Pontiac

CISSSO to cut $90 million

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Outaouais’ public health and social services network (CISSSO) learned recently it will have to pinch pennies for the next few months to meet new budget demands from the province’s healthcare authority.
Earlier this month, Santé Québec, the Crown corporation set to take over management of Quebec’s healthcare services as of Dec. 1, announced that all regional networks would have to balance their budgets by the end of the fiscal year.

This means CISSSO will have to cut its projected spending by $90 million, or 6 per cent of its annual budget, by Mar. 2025.

“Given the state of public finances, a request was made in the autumn to eliminate all deficits for all institutions by 2024-2025,” said health ministry spokesperson Marie-Christine Patry in an email to THE EQUITY. “All institutions are required to achieve and maintain a balanced budget.”

CISSSO did not offer an interview before publication deadline, but in an interview with Radio-Canada last week, the health network’s president Marc Bilodeau assured that while the the cuts will pose a significant challenge for the network, no existing jobs will be touched. Instead, he said, the network is considering a freeze on hiring administrative personnel.

Pontiac MNA André Fortin, also healthcare critic for the official opposition, rejects the idea that $90 million can be saved simply by pausing all administrative hires until the new budget year.
“There are not $90 million in administrative cuts in the CISSS de l’Outaouais,” Fortin told THE EQUITY on Monday.

He said other regional healthcare networks have already announced how they plan to reduce their projected spending, including removing job postings for nurses, social workers and orderlies, reducing evening shifts in long-term care facilities, and pausing the development of infrastructure projects like youth centres.

“We know that everywhere across Quebec, but particularly in the Outaouais and even more so in the Pontiac, we have to try to attract nurses, so we can’t afford to suspend job postings. We need every tool at our disposal to attract healthcare workers,” Fortin said.

“The underlying point here is that the region doesn’t need to cut $90 million from its healthcare budget. It needs to add $90 million, at least.”

Jean Pigeon, spokesperson for healthcare advocacy coalition SOS Outaouais, said the cuts to CISSSO’s budget are concerning and underscore “the chronic underfunding of healthcare in our region.”

“These cuts are not just a financial adjustment; they represent a significant setback for a region already grappling with structural inequities,” Pigeon said. “With $181 million still needed to meet the provincial average for healthcare funding, this decision perpetuates a cycle of insufficient services and growing disparities.”

Fortin echoed this point.

“The Outaouais and everybody in Quebec City has publicly agreed to this, that the Outaouais is underfunded in terms of healthcare by about $200 million,” he said.

“So for the region to be treated just like every other region when it comes to the cuts that are requested by government seems counterproductive at this point.”

CISSSO to cut $90 million Read More »

Six candidates vying for Pontiac’s federal Conservative seat

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

The race for the Conservative Party candidate for the Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi riding in the next federal election finally closed its doors to new entries on Nov. 13, with a total of six people having thrown their name in the hat to be considered for the job.

Brian Goodman, Michel Gauthier, Terrence Watters, Mark Buzan, Brian Nolan, and Jean-Nicolas de Bellefeuille each confirmed they’re hoping to receive the party’s nomination, however Watters did not respond to The Equity’s questions by publication deadline, so his answers will be published in next week’s issue.

Below are brief summaries of each candidate, based on responses they submitted by email. THE EQUITY has yet to obtain official confirmation from the Conservative Party of Canada that these candidates have indeed been accepted into the nomination race.
Residents of the riding who wish to vote at the nomination meeting, the date and time of which have yet to be publicly confirmed, must be a registered member of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Michel Gauthier

Michel Gauthier, originally from Maniwaki, currently lives in the town of Bois-Franc, 15 kilometres north of Maniwaki. He ran as the Conservative Party candidate for the Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi riding in the 2021 federal election, and spent 10 years working for the Gatineau Liberal Association, both as president and as head of communications for then MNA Stéphanie Vallée. Prior to this, he spent two decades working as a journalist in Gatineau covering political news at municipal, provincial and federal levels.
He said his choice to run for the Conservative Party is a question of values.

“I am a fiscal conservative and I am member and candidate for the CPC because this party is the only one that takes into account the sound financial management of the country before making decisions whose effects can then extend over decades,” he wrote in an email.

“I also completely agree with Mr. Poilievre’s common sense approach.One of the most striking examples is the proposal to cut the GST when buying a new home.”

He said the top three subjects he’s campaigning on are his belief that the construction of the nuclear waste disposal facility at Chalk River should not continue until studies on alternative sites have been done; a review of the federal government’s teleworking policy with the ambition of making employment with the federal public service accessible to people living in rural communities; and pushing for the construction of a Gatineau tramway, which he said is an important project for the west of the city, but municipal officials will have to understand that it will require urban densification to justify the costs, not moratoria on housing development.

Jean-Nicolas de Bellefeuille

Jean-Nicolas de Bellefeuille grew up in Val-des-Monts, and says his close proximity to nature as a child showed him “how deeply nature embodies freedom.”
“It’s a perspective that guides my approach to policies – aiming for sustainable practices that protect our environment while ensuring that future generations can enjoy the same sense of freedom and connection to the land.”

He is in his second term as a councillor for the municipality of Cantley, and spent four of his seven years in that job as president of the municipal Urban Planning Advisory Committee, both experiences which he says have equipped him with “a deep understanding of the machinery of government and a steadfast commitment to public service and ethical governance.”

In his email response to THE EQUITY, he explained his work with the urban planning committee “taught him the critical importance of balancing growth with environmental stewardship, a principle that is increasingly vital at the federal level as we address national challenges such as housing, infrastructure development and climate change.”

He’s chosen to run for the Conservative Party “because its values align closely with his own vision for Canada’s future – one grounded in fiscal responsibility, individual freedom, and the efficiency of small government.”

The top three policy changes he is campaigning on are reducing taxes, which he believes are too high and therefore putting “undue strain on hard working Canadians”; building homes by cutting red tape and incentivizing development; and preserving natural heritage by expanding parks and protected areas.

“I’m committed to advocating for the purchase of additional forest land for parks, ensuring these green spaces are available for generations to come.”

Mark Buzan

Mark Buzan is originally from southwestern Ontario but currently resides in the Plateau, in Gatineau, and has lived in the Outaouais since 1997. His political career began in the late 90s when he worked as the Legislative Assistant to then-MP Jason Kenney, who went on to become Minister of Immigration under Stephen Harper and more recently, Premier of Alberta. In 1998, Buzan was also a candidate for the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), a provincial political party that shut down in 2012. Finally, for over two decades Buzan has worked as a party organizer in the Outaouais for what he calls the conservative movement, most recently as the executive vice-president for the Conservative Party of Quebec.

“My conservative values drive me to advocate for policies that empower small businesses, reduce unnecessary government interference, and restore integrity, efficiency, and honesty to our governance,” Buzan wrote to THE EQUITY, explaining his decision to run for the Conservative Party.

He said his political priorities include reducing the high cost of living for Canadians, which he believes is caused by excessive government spending and the creation of federal taxes such as the carbon tax and capital gains tax. He also said he would work to cut back regulations preventing small business and resource development in the Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi riding, in an effort to create “a thriving local economy,” and support policies that incentivize municipalities to issue more permits for housing construction, in line with Pierre Poilievre’s commitment for bonuses on municipalities that meet their targets, this in an effort to support younger people wishing to establish roots in the region.

Brian Nolan

Brian Nolan was raised in Quebec City. He moved to Ottawa when he was 20, where he finished his studies in computer science, and has now lived in Chelsea, Que. for over 30 years.

Nolan cites his 25 years in the public service, his 15 years owning an IT consulting company and three years co-owning a Spoon Frozen Yogurt lounge in the ByWard market as experiences that played important parts in the development of his political senses, each in different ways giving him an understanding of the operations of the federal government.

In his email to THE EQUITY, he said his experience working in the public service, for example, “taught [him] the importance of transparent and accountable governance and gave me valuable insights into the complexities of policy making.”

He also said his role as vice-president and president of the Des Collines de l’Outaouais Minor Hockey Association strengthened his ties with the community, allowing him to “promote youth development and support local families.”

Nolan said he’s running to represent the Conservative Party because he believes in “the importance of fiscal responsibility, individual freedom, and the power of local communities to address local issues,” he wrote. “In short, I chose to run as a Conservative because I believe in balanced progress that respects tradition, supports hard-working Canadians, and fosters self-reliance and opportunity.”

Nolan said he would prioritize local economic development and support for small businesses, improving housing accessibility, and improving the quality of life for seniors through policies that “no longer treat them as an afterthought,” but that “ensure they enjoy their golden years with dignity, financial security, and access to world-class health care.”

