start.
“The first week was pretty full. But last weekend, it was bad for us,” Mahon told THE EQUITY, following the Easter long-weekend, noting the department responded to three bush fires, two in Bristol on Mar. 31, and the big one on Cain Line the following Tuesday.
As a result, the Bristol Fire Department has stopped giving out burn permits and has enacted a burn ban for the municipality due to the dry weather. The department is discouraging people from burning things outside until the conditions improve.
Mahon said the snow last week made a small difference, but did not bring enough moisture for the department to cancel the ban.
“If you look outside now, you never would have even known it snowed,” Mahon said.
“We’re still being very cautious until the grass starts getting greener and the conditions become less dangerous.”
Season’s forecast
Mélanie Morin, information officer for SOPFEU, Quebec’s wildifre prevention agency, explained that the season has been off to an early start with 13 fires in the Outaouais region over the last three weeks that have burnt 6.6 hectares collectively.
“So far there’s been less snow in southern Quebec than there has been in usual years.” Morin said. “So we are ready and expecting […] a more early start to the season.”
Although the weather is dryer than usual, Morin said that the severity of the wildfire season is a challenge, and the most important part is being prepared for any situation.
“Other than a few days out, we can’t see how the season is going to be like. Our main mission is to be ready for no matter the type of season that we get,” Morin explained. “Kind of like every other emergency service, you have to be ready to face all. And then if it’s quiet, all the better. And if it’s not, then we’re there to respond.”
Morin reminded people planning to have outdoor fires to check the fire danger rating, to check in with local municipalities on the requirements for fire permits, and remain cautious with fire use.

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There she goes – Henderson’s Store is no more

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Reporter

On Friday morning, Valerie Henderson stood at the window inside her home on Norway Bay’s Wharf Road and watched as a large digger took its first knock at the long, white garage-like building – what came to be known as the Henderson’s store – where she and her family had served the community for more than three decades.
The digger had been stationed in the open lot directly across from her window since the previous Friday, lined up with its elbow pointed at the structure it had been hired to destroy, ready to strike when summoned. But the long weekend followed by last week’s rain and snow had punted the actual demolition day into an undefined future.
As Henderson waited for the demolition to begin, so too did the community. Messages poured in on Facebook from year-round neighbours and cottagers alike sharing memories of the iconic building that had offered itself as a community hub since it was built in 1959.
People wrote of sunset walks to get ice cream, loading up on candies when they were only one cent each, working their first job as a cashier at the store, getting freshly cut meats from the meat counter Henderson’s son Andy opened in the mid 90s, playing pool to the sound of the jukebox, and the list goes on.
“This was my childhood home!” wrote Susie Wiggins, daughter of Norm Wiggins who bought the building after he helped Campbell’s Bay’s Sylvio Arbic build it and ran it as a boat and snowmobile storage and repair shop for almost 20 years.
“My dad would play the accordion or his harmonicas before I went to bed down in the shop [and] I would lay on a snowmobile in my pjs and listen to him,” Wiggins recalled.
She said her father Norm passed away in November 2022, and doesn’t think he would have been able to bear seeing it torn down.
“It was really sad for him to see it had fallen apart,” Wiggins said, herself tearing up at the thought of losing the place that was so filled with memories from 10 years of her childhood.
The Henderson family bought the building from Norm Wiggins after moving from Toronto in the late 70s. When the family closed the store in 2018, the plan was never to tear it down, but the snow load that accumulated on the building when the heating was shut off caused its structure to collapse.
“So now we’re putting her down,” Henderson said. “Actually, council has told us we have to.”
Andy, who bought the building from Henderson a few years back, said he has not yet decided what he is going to do with the lot.
“I’m just kind of exploring all my options right now. I have some ideas but nothing is really finalized.”
On Friday morning, Henderson called THE EQUITY with an update.
“I just wanted to let you know that it’s happening.”

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