Parc Roquebrune

Wakefield hopeful wants return of joie de vivre

Local Journalism Initiative / The Low Down / August 27, 2025 / La Pêche municipal elections, Municipal candidates La Pêche, Parc Roquebrune, Quebec municipal elections, Shaujn McArthur, Trevor Greenway, Turntable Park, Wakefield Ward

By Trevor Greenway

Shaughn McArthur wants Wakefield to return to the funky, grassroots, artist-driven village that made it such a desirable place for the many walks of life who have called it home.

The Wakefield resident has announced that he is running for the Wakefield Ward in the upcoming municipal elections, and he said he wants to see the village’s quirky joie de vivre return.

“I think Wakefield is about to see some explosive change, and it’s important for it to be done sensibly and with some real, attentive, local representation,” McArthur told the Low Down during a sit-down interview at Wakefield’s turntable park.

Turntable park, officially known as Parc Roquebrune, is significant, as the municipality is looking to revamp it, and the next council will be tasked with how to do that – in particular whether or not to remove the turntable itself or memorialize it as part of the redesign.

“We need to make sure that, as we build more of these developments, there are spaces like turntable park, like the docks, and we should come back to the covered bridge, where people can continue to come together outside of their backyards,” added McArthur. “I don’t want this to become a gated community, where people are having barbecues and pools in their backyards for that to happen. We still need places like the community centre, like the parks, where we come, and we are together in community.”

McArthur is no stranger to politics, as he ran federally for the Green Party of Canada in 2021, finishing in sixth place with 1,710 votes. He is currently the government relations associate director with Nature United, the Canadian chapter of the world’s largest conservation organization. He has extensive experience working with Indigenous groups on climate action and solutions in agriculture and forestry.

Locally, McArthur, 43, has lived in the village for over a decade, where he raised his two children and has been engaged in multiple community efforts over the years, including as former board member of the Centre Wakefield La Pêche (CWLP) and was the chair of the centre’s transfer committee, which oversaw the recent community centre building transfer to the municipality.

Through his work and volunteer efforts, he said he has built strong relationships with local representatives, including MP Sophie Chatel, and other La Pêche councillors currently serving.

“It’s about pulling all that stuff together to make sure that Wakefield continues to be this incredible hub in La Pêche, the broader MRC and the Pontiac, but in a way that it doesn’t lose its flavour and its quirkiness,” he said.

McArthur added that Wakefield needs a councillor who is engaged and ready to tackle big problems. He said he wants to help businesses thrive, ensure service workers have places to live – rental properties they can afford – and that Wakefield and the broader community commit to serious plans on climate action, emergency preparedness and housing for the aging population.

“We’ve got incredible densification going on – that’s great – but it needs to come with the right municipal infrastructure that plays into disaster preparedness, but also plays into the flavour of the community that we have,” he said. “You need affordable housing. You need people on lower, different income scales to contribute to the culture of this place, because that’s what makes it so great.”

He continued: “This community and its flavour and its commerce will not move forward in the way that we want if we can’t find places to house folks that are waiting our tables, tending our bars, cleaning our trails.”

Quebecers head to the municipal polls on Nov. 2.

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Villagers debate future of Wakefield turntable

Local Journalism Initiative / The Low Down / August 22, 2025 / La Pêche, Parc Roquebrune, Public consultations, Trevor Greenway, Wakefield

By Trevor Greenway

Former Wakefield Trails president Ken Bouchard feels that the turntable installed in the heart of Wakefield “has no place” in the village.

Speaking at an Aug. 14 consultation on Parc Roquebrune, better known by locals as turntable park, Bouchard told the Low Down that the turntable has no history connecting it to Wakefield and should be removed as the municipality gets set to give the park a major makeover.

“I personally think, and I’m persuading some of the others, that the turntable has no place,” said Bouchard during a breakout session at the Wakefield community centre with several other residents. It never was part of railroading in the Gatineau Valley. It was introduced by the National Capital Commission (NCC) to promote the tourism train in conjunction with the Museum of Science and Technology. And it never had a role.”

The NCC acquired the old turntable from Kingston in 1974 and installed it in Wakefield that same year so that the Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield tourist train could turn around in the village and make its return trip back to Hull. The NCC, in partnership with the Canada Science and Technology Museum, ran the excursions, which became a popular tourist attraction.

Whether you feel the turntable should remain in the village or not, it does come with some storied Wakefield history, notably the 1977 trip that saw Queen Elizabeth II ride the train from Hull to Wakefield on her royal visit.

Wakefield resident Stanley Britton and his Wakefield’s Rail Heritage Advocacy Group told the Low Down in the spring that they believed the Wakefield turntable to be among the last remaining working turntables in Canada.