Brian Goodman

Brian Goodman currently lives in Chelsea, Que., but is originally from the small town of Stonewall, Man.. He moved to the Ottawa-Gatineau area in 2008, after several years in Saskatchewan.

His political experience includes working for the Minister of Justice, Don Morgan, in the Saskatchewan Party government in 2007, as well as for Saskatchewan Conservative MP Ray Boughen on Parliament Hill. He also cites his time working with the federal government in various capacities, most recently with Canada’s export credit agency, Export Development Canada, and the dozen or so political campaigns he’s worked on in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec as critical to his political career.

“I’ve essentially been around politics and government from all angles for 15 years and would argue that very few people have the experience, knowledge, or network that I do in Ottawa,” he wrote.

In his email to THE EQUITY, Goodman said he’s running for this riding’s Conservative seat because “it pains [him] to watch the Liberals/NDP drive our country (and young people especially) ever deeper into debt, while letting housing and cost of living get out of control.”

“Conservatives are the only party that prioritizes the economy and since I work in trade, their focus on productivity and competitiveness is particularly appealing to me,” he wrote. “Closer to home, I know that Conservatives are much more in tune with rural communities.”

He said the top three policy issues he would focus on would be “economic opportunities for people in rural parts of the riding, and on competitiveness [and] productivity issues more broadly; housing and cost of living issues for both urban and rural parts of the riding; and protecting the environment of the riding, including Gatineau Park, the Ottawa River, and beyond.”

Terrence Watters

Terrence Watters did not respond to THE EQUITY’s emailed questions. However, the real estate broker and former casino manager was the candidate for the Conservative Party of Quebec in the 2022 provincial election. More can be learned about his policy priorities by visiting https://theequity.ca/candidates-take-questions-at-forum/ and https://theequity.ca/candidates-clash-at-the-winery-conversation-with-the-candidates-hosted-by-the-equity/.

Update: Nov. 27, 2024  Since this article was first published, THE EQUITY has learned that Terrence Watters has decided not to run, and Mark Buzan’s application is under review.

Six candidates vying for Pontiac’s federal Conservative seat Read More »

Former Kitigan Zibi chief Whiteduck running for Pontiac NDP nomination

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Former Kitigan Zibi chief Whiteduck running for Pontiac NDP nomination Read More »

Kitigan Zibi leading push to meet international conservation targets in the Outaouais

Five biodiversity hotspots already identified for protection in the Pontiac

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

A new Indigenous-led conservation initiative in the Outaouais is working to protect 30 per cent of the region’s land and freshwater ecosystems by the year 2030.

Leaders from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation’s natural resources and wildlife office will be working to bring together different levels of government with local environmental organizations to create a roadmap for how, and where, to create conservation areas to best protect the biodiversity across the First Nation’s traditional territory.

Currently, about 10 per cent of land in the Outaouais is protected, 7 per cent less than the global total. To meet its target, the project needs to triple the amount of protected land in this region.

This goal is in line with the 30 by 30 commitment made globally by 200 countries, including Canada, at the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal. Quebec’s Ministry of Environment committed to this target a year earlier.

Jonathan Cote is the coordinator for Kitigan Zibi’s Land Guardians program, and the spokesperson for this project.

“It’s to not sit back and wait for the government or NGOs to start the process. It’s saying, ‘Well, we have a table that we can all sit at so let’s all come together and sit at the same table,’” Cote said.

The First Nation’s Land Guardians will guide the field studies being done to understand what biodiversity exists in the region and will offer a leading voice in discussions around how to protect it.
“As Guardians we provide the technical support these projects need,” Cote said. “We’re in the middle of building more capacity to hire more guardians that can go out onto the land and share the traditional knowledge aspect of it as well.”

Cote explained the project’s name – Kidjìmàniàn – means “our canoe”, and can be translated as “paddling the same canoe,” a name fitting for a project that requires a high degree of teamwork and strategizing to reach a target now just over five years away.

“If we look at our region in the Outaouais it’s very populated. There’s a lot of private property, so that’s why it’s important to get everybody at the table,” he said.

Many of the key players who will need to be at the table for this target to be attained gathered in Kitigan Zibi to launch the project on Oct. 17. The group was also celebrating the awarding of $2 million by Environment and Climate Change Canada to the project, financial support for the first phase of the initiative secured by Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi MP Sophie Chatel.

In attendance was Pontiac warden Jane Toller, representing the MRC Pontiac, one of the five MRCs that will be partners in this initiative.

“The reason I’m excited about this project is that I think it’s very important for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to work together,” Toller said. “We can learn a lot about protecting the land from them because they are the keepers of the Earth, so to work together on this, I find it very exciting.”
The first phase of the project will involve community consultations and education sessions to bring the public on board with the project’s goals, completing an in-depth biodiversity assessment to identify which areas need to be conserved, and designing a plan to conserve the chosen areas.

Five Pontiac locations already earmarked for conservation

Some of this work is already well underway. Warden Toller said the MRC’s council of mayors received a presentation from Erik Higgins, the manager of Kitigan Zibi’s natural resources and wildlife office, at a recent plenary meeting.

Higgins said Kitigan Zibi’s Land Guardians and a team of botanists conducted preliminary species inventories across the region over the summer. The work resulted in the identification of nine biodiversity hotspots across the Outaouais, five of which are in the Pontiac.

They include the Waltham escarpment, a piece of land on Allumette Island, and three other locations along the Ottawa River where rare plant species were detected. Higgins said all five Pontiac areas are on public lands.

“This makes [conservation] easier in the sense that no one lives there, but then there are other rights, for example forestry rights, that could be impacted.”

All nine areas were recently submitted to the Quebec government’s call for proposals for protected areas.

“Our goal was really to do all the mapping and have the conversations before proposing areas, but because of the call for projects we felt that if we missed that opportunity we might not get a second one,” Higgins said, explaining the province will review them, evaluate them against its own development objectives, and then submit them to a public consultation period.

“When you look at 30 per cent in the Outaouais, what we’ve proposed is a drop in the bucket, and so that’s why we’re hoping to do a more in-depth analysis to look at where some larger protected areas could be.”

Kitigan Zibi leading push to meet international conservation targets in the Outaouais Read More »

Pontiac hydro techs restore power to hurricane victims

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Davidson resident Jean-Marc Soucie was about a decade into his 34-year career as a Hydro Quebec lineman (and later, supervisor) when he learned what it was like to be on the receiving end of a damaging storm, rather than the guy who comes in to restore order afterwards.

He was living in Aylmer at the time, when a bad storm damaged his house and car, and destroyed his swimming pool. It was at least 48 hours before he was able to return to his home.

“Then I found out what it was to be a victim of all of these storms, so I understand what the people go through because I went through it,” Soucie said.

“But it’s nothing compared to what them people in the Carolinas are living right now. Some people have lost everything. Their house. Their clothes. Their food. They’ve even lost their relatives that drowned. It’s pretty bad over there.”

Soucie was one in a small group of Pontiac men who spent the first three-or-so weeks of October in North Carolina, working to bring power back to the approximately three million people who were without electricity following Hurricane Helene.

The others included his brothers Claude Soucie, Denis Soucie, and Lawrence Gagnon.

Jean-Marc Soucie spent his career doing storm cleanup across eastern Canada and the United States. After retiring in 2012, Soucie was invited to join a workforce of semi-retired hydro technicians employed by Holland Power Services who get called in to do massive hydro restoration projects after high-intensity storms wreak havoc.

The first place Soucie was sent was North Carolina, to clean up damage caused by Tropical Storm Michael in Oct. 2016. As the job was wrapping up, the company asked for volunteers to go straight to the Bahamas for another job.

“So I put my hand up after my wife gave me the okay, and I went to the Bahamas, so we were gone 25 days,” Soucie chuckled. “That’s when I said, ‘You know, I like this gig.’”

Now, Soucie is the general manager for the company’s Iroquois division – one of five it has across eastern Canada.

On this most recent trip to North Carolina, Soucie and a crew of 760 workers with Holland Power Services were called in a day before the hurricane hit, and spent the night waiting out the storm in the hotel.

“We didn’t know what to expect. We were listening to the news, and watching our phones and all of that,” Soucie said. “And then everything went black because we didn’t have any more power. Communication was out because quite a few telecom towers were out. So we woke up the next morning to see all the damage that the hurricane had caused, and then as the days went on, we found out how bad it was.”

Holland Power Service’s vice-president of operations Steve Hansen was also working in North Carolina this month.

“In this case we were seeing things like a 150-foot tall, full-size oak tree, complete with its root ball, that’s knocked down an entire line,” he said, describing the damage crews woke up to the morning after the storm. “There were whole sections of road that were missing.”

Soucie and the group of 118 employees he was responsible for were working mostly in the North Carolina mountains, in both Asheville and Hendersonville – challenging terrain that didn’t make the already difficult work any easier.

“The worst thing that happened is the communications were down. We had a hard time finding where we needed to go, because we rely on our phones to go to addresses,” Soucie said, noting the washed out roads and fallen trees didn’t make getting around any easier.

While in the field, workers were warned to beware of a certain kind of rattlesnake, a dangerous red-headed spider, and ticks, a task Soucie said became more anxiety-inducing when evening would fall, making it harder to see where he was stepping.

Hansen said beyond the obstacles created by the destroyed landscape, the unfamiliar climate often adds an additional challenge to the long work days.

“Coming from a Canadian climate into the Carolinas, the heat and humidity are very high,” he said.
The men worked 16-hour days starting at 6 a.m. At the end of their shift, they would all gather under a tent for a hot buffet-style meal provided by the host utility company, and then usually be in bed by 10 p.m..

Soucie said work was always on the mind, even when he wasn’t actually on the job.

“You have to try to help the people the best you can and the best way we can do that is to put the power back on so they can have something as close to a normal life as it can be.”

In one location where his crew was working, only four of the town’s 64 homes were left standing after the flooding had receded.

Soucie added that in his particular area, 111 people had drowned and 1,000 people were still unaccounted for by the time he was leaving.

“You’re astonished by it and you feel hopeless because you wish you could help in other ways but you don’t have the equipment to do it,” he said.

Hansen said the frequency and intensity of storms varies from year to year, based on all of the climatic factors including the warmth of the ocean, whether it’s an El Nino year, and what the gulf currents are doing.

“But this year has certainly been predicted to be a higher than normal year for number of storms that make landfall, and thus far that is proving to be true, sadly,” he said. “As the climate shifts we are seeing a different set of challenges than when the company was formed a number of years ago.”

Hansen noted the workers do not receive any kind of trauma training, but do receive benefits and access to a call line if they need to process some of the devastation they are bearing witness to.
Soucie, however, said his preferred way of unwinding once he gets home is fairly simple.

“You try to get a good night’s sleep, and have a good beer,” he said.

Pontiac hydro techs restore power to hurricane victims Read More »

Transcollines still looking for on-demand transit provider

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Transcollines, a public transit provider in the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais, is still searching for a service provider to operate an on-demand transit service in the MRC Pontiac, and is confident it will find one by Dec. 2025. 

Transcollines has been operating an on-demand service in the MRC des Collines since Sept. 2022, partnering with local taxi companies to expand the network’s reach beyond the bounds of its fixed bus routes. Riders can book transportation using the CityWay app on their phone, and a vehicle will come pick them up and then drop them at their destination. 

The service in the Collines has been successful to the point of oversaturation. Radio-Canada reported on Sept. 26 that especially during rush hours, on-demand users are waiting several hours for a vehicle to become available. 

But since putting out a call for interest in Sept. 2023 for taxi services in the MRC Pontiac, the transit provider has been unable to get a service rolling in the region. 

Communications manager Chantal Mainville said Transcollines has specific technological requirements that local providers weren’t able to meet. 

“They need to be ready to work with a system that they are maybe not used to working with, or we need to make sure the system they use now is compatible with CityWay. It’s not everyone who is prepared to make those changes,” she said.  

Despite the lack of response, Transcollines still sees a clear demand for on-demand service in the Pontiac. Mainville said in the public consultations they held last summer, they found that people in the Pontiac wanted transit service closer to home. 

The only route Transcollines currently operates in the MRC Pontiac runs once a day in each direction, with the morning bus leaving Chapeau at 5:17 a.m. heading toward Gatineau.

Mainville said people wanted more accessible service at times that work better for them.  

“They wanted hours that can be a bit broader than the bus, but also having vehicles that can go further into the regions instead of staying on the main roads,” she said, acknowledging that the bus route staying on the 148 is inconvenient for some potential riders. 

She said part of the on-demand plan would involve shortening the bus route to a point closer to Gatineau, and then allowing the bus to offer on-demand service to people who live deeper into the MRC Pontiac. The bus would be able to leave Highway 148, collect riders closer to their homes, then bring them all to the fixed departure point, from where the bus would drive its usual route to Gatineau. 

“We’re very convinced that by transforming a portion of the bus route into on-demand service there would be more clientele interested in using the service,” she said, adding that they would also like to implement on-demand service for those people who are not using the bus, much like the service that already exists in the Collines. It is for this service for which they are looking for a new provider.

Mainville said these consultations, as well as other avenues of research, have taught them a lot about what their riders want and what they need to do to get an on-demand service rolling in the Pontiac. In the Collines, 58 per cent of people use the on-demand service for work, 25 per cent for leisure, 13 per cent for studies, and 4 per cent for health-related reasons. 

Transcollines is soon going to unveil an on-demand service in the Municipality of Pontiac that will run Monday-Friday between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. in the sectors of Eardley, Luskville, Aylmer and Breckenridge. It hopes that after a trial phase, it will get similar statistics about how people in the Municipality of Pontiac, and by extension the MRC Pontiac, want to use the service. 

The present contract with Transcollines’ current on-demand providers will terminate in Dec. 2025, and Mainville said the new contract will include the MRC Pontiac in its description. 

This means that any provider that wins the contract will be responsible for on-demand transportation in the MRC Pontiac, regardless of whether the provider is based in the Pontiac. 

In the meantime, Transcollines is still looking for operators who would be willing to operate in the MRC Pontiac, and has been in touch with various operators about this possibility. Since these talks are still in progress, she did not comment on which operators they have been discussing with.  

THE EQUITY reached out to Campbell’s Bay-based transit provider Transporaction, and general director Sylvie Bertrand said they met with Transcollines but were unable to satisfy their requirements in terms of drivers. 

“We have 60 volunteers who drive their own cars,” Bertrand said in a French interview, adding that number isn’t even enough to cover the Pontiac’s current transportation needs. 

“Ideally we would have 10 to 15 more drivers,” she said. 

She said Transporaction’s service is really designed to provide service to seniors to and from appointments, and that it doesn’t have the capacity to take on additional routes. 

Mainville wouldn’t say what Transcollines’ conversations have been like with the MRC Pontiac. The MRC, for its part, provided this statement.

“The MRC is working with to find a supplier and roll out the increased service in our area, however, since it is Transcollines that has the mandate to offer the service and sign a contractual agreement, the MRC’s role is limited to being a facilitator between the organization and potential local service providers.”

Despite the challenges, Mainville is optimistic Transcollines will be able to find an operator. 

“We have proven that it’s feasible for operators to do this kind of thing,” she said. “It draws the attention of others around who say ‘Well, maybe we would like to make this kind of money too.’” 

Transcollines will announce more details about its Municipality of Pontiac service in an upcoming press conference, though no date has been set.

Transcollines still looking for on-demand transit provider Read More »

High schools observe truth and reconciliation

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

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

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

École secondaire Sieur-de-Coulonge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pontiac High School 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

High schools observe truth and reconciliation Read More »

Alleyn and Cawood takes property evaluation fight to Quebec City

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Three representatives of the Municipality of Alleyn and Cawood traveled to Quebec City last week for the Federation of Quebec Municipalities conference, where they did not miss the opportunity to spread the word about their ongoing fight to change the way property evaluations are calculated. 

The municipality’s director general Isabelle Cardinal and councillors Sidney Squitti and Guy Bergeron met with several top politicians, including Minister of Municipal Affairs Andrée Laforest, to discuss what can be done to change what they believe to be a flawed evaluation system. They even introduced themselves to Quebec Premier François Legault. 

“We would like a review on the legislation for the calculation of municipal evaluations, to have it modernized and changed so there’s a better reflection of the activity on the real estate market right now,” Cardinal told THE EQUITY after returning from Quebec City.

“This evaluation law has been in effect since the 70s, so it is something we need to modernize, because right now we’ve seen the effect of COVID which had a real big impact on our real estate market.”

Last year, in year three of its triennial roll, the municipality was hit with a 370 per cent increase in its total municipal evaluation, due to the sale of a handful of empty lots sold for over three times their previously assessed value. 