Engine House in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., contains an enclosed turntable at its National Historic Site of Canada. The former Canadian Northern Railway turntable in Dauphin, one of the last ones in Manitoba, will also be dismantled this summer.

Others at the consultation disagreed with Bouchard’s take and said they felt the turntable should be preserved and incorporated into any new design the municipality comes up with.

“I think the name should be changed from Parc Roquebrune to Turntable Park, because nobody in Wakefield knows what Parc Roquebrune represents,” said resident David Pritchard. “We should maintain our railway, because it is historic, and we should keep that infrastructure.”

The municipality is considering several options for the Wakefield turntable and the railway along the village’s main drag. These include: removing the turntable and commemorating it with a plaque and other educational installations, partially incorporating the turntable into the design, or completely preserving the turntable. The municipality is also considering whether to remove the train tracks throughout the village or incorporate them into a new multi-use pathway for pedestrians and cyclists.

La Pêche has been seeking input from residents on what to do with turntable park since it launched an online survey on July 1 this summer. The survey asks residents what amenities they would want to see at the park, and many of the responses have included shaded picnic areas, a community stage, chess tables, a children’s playground, an expanded swimming area, improved washrooms and changerooms and a rethink on the parking that bookends the park on Chemin de la Rivière.

“We bake in the sun there during Art in the Park,” said Paul Brown, who works with the 100-Mile Arts Network in Wakefield. The network has been hosting weekend art shows, but Brown said without any infrastructure, it’s been tough during heat wave weekends.

“It’s really hard to work in that park. There is shade and trees on the other side, but we can’t get to it because of the rails,” he added. “We’ve had funding to do this Art in the Park, but it would be a lot better if we had some infrastructure.”

Other ideas brought up during the consultations included building a tourist information kiosk that would have information for visitors on where to go and what to see, but that idea was met with strong criticism from Wakefielder Shoshana Stein, who says info kiosks are “outdated, tacky” and bad for the environment.

“When we used to come to Wakefield before we moved here, the pleasure was actually just talking to people and learning about Wakefield through those conversations,” she said.

“It happens organically, we don’t need somebody to point it out, and we have to preserve that,” added Wakefield resident Denise Giroux.

About 20 people attended the in-person consultation Aug. 14. The survey is available online at https://lapecheconsulte.ca until Sept. 5.

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La Pêche seeks community input for turntable park

Local Journalism Initiative / The Low Down / July 23, 2025 / community consultation, Guillaume Lamoureux, La Pêche, Parc Roquebrune, Public consultation, Stanley Britton, Turntable Park, Wakefield, Wakefield Rail Heritage Advocacy Group

By Trevor Greenway

What should the municipality of La Pêche do with turntable park in Wakefield?

Expand the swimming area? Renovate the washrooms? Remove the historic turntable or renovate it to become part of the visitor experience?

“We want to do this right,” La Pêche Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux told the Low Down about the park that’s officially known as Parc Roquebrune. “It’s a super important park, so we want it to be welcoming, accessible and adapted to the needs of the community.”

Lamoureux and council have launched an online public consultation to solicit ideas from residents on what they would like to see at the park in the future. Some of those options include: picnic areas, a space for community events, a playground for kids, a tourism information kiosk and renovated washrooms. The online survey also asks residents if they would like to see increased or decreased parking at the park.

“We want to create a space that truly reflects the values and needs of our community,” said Lamoureux. “We invite everyone who uses the park or is interested in its future to share their ideas and vision.”

One thing is clear: La Pêche is not building a motorized boat launch as Chelsea Mayor Pierre Guénard suggested recently during a meeting on the closure of the Farm Point boat launch. However, the municipality is seeking the public’s input on what to do with the park, which already features a public beach and swimming area.

Readers may recall our story this past spring, in which Wakefield resident Stanley Britton called on La Pêche to not “pave paradise” to increase parking at turntable park. Britton’s plan called for a renovation of the turntable, a new playground and a community stage for art shows and concerts. Britton was part of Wakefield’s Rail Heritage Advocacy Group, which is pushing to save the heritage of the steam train that used to roll through the village twice a week between May and October.

When it comes to the train tracks, the options for the park’s redesign also leave La Pêche at a bit of a crossroads: Does the municipality rip up the train tracks throughout the village, remove the turntable altogether and install heritage plaques throughout the village to honour its history? Or, does the municipality incorporate the heritage tracks into a pathway design and renovate the turntable so it’s accessible to the public?

“It’s one of our most visited municipal parks,” added Lamoureux. “We know it’s important, both for community members and visitors.”

Residents can access the online consultation via the municipal website at: https://lapecheconsulte.ca, and attend a public participatory workshop on Aug. 14 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Wakefield community centre. A consultation kiosk will also be installed at turntable park on Aug. 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., where residents can take the survey and add their comments.

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