While the municipality lowered its mill rate so that its residents weren’t paying taxes on what the municipality believed was an over-inflated value, this increase still jacked both the shares the municipality had to pay to the MRC Pontiac, as well as some of the other provincial taxes paid by ratepayers. 

Cardinal said that because Alleyn and Cawood did not want to increase the taxes it collected from residents, it had to cut its own services to meet its budgetary obligations to the MRC. 

In Quebec City, the municipality’s representatives, who back home have been working with a larger task force of residents to raise awareness about the issue, found their call for changes to the evaluation system to be well received. 

“We’ve seen a lot of openness from the ministry’s office, because now we’ll be working with an employee over there that will be looking at our situation,” Cardinal said. 

She said their call for change also seemed to resonate with other municipal officials from across the province.

“We’ve been hearing for a couple of months now that this is an Alleyn and Cawood problem, this is a one time thing,” she said. “But after talking with a lot of different municipalities, they didn’t get a comparative factor quite as high as us, but they lived something similar to us.”

The Alleyn and Cawood task force is also hoping the MRC Pontiac will change the way it calculates municipal shares so that general, and potentially inaccurate evaluations from year two and three of the triennial roll won’t be used to determine what a municipality should pay to the MRC. 

Cardinal and an accountant presented a new bylaw to the MRC’s mayors at their August plenary meeting. 

At the public council of mayors meeting in September, the MRC tabled a motion to begin the process of writing a new bylaw. 

The MRC’s director general Kim Lesage confirmed by email that now, before any new bylaw can be adopted, the MRC will have to present a new draft bylaw at a public meeting, and then at a following meeting it will be able to adopt said bylaw. 

THE EQUITY requested to speak with the MRC to better understand all it is considering when revising how best to calculate municipal shares, but the MRC did not offer an interview before the publication deadline. 

While Alleyn and Cawood’s total municipal evaluation came back down this fall, when it and 13 other MRC municipalities received their more in-depth year one property evaluations, Cardinal said it’s important the outdated system be changed so that other municipalities won’t be similarly pinched by inflated municipal assessments. 

“Now that people want to leave urban areas and come to our rural area, we’re going to see this more and more,” she said. “The sad thing is that it’s our locals who are paying the price on this.”

Cardinal noted five municipalities have just received their year two evaluations. 

“So they will be affected by the comparative factor if nothing is done before budget time,” she said.

“If they don’t want to be affected they just need to show support. If not, they can carry the bill, like we did.”

Cardinal said two years ago, the Municipality of Chichester requested the method of calculating municipal shares be revised, but nothing came of it.

“So we want to make sure that we will not be silenced. There is no urgency, but we don’t want the same thing to happen again. That’s for sure.” 

Alleyn and Cawood takes property evaluation fight to Quebec City Read More »

CISSSO’s yellow name tags connect anglo patients with English service

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Outaouais’s health and social service provider, the Centre intégré de santé et des services sociaux de l’Outaouais (CISSSO), has launched a new initiative aimed at helping anglophones navigate hospitals and CLSCs that don’t have the official bilingual designation from the province’s Ministry of Health.

The new program, launched this month, is making yellow name tag holders available to staff who work in the region’s healthcare facilities – be they nurses, cooks, doctors or janitors – who wish to identify themselves as bilingual.

The idea, according to Joanne Dubois, CISSSO’s coordinator for accessing English services across the network, is to reduce anxiety for anglophones who need to travel to Hull or Gatineau for specialized services.

“If you’re an English family and you’re going to the city, look for an English card and they’ll help you,” Dubois said.

“My job is to ensure the person that speaks English anywhere in the Outaouais gets the service. And by doing this, it [makes it clear] that we’re allowed to get our services in our language.”

Dubois said she first got the idea for this yellow card system from her colleagues working in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, and figures since she launched the program on Sept. 6, at least 550 people have begun using the card system. The first, she noted with pride, was CISSSO’s president and CEO Marc Bilodeau.

Not needed in ‘designated’ bilingual hospitals, CLSCs

Dubois said the yellow card identifiers won’t be needed in hospitals and CLSCs that are considered “designated” bilingual institutions by the health ministry, which include the Pontiac Hospital, the Quyon, Chapeau, Mansfield, Otter Lake, Rapides des Joachims, and Shawville CLSCs, and the Shawville long-term care home.

Healthcare providers in these institutions, according to the ministry’s website, are required “to make all their health and social services accessible in the English language to English-speaking persons.”

According to Dubois, this means staff in these facilities can communicate with each other in English, health files can be in English, and all signage and written communications on social media must be in both English and French.

Dubois noted, though, that the bilingual designation has no impact on a patient’s ability to communicate with their healthcare provider in English – that English speaking patients in the province will be able to speak with their providers in English, no matter what kind of hospital they’re in.

“There’s no language when it comes to your health,” she said, noting this applies for anglophones traveling to Gatineau and Hull for specialized services.

CAQ English-access healthcare directive clarified following criticism

Pontiac MNA André Fortin said he believes a piece of legislation tabled by the CAQ government in July, which on Monday was clarified by another directive, caused significant confusion around this fundamental healthcare maxim articulated by Dubois.

According to reporting from the Montreal Gazette, a 31-page Bill 96 directive produced in July stated only “recognized anglophones”, defined as people who had an English-language education certificate, or people who had communicated solely in English prior to May 2021, would be entitled to continue communicating in English with health and social service networks.

“Our main worry at this point in time was to ensure that the interpretation of the directives flowing from Bill 96 did not give the impression to any healthcare worker across the province that they could no longer serve english-speaking Quebecers in English,” Fortin told THE EQUITY.

Earlier this month, he tabled a motion in the Nationally Assembly ensuring no English-language education certificate would be needed for anglophone Quebecers to access health care in their mother tongue. The motion was unanimously adopted.

“We wanted to make sure that everybody was on the same page here: that patients knew they had a right to services in English, and that those providing the services didn’t interpret [the directives] the wrong way,” Fortin said.

“Because that’s the real risk here, is that some healthcare providers will interpret it to say that they can’t provide services in English or that they would have to verify one’s eligibility.”

Fortin said the CAQ government also agreed to send the motion to all healthcare establishments across Quebec so that “it was immediately said to healthcare workers that, ‘No, you can and you should treat people in the language of their choice’.”

Now, this may not be needed. On Monday of this week (Sept. 23), the government released a new directive which clarified that “no validation of the user’s identity is required to access these services in English,” according to reporting from CBC Montreal.

two-page English summary of the new directive states that “health and social services may be offered in a language other than French, upon request, when the health of any person so requires.”

The full 10-page directive is available only in French.

In an email written in French to THE EQUITY, Quebec’s Ministry of Health said the Bill 96 directive would never have affected designated bilingual institutions, and was put in place in July to to “equip establishments in the health and social services network to apply the new provisions of the Charter of the French Language in force since 1 June 2023, which stipulate that the public administration must use French exclusively in its written and oral communications, except in certain exceptional situations.”

Update: Sept. 24, 2024 This article, as published in the newspaper on Sept. 25, reported the province had yet to change its original 31-page directive put forward in July. THE EQUITY learned, after the newspaper was sent to print, that on Monday the Ministry of Health did indeed release an updated directive. This online article has been edited to reflect this development.

CISSSO’s yellow name tags connect anglo patients with English service Read More »

Residents demand MRC change ‘unfair’ municipal shares system

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

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Innergex

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Terry Fox run organizers recognized by MRC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FRR2 funding approved for 11 projects

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

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

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

The projects receiving FRR2 funding this year are:

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

Residents demand MRC change ‘unfair’ municipal shares system Read More »

MRC refines agricultural development plan

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

On Tuesday evening the MRC Pontiac presented the latest version of its plan for developing the agricultural industry in the Pontiac at a public consultation meeting hosted at the new market building in Chapeau. 

The plan is referred to as a PDZA, a planning model created by the province’s Ministry of Agriculture to be used to guide development of agricultural zones in the province.

On Tuesday, the MRC put forward six priority areas to focus its development efforts over the next five to 10 years, these based on information gathered from a series of public consultations done over the past year. 

“[The consultations were] really trying to get a true on-the-ground assessment of what the needs are for agriculture in the Pontiac,” said Shanna Armstrong, the MRC’s economic development commissioner for agriculture. 

The six priority areas that arose from these consultations are strengthening the region’s attractiveness for new farmers; making agricultural services such as veterinarians and agronomists easier to access for producers by way of a regional service hub; developing the Agrisaveur food transformation center along with the abattoir in Shawville; educating the public about the value of having a local agricultural industry and about what it looks like to pursue a career in agriculture; marketing local agricultural products to promote agritourism; and helping to connect producers with existing resources to help them transition towards more environmentally sustainable practices. 

Armstrong said naming these priorities in an official plan enables the MRC to seek funding to implement its vision. 

“It’s important to have [the plan] large enough that you can implement things that come up along the way, but also having them specific enough that they’re actually useful for producers that are trying to just farm and run their businesses successfully,” she added, and said feedback on Tuesday evening was overall positive, with some suggestions made as to more relevant timelines, or important partners to bring on board in certain projects. 

“The goal was to capture everyone’s feedback to make sure these are really the projects that are truly going to help producers,” Armstrong said, noting Tuesday’s event was the final public forum in the development of the PDZA.

“The goal is that the final plan be presented to council at the end of this year, hopefully for adoption, and then we can start implementing, which is to me the exciting part.” 

MRC refines agricultural development plan Read More »

CISSSO hopeful new bonuses will draw more techs to region

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CISSSO hopeful new bonuses will draw more techs to region Read More »

Province matches techs’ bonus

Five of six full-time techs to stay in Pontiac

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Province matches techs’ bonus Read More »

CAQ denies equal bonuses to rural radiology techs

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist

Union says four of six Pontiac techs still plan to leave

Quebec’s treasury board confirmed last week it will not be awarding equal bonuses to radiology technologists working in Pontiac, Wakefield and Maniwaki hospitals as it is offering to those in Hull, Gatineau and Papineau hospitals.

The news came on Thursday from the union representing radiology technologists in the Outaouais, the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS).

“The treasury board has said there will be no increase in the bonuses,” APTS Outaouais president Guylaine Laroche told THE EQUITY in a French interview, explaining the union had received the decision from the province that day. “We’re excessively disappointed by the answer but we remain available for negotiations.”

This summer five of the six full-time technologists working at the Pontiac Hospital applied for positions in Gatineau and Ontario when the Quebec government omitted them from its offer of a $22,000 bonus to technologists in Gatineau hospitals.

When it became clear many of the rural technologists were making plans to take jobs in Gatineau to get the bonus, the health ministry offered $18,000 bonuses to those in Pontiac, Wakefield and Maniwaki, an attempt to incentivize them to stay put.

But soon after that announcement, APTS confirmed the five Pontiac employees who had applied elsewhere still intended to follow through on their move.

Last month, Nicole Boucher-Larivière, director of CISSSO’s Pontiac service network, told THE EQUITY the government was still in negotiations with the union and that she was optimistic it would come around to awarding the full $22,000 to all radiology technologists across the Outaouais.

“We’re confident the discussions are going well so I’m still hoping they’re going to be able to resolve the difference,” Boucher-Larivière said at the time, adding she believes some of the technologists were waiting on the outcome of those negotiations before they make their final decision.

Boucher-Lariviére cancelled THE EQUITY’s scheduled interview on this matter following Thursday’s news.

On Tuesday last week, Minister of Health Christian Dubé visited the Pontiac Hospital and met with the technologists working there, a sign for many, including Laroche, that positive news might be coming.

“He went to meet with the technologists of Pontiac and Maniwaki, and we had hope that this meeting might influence the decision favourably, but unfortunately that was not the case,” Laroche said.

She said the treasury board didn’t give the union a reason as to why equal bonuses wouldn’t be offered to all technologists.

“What we are reading between the lines is that they don’t think the technologists are going to move to the urban hospitals,” she said.

Pontiac not heard, MNA says

In a post to X, formally known as Twitter, Minister Dubé said his visit to the Outaouais was one of “hearing the preoccupations of Outaouais partners,” but Pontiac MNA André Fortin, who met with the minister during his visit to the hospital on Tuesday, said Thursday’s decision leads him to believe Pontiac’s needs were not in fact heard.

“The very first thing he was told to do was equalize the bonuses in order to stabilize the teams and services available at the Shawville hospital and three days later his ministry turns around and denies that,” Fortin said.

“By refusing to offer the same bonuses across the region, he is pushing people to work in the city, and to the detriment of services here in the Pontiac.”

At a rally organized by local activism group Citizens of the Pontiac outside the Pontiac Hospital on Monday to protest the government’s decision, Laroche said four of the six full-time technologists in the Pontiac were still planning to leave for jobs that started Sept. 9, but that one applicant had changed their mind and now plans to stay in the Pontiac.

This leaves two full-time technologists and one part-time technologist to serve Pontiac residents, as well as those who come from the city to benefit from shorter wait times.

“Two point five workers to cover seven days a week, 365 days a year, day and night, it’s impossible to cover all of the work,” Laroche said, explaining the loss of four technologists – those responsible for running the machines that produce images interpreted by radiologists – would cause serious delays in critical services at the hospital across multiple departments.

She said the technologists’ collective agreement permits the employer, in emergency cases, to temporarily relocate employees to serve regions where there is a major break in services, only if no employees volunteer to relocate. She said it is usually the least senior employees who are relocated in these cases.

At the Monday rally about a dozen residents gathered with brightly coloured signs carrying messages demanding equal treatment of Pontiac’s technologists.

Citizens of the Pontiac spokesperson and organizer of the event Judith Spence said she still has hope the government might change its mind.

“To this date [the union] doesn’t have anything in writing. Until the paperwork is done, until it comes out officially . . . this is why we’re here. We want it to be heard and known that we care,” Spence said, noting she hopes the rally will get the attention of the decision makers in Quebec City.

“If you think you can just walk over the Pontiac, you’re totally wrong.”

Citizens of the Pontiac had previously organized a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the technologists, but has since dismantled this as there is no way for the group to legally transfer the money raised to the people it was supposed to support.

Spence said unless she can find a way to get the $4,000 raised thus far to the technologists in the next week, the money will be returned to the donors.

CAQ denies equal bonuses to rural radiology techs Read More »

MRC signs confidentiality agreement with solar energy company

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MRC signs confidentiality agreement with solar energy company Read More »

Technicians haven’t confirmed Pontiac departure, CISSSO says

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Reporter

Outaouais’ health and social service provider (CISSSO) has said none of the five Pontiac imaging technicians who have been offered higher paying positions in Gatineau and Papineau have confirmed with CISSSO they are in fact leaving their jobs.

“The plans are not definitive, it’s something they’re considering, but nothing is confirmed from any of the five,” the healthcare network’s Pontiac director Nicole Boucher-Larivière told THE EQUITY.

She said negotiations between their union, the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS) and the provincial government are still ongoing.

“We’re confident the discussions are going well so I’m still hoping they’re going to be able to resolve the difference,” Boucher-Larivière said, adding she believes some of the technicians are waiting on the outcome of those negotiations before they make their final decision.

“I’m not minimizing, there is a real risk. But right now we’re still at a waiting phase where we’re waiting to see what will come out of the negotiations that are still going on provincially.”

Meanwhile, Guylaine Laroche, president of the APTS’ Outaouais chapter, says the union has not heard from the government on the subject of extending full bonuses to all radiology technicians since representatives met with Quebec’s Deputy Minister of Health Richard Deschamps on July 25.

She said in that meeting, the union was clear that if hospitals in Maniwaki and Shawville are left with only one full-time imaging technician, the safety of patients in these communities would be at stake.

Laroche said the union also highlighted the fact that Pontiac radiology services help to slim waitlists in Hull and Gatineau, so a loss of technicians in this region will also affect services in the urban centres.

“We felt we had been heard, and they promised us a quick return on the matter,” Laroche told THE EQUITY in French.

She said the union was supposed to meet with the province again two weeks ago but the meeting was cancelled and the union hasn’t heard from the province on this matter since.

“We remain available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for negotiations, but for the moment, we’re waiting to hear back from the government,” Laroche said.

CISSSO considering contingency plans

Boucher-Larivière said the healthcare network is looking into how it would address various scenarios depending on how many of the six full-time technicians currently working at the hospital decide to leave.

“In the past we have been down as low as three [technicians at the hospital] and we were able to keep essential services going,” she said. “The worst outcome for the population would be having to wait a little bit longer for some imaging testing that’s not considered urgent.”

Boucher-Larivière explained that in the past, the network has addressed technician shortages by putting more of the staff members on call, rather than having them show up to regular shifts, to ensure there is always somebody available to respond to an emergency situation.

“But sometimes we have to reduce the amount of hours they’re actually at work so that would mean having to wait a little bit longer for tests that are not mandatory,” she said, adding CISSSO would also try to seek support from technicians working elsewhere in the Outaouais who could fill vacancies in the Pontiac until the hospital finds more permanent staff.

“Nobody wants to dictate anybody, because we want them to have a good quality of life, but if it comes down to essential services being at risk, sometimes we do move people around to assure safety, but that’s usually a very last resort,” she said.

Regarding finding long-term solutions to the chronic staffing shortages in the Pontiac, Boucher-Larivière said a provincial table has been put in place, the members of which will meet throughout the fall to examine how to support better working conditions in the Outaouais’ healthcare services, given the competition the region faces with Ontario.

She said at this table, CISSSO is advocating for healthcare workers in the Outaouais to receive salaries that are on par with those in Ontario.

“We want to see what the discrepancy really is, we want to get the right numbers, so that we can negotiate and maybe we can get special status for the Outaouais, so it is a top priority for us,” she said.

“So now we’re trying to get the imaging situation sorted out but the work that’s being done is going to go far beyond that.”

Technicians haven’t confirmed Pontiac departure, CISSSO says Read More »

Residents launch fundraiser for techs

Union agrees to “flying squad” technicians to relieve looming exodus

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Reporter

Judith Spence is the spokesperson for Citizens of the Pontiac, a group of residents who on Friday launched a campaign to raise money to entice Pontiac’s medical imaging technicians to continue working in this region for another year rather than taking higher paying positions elsewhere.

A local activism group is hoping to raise $30,000 as soon as possible to pay Pontiac’s six full-time medical imaging technicians to stay in their jobs for another year instead of leaving for higher paying positions elsewhere. Citizens of the Pontiac has launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise $5,000 for each technician – an amount that would more than equalize the discrepancy between the $22,000 bonus the Quebec government offered to technician positions in Hull, Gatineau and Papineau, and the $18,000 bonus it offered to those in Maniwaki, Wakefield and Pontiac.

The group’s hope is that this additional $5,000 would be enough to convince five of the technicians who, according to their union (APTS), are on track to leave their positions in the Pontiac by Sept. 9, to stay in these positions for another year. “I’ve heard that five out of six are going. That’s going to shut the hospital down. That’s going to turn into a doctor’s office or a CLSC, and that’s basically not the function of a hospital,” said Citizens of the Pontiac spokesperson Judith Spence, explaining the drive behind the fundraiser. “We don’t want to lose people for four grand a piece.”

Spence and three other members – Myles Jones, Amanda Brewster, and Nikki Buechler – have formed what she calls a steering committee responsible for organizing the fundraiser and ensuring the money is managed according to group policies. “You don’t get a lump sum ahead of time,” Spence said, explaining how the money would be distributed to the technicians if the desired sum is raised. “You work, and every month you get a stipend.”

Spence said if the province does decide to pay Pontiac technicians the $22,000, the money raised will be returned to the donors, with the exception of the small percentage claimed by GoFundMe. “We’ve always had to fight for basics,” she said, emphasizing this campaign is in no way political. “This is just, ‘You’re my neighbour and I don’t want you to go.’”

Spence has spent many years in community organizing and activism. She worked as a representative for her nurses union, as well as the president of the Environmental Illness Society of Canada, which lobbied the federal government to recognize multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome. “Government people do pay attention when people are sharing their voice and getting attention,” Spence said. “They will pay attention. Will they change? I believe they will.”

By the time this newspaper went to print, the campaign had raised $2,150. Those wishing to contribute can search ‘Keep our Radiology Technicians here with us in Shawville!’ in Google to find the campaign page.

Union agrees to ‘flying squad’ technicians

On Thursday, APTS signed a new agreement with the government that will enable its technicians to join the province’s recently created ‘flying squad’ of healthcare workers who can be deployed to regions in need across the province to offer immediate relief of staffing shortages. THE EQUITY was unable to reach a union representative for comment on the most recent development before publication deadline, but based on a French press release, it appears union members will receive a lump-sum payment of $100 per working day if they volunteer to work in regions other than their own.

This appears to be the latest in the union’s agreements with the Quebec government intended to address the shortage of technicians across the Outaouais healthcare network. This spring the union agreed for the Quebec government to offer $22,000 bonuses to imaging technician positions in Papineau, Hull, and Gatineau hospitals in an attempt to keep technicians employed there from moving to higher-paying jobs in Ontario. The union later agreed for those working in Maniwaki, Wakefield, and Pontiac hospitals, originally excluded from these bonuses, to be offered $18,000 bonuses, in an effort to incentivize them to stay in their positions rather than seeking the higher bonuses in urban hospitals.

But last month, APTS said five of the six full-time technicians working in both the hospital in Shawville and the CLSC in Mansfield were still planning to leave their positions even though they had been offered bonuses. The union said last week it is continuing to pressure the province to extend the higher bonuses to all technicians, but this has not happened yet.

Not first community fundraiser for imaging services

Josey Bouchard, founder of local healthcare advocacy group Pontiac Voice, said she is frustrated the government’s management of the staffing shortage has pushed some in the Pontiac community to try to raise the bonus shortfall themselves. “I find it amazing that they’re doing it, and appalling that they have to do that,” Bouchard said. “I hope it relates to them that the community wants their services close by […] It’s appalling that we have to go to this extreme, for the government to wake up.”

She noted this isn’t the first time residents of the region have organized themselves to raise money to support local radiology services, pointing to the $800,000 the community raised in the late ’90s to purchase the hospital’s first CT scan. At the time, Dr. Thomas O’Neill was president of the Pontiac Hospital Foundation, which was spearheading a plan to attract doctors to the region, and so he was very involved in the fundraising efforts. “So we identified [purchasing a CT scan] as something that would be necessary to attract and keep doctors in the area,” Dr. O’Neill said. “The initial goal was to raise $700,000 which we did in a remarkable period of two and a half years, and that was from one of the poorest communities in Quebec.”

He said while he saw that fundraising effort as, at its core, a community proving it was committed enough to its healthcare to raise the needed money, he sees the current fundraising effort underway in a slightly different light. “When you’re looking at this GoFundMe, I really appreciate the people that are doing this, it’s coming from their heart […], but the problem is the real attention needs to be focused on the political aspect because it’s unfair,” Dr. O’Neill said. “It’s the country areas that produce the food, produce the hydro, produce everything. They should, at least, be entitled to basic medical care.”

Dr. O’Neill, who now works as a family doctor at the Lotus Clinic, has spent many decades working at the Pontiac Hospital, as chief of anesthesia and of the department of general medicine, as a doctor in the emergency room, and delivering babies in the now-dissolved obstetrics unit. He said losing five of six technicians – those responsible for running the machines that produce images interpreted by radiologists – would effectively mean the gradual death of the most services offered at the hospital.

“If you lose your technicians, and the surgeons can’t do their jobs, and you can’t run the ICU, you get a cascading effect of the deterioration of the institution,” he said. “You cannot run this hospital at the moment unless you have the diagnostic tools to do it. Part of those tools are having x-ray technicians who will actually run the equipment.”

Residents launch fundraiser for techs Read More »

Touring bus to offer Pontiac’s unhoused a place to shower, get help

KC Jordan, LJI Reporter

A new social services bus is teaming up with a local Pontiac organization to offer essential services to people experiencing homelessness in the area.
The new “Réhabus” bus started roaming the streets last week with plans to travel across the Outaouais over the coming months, making stops in a handful of the region’s urban and rural communities.
In the Pontiac, the team offering the bus service will work with AutonHomme Pontiac, a non-profit in Campbell’s Bay that provides assistance to residents experiencing homelessness and other issues.
The bus is equipped with showers and washing machine and dryer, amenities people will be able to use for the duration of time the bus is parked in their community.
Jeffrey Lévesque, who works for Réhabex, the Gatineau-based social rehabilitation agency that owns and operates the bus, said the organization bought it to help people in situations of need.
“We bought it to help people who are living in homelessness or even just precarious situations.”
Lévesque said the bus also has desk spaces where counselors will be available to give people a hand finding a job, or even finding housing.
Pierre-Alain Jones, the director of AutonHomme, said this is where his organization comes in.
“We will help people find a place to stay,” he told THE EQUITY in French.
“We offer a shelter in Campbell’s Bay, we rent rooms at the motel in Shawville [ . . . ] and on occasion we rent rooms at a motel in Mansfield.”
In November, people living in AutonHomme temporary residences at the the Shawville were evicted due to a flea infestation.

Jones said that problem has been fixed, and that they are able to offer rooms to their clients in that motel once again.
“We have people right now on the territory who are homeless
[ . . . ] another service like this is going to help for sure,” Jones said, noting the Pontiac can be forgotten when it comes to social service delivery, so it’s nice to have a service from Gatineau reach out and provide help to the people of this region.
Lévesque said his organization’s goal is to help as many people as it can across the Outaouais.
When the idea for the bus was hatched, homeless people at the Robert-Guertin encampment in Gatineau weren’t getting the basic services they needed and deserved.
“The director, Patrick Pilon, found it unacceptable that there was no short-term solution for these people,” he told THE EQUITY in French.
“We realized there were many people who were not able to get to where the services were being offered, so with the Réhabus we said we could travel to them to give them an opportunity to use those services.”
Jones said AutonHomme is still in talks with Réhabex to figure out when, and how often, the bus will come to the Pontiac.
He said they hope the bus can park out front of their building on rue Front in Campbell’s Bay, or in the parking lot across the street.

Touring bus to offer Pontiac’s unhoused a place to shower, get help Read More »

Jardin éducatif pilot project hires youth to work on their mental health

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Reporter

Ethan Paulin is a huge fan of Taylor Swift. At 14 years old, he loves all music, but Taylor Swift, at this moment, is his everything.
“I’ve liked her for most of my life, but only became a big fan in 2022,” Paulin explained. “Her songs are really good, and a lot of them are really poetic. And I just also love her voice.”
He loves her so much, in fact, that he’s working a full-time summer job at the Jardin éducatif du Pontiac to save the money he needs to buy a ticket to the last show on her Eras tour, scheduled for Vancouver this December.
Paulin loves to sing, and write songs, often sad songs.
“I find it’s a fun way to get sadness out. I wake up in the middle of the night and I have an idea, and I just write.”
But it’s not often he shares his songs in public. He said his mental health sometimes prevents him from sharing his creations, and pursuing his passion for singing.
“It’s not good, but I’m getting better at controlling it,” he said. “It’s not going away, that’s for sure. But I can help myself control it.”
Part of this work overcoming his mental health challenges involves intentionally putting himself in situations that make him uncomfortable.
This spring Paulin played a central role in Pontiac High School’s rendition of In the Heights, and even performed a solo on stage. He also took a job at Quyon’s Clarendon Café on weekends, which forces him to interact with people he doesn’t know.
But the latest in these personal challenges is signing up to spend five days a week, all summer long, learning to grow vegetables with a group of teenagers he has never met.
Weeding? “It’s horrible,” he says. Socializing with strangers? He’s not a fan of that either. But he’s warming up to both.
This summer he is one of 23 Pontiac youth who have decided to tackle their mental health challenges head on through Jardin éducatif’s first youth summer job program.
Jardin éducatif du Pontiac is a non-profit organization in Campbell’s Bay that runs vegetable farming programs for at-risk youth as a way to teach them critical life skills.
For many years it ran summer camps for youth that had been referred to the organization by social service workers.
“This year we did it a bit different. We decided to give minimum wage to all youth that come,” explained Martin Riopel, the organization’s director general. “Why we have decided to try this pilot project is because we have seen that a lot of the youth that have been referred by social services, they don’t want to be here.”
Hiring the youth as summer employees, rather than simply accepting them on the basis of referral, offered new possibilities for engaging youth in the programming.
“The idea behind the kids applying is to put the responsibility in the hands of the youth,” Riopel said. “We wanted the youth to try the process of getting a job.”
About half of the youth hired this year were still referred by a social worker, but the difference is that in order to be accepted into the program, they had to express their desire to participate.
“They need to have a personal goal, so something they can work on individually, something that could help them as a human,” explained Mélissa Langevin, head gardener and youth worker with the organization. “So that was the first thing we were asking for [when hiring], because if the goal of being here was just money, well then that’s not a good fit for us.”
In this pilot year of the summer job program, Jardin éducatif received 50 applications from youth across the Pontiac. After interviewing every single applicant, the team hired 23 youth, seven more than they had originally planned for.
“Still it was really hard, because if we could we would hire them all,” Langevin said.
The youth spend four days a week in the garden, doing everything from planting and weeding to, starting this week, harvesting the produce they’ve grown to sell at market stalls.
On Tuesdays, they can be found in Fort Coulonge at the corner of rue Baume and rue Principale, on Thursdays outside the CHSLD at the Shawville hospital, and both days at the kiosk at the garden in Campbell’s Bay.
Each of the youth chosen for the program have identified something personal they are hoping to work on over the course of their employment. For some, it’s social anxiety. For others, it’s an eating disorder, or self-harm.
Over the course of the summer job, they will participate in a wide variety of programming designed to support them and help them achieve these personal goals.
This includes skills-building workshops from service providers across the Pontiac, including cooking workshops that teach them to transform the vegetables they are growing into full meals, as well as workshops that offer guidance on everything from building healthy relationships to budgeting to addictions prevention.
On top of all this, Jardin éducatif youth workers meet one-on-one with each youth consistently throughout the summer to check in on how they’re doing, both in the program and at home.
“We have a lot of kids having different kinds of issues that they need to work on,” Langevin said.
Last Wednesday morning, before the heavy rains began, the young gardeners were out in the field, sitting in the dirt, weeding the beds of vegetables.
Fifteen-year-old Campbell’s Bay resident Cameron Crawford had his ear phones in as he plucked weeds from a patch of cucumbers.
“It’s not too hard, it’s not too easy, it’s kind of perfect for what I was looking for,” he said. “Normally we do a lot of weeding throughout the week. Sometimes I help cut the grass, and whipper snip and all that.”
Crawford, who has been working on a dairy farm for three years, said he applied for the job because he wanted to improve on his work ethic.
“I feel I’m getting more used to getting up and getting to work at the time that I’m supposed to,” he said. “And I’m more active during the day rather than sitting at a desk. It’s a lot better.”
A few rows away, Teagan Dutson and Kyanna Beauchamp were working together to tackle the weeds in another bed.
Both Dutson and Beauchamp grew up in Quyon, but Dutson attended the English elementary school, while Beauchamp attended the French one, and so the two never crossed paths.
They’ve found, however, that they have a lot in common when it comes to their respective mental health challenges.
“Here, you get to talk to people, and the person I talk to, she really understands me and what I’m going through,” Dutson said. “It’s really calming.”
“It’s really calming and people here don’t judge,” Beauchamp agreed. “My therapist at school told me to apply here because it would help me, and it really does help.”
Beauchamp said a big thing she thinks she’ll take away from her time at Jardin éducatif is the experience of getting support after asking for it.
“I asked for help and I got it. I’m not alone in this,” she said. “I was always scared to ask for help. I thought I would get rejected or laughed at. So I won’t be scared another time if I need to.”
Once it started to rain, the group migrated from the garden to the covered picnic tables. Alex Belair, Kaydan Lévesque and his brother Rylan gathered around some snacks at one table.
Like Paulin, both Belair and Lévesque applied for the job with the ambition to work on their social skills.
“I wanted to get better at talking to people, while also getting my hands dirty and getting out of the house,” Belair said.
No matter what the youth want to work on, the staff at the garden are there to help them, even when they might not realize they need it.
Eden Beimers is one of these staff members.
“When I see a kid a little bit off, oftentimes I’ll pull them away and have a chat. Because sometimes that’s what they want, but they don’t know how to ask for it. As a kid, I didn’t know how to ask to talk to somebody.”
She said, laughing, that the youth have often accused her of being too nosey. But she makes it clear they can tell her they don’t want to talk if they’re not interested. This, she finds, rarely happens.
“I always wanted to become the person I needed when I was a kid,” Beimers said. “I needed somebody who was easy to talk to and understood I wasn’t going to be good one hundred per cent of the time, and understood that when I do screw up, it doesn’t define who I am.”
Now 22, she’s found a job that allows her to be the support for others that she needed as a teenager.
“There are a lot of things that some people think are taboo to talk about, but the more I’m in this position, the more I’m realizing how many kids confide the same thing in me, and how many people are similar.”
The funding used to finance this pilot project is not guaranteed to be renewed in years to come, but the Jardin éducatif team is determined to find ways to continue to motivate youth to work at the garden.
“It’s the beginning of something because we would like to have a full program all year long with gardening, cooking, and selling the veggies,” Langevin said, explaining that the vision is that this could be run through the schools, and that youth could get credit for it.
“It will probably be a smaller group in the next years, but we want to try to continue this kind of thing, because we think it could be a good program for the kids who really don’t like school.”

Jardin éducatif pilot project hires youth to work on their mental health Read More »

Litchfield may become home to salmon farm

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Reporter

The Pontiac may become home to Canada’s largest land-based Atlantic salmon farm in the next five years, if its proponent is granted the permits it needs to run the facilities.
Outaouais-based business Samonix is hoping to build the fish farm at the Pontiac Industrial Park in Litchfield, the former site of the Smurfit Stone mill.
Samonix’s president is Mathieu Farley, also co-owner and president of Chelsea home building company Exo Construction.
Rémi Bertrand, former director general for MRC Pontiac, joined the company as senior director of business development in the fall of 2023.
Bertrand explained the farm will produce 12,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon a year, with an average fish size of 5 kg.
“We’re doing everything 100 per cent inside buildings, which there is nobody in Canada who does it now,” Bertrand said.
The farm will raise the fish entirely indoors, in large pools of treated water that is drawn from the Ottawa River.
“The salmon is the holy grail of raising fish. It’s the fish that’s the most vulnerable to its environment, so a dramatic change in temperature will affect its life cycle, and a variation in any of its environment could alter its life cycle,” Bertrand said, explaining that an indoor facility that uses treated water allows for total control of the environment.
“There’s no pathogens, nothing that can come in or out of our building without us knowing. This basically allows us to raise salmon that will be vaccine free, with no treatment or medications that will ever be given to the salmon.”
Bertrand explained that a small water plant will sterilize and neutralize the water from the Ottawa River before it is used to fill the pools.
The facility will then use a method called the recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) which treats and recirculates 99 per cent of the water used to hold the fish.
In an article published in the Journal of Cleaner Production in May 2021 [link for web: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652621008246], lead author and research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada Nesar Ahmed suggests RAS farming as an option for increasing the environmental sustainability and climate resilience of Canada’s fisheries.

“RAS are eco-friendly, water efficient, highly productive intensive farming system, which are not associated with adverse environmental impacts, such as habitat destruction, water pollution and eutrophication, biotic depletion, ecological effects on biodiversity due to captive fish and exotic species escape, disease outbreaks, and parasite transmission,” Ahmed wrote.
Bertrand said of the remaining one per cent of wastewater that cannot be recirculated, the solids, largely fish feces, will be removed and treated through a process called biomethanization.
The leftover liquid will be processed by a wastewater treatment plant, and then discharged into the Ottawa River as per the parameters set by the Ministry of Environment.
“It’s just like a municipal wastewater treatment plant would do,” Bertrand noted.
He said he saw many projects cross his desk during his time as director general for the MRC, but that many of them were missing critical components needed to succeed in the region.
“I spent a good portion of my career working for the Pontiac, trying to get something going, and this checks a lot of my boxes.”
‘Room to grow’
Samonix bought 85 acres of the Pontiac Industrial Park in 2022, and another 100 acres this year. Bertrand said the main facility will occupy about 14 acres, and the remaining land will be used for auxiliary buildings, parking, and to guarantee the business has room to grow.
“The [land] will allow us the capacity to double the production down the road,” Bertrand said. “But we’ve also been getting a lot of interest from auxiliary businesses that would potentially want to relocate closer to our production.”
He said a Quebec company that transforms salmon imported from Norway and Chile into fish cuts for poke bowls, smoked salmon, and portioned salmon for the restaurants or grocery stores has expressed interest in relocating to the Pontiac to be closer to the proposed fish farm.
Bertrand also noted that as the business grows, it will consume enough fish feed that it could open its own fish feed plant on site, which the 185 acres will allow for.
He said the location of the site within a day’s travel of markets in major urban centres like Toronto, Montreal, New York and Boston means the farm is strategically placed for growth.
“Just to give you a perspective, the market we’ll be selling into is a market of about 280,000 tonnes of salmon a year, and we’ll be producing about 12,000 tonnes,” Bertrand said. “So there’s room to grow.”
A first in Canada
According to Bertrand, there is no other indoor land-based salmon farm in Canada of the size Samonix plans to be.
In fact, a study conducted by economic analytics firm Counterpoint Consulting for the government of British Columbia found there’s no Atlantic salmon RAS farm in steady-state operation in the world that produces more than 3,000 tonnes per year.
As Bertrand sees it, this presents his team with a critical advantage in a moment of opportunity.
In June the federal government set 2029 as the deadline by which open net-pen salmon farming operations in B.C. must shift to land-based methods.
While there is concern this five-year window will be insufficient for transitioning an entire industry, Bertrand figures the sudden need for expertise in the field could position Samonix, which began initial business plans in 2018, as a leader in the land-based farming method.
“By the time we’re built and operational, and we’ve basically developed the expertise, we will own the knowledge and the expertise to export it to B.C.,” Bertrand said.
“We’re early enough in the game to position ourselves [as leaders] in Northeast America, but we’re late enough in the game to be able to rely on proven technology that’s been tried elsewhere, where they made mistakes and corrected it.”
Bertrand said while Samonix’s proposed scale is unprecedented, the technology is not without evidence of success.
He pointed to a fish plant in Japan called Proximar Seafood that uses technology from the same provider as Samonix. It is smaller – producing about 5,000 tonnes of salmon a year – but is on track to complete its first fish harvest in August.
A few hoops yet to jump
Bertrand said there are two major approvals the company needs before it can put shovels in the ground.
The first is the granting of a 12 MW electrical hookup from Hydro-Québec, the application for which was submitted in March.
At last month’s MRC Pontiac Council of Mayors meeting, Samonix received a letter from council supporting this application.
“The second [approval] is to get our certificate of authorization from the [Quebec] Ministry of Environment. From our perspective, it’s not a matter of if we’ll get it, it’s when we’ll get it,” Bertrand said.
“We’re asking specialists to give a permit in a sector of activity they haven’t necessarily had the opportunity to build some knowledge around yet, because it’s such an innovation for Quebec. So it takes time.”
Bertrand said the company has already conducted several environmental impact studies, and will continue to do so this summer.
“We’re conducting a study on mussels, and have already done studies on fauna and flora. The Ministry of Environment even asked us to do a test on the most vulnerable species of the Ottawa River which is a plankton – a microscopic living form that can be utilized as feed for various species.”
He said Samonix is putting in the technological equipment required to treat its wastewater to meet the criteria of the ministry, so he expects environmental certification to be a “non-issue.”
“If everything goes as planned, by the end of 2025 we should have all of that in place, the final engineering completed, and hopefully be breaking ground in 2026.”

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Second annual Pontiac Country Festival hits Quyon fairgrounds

KC Jordan, LJI Reporter

Hundreds of people descended on Quyon to attend the second annual Pontiac Country Festival over the weekend and celebrate all things country.
There were various equestrian events including a horse pull and an obstacle course, an artisan market, a car and truck show, and a full slate of musicians playing country and bluegrass tunes throughout the weekend.
Jacques Prud’Homme, groundskeeper of the Quyon municipal park and attendee of the festival, enjoyed the great musical acts throughout the weekend.
“It’s been great music. We had Gail Gavan, Nancy Denault, and the tent has been full.”
The weather was wet, but music fans were able to stay dry in the tents where the concerts were being played.
Some festival attendees brought their own tents and RVs and set up in Quyon’s municipal park, where they could stay the entire weekend for only $10.
This year, the festival fell on the Canada Day long weekend, and the organizers collaborated with the Quyon Community Association to offer a Canada Day parade and fireworks.
Pontiac Equestrian Association president Andrea Goffart organized an equestrian versatility challenge that happened Sunday morning, a first for the festival.
“It was the idea of Shannon Townsend from Hendricktown Farm in Aylmer,” Goffart said. “She was the judge and the mastermind of bringing this particular race.”
The event featured 12 obstacles, each of which had to be completed in 30 seconds.
Goffart said this versatility challenge event is more common in the United States, but she wanted to bring it to the Pontiac to allow for equal participation from riders of all styles.
“That’s why we ran that – so it could be more inclusive from all the people involved in equestrian activities in the area,” she said.
Goffart said the event drew participants from across the Outaouais and Eastern Ontario, and she hopes to bring the competition back as a staple of future Country Fests.
According to the festival’s Facebook page, organizers received contributions from the MRC des Collines-de-l‘Outaouais and Pontiac MNA André Fortin to fund the festival’s offerings.
This is the festival’s second year under this name. Previously, the Quyon JamFest was held around this time of year, but the organizing committee disbanded in 2023, after 20 years.

Second annual Pontiac Country Festival hits Quyon fairgrounds Read More »

Four Pontiac hospital techs apply for Gatineau jobs

News follows exclusion of staff at Pontiac, Wakefield hospitals from Outaouais bonuses

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Reporter

Four of the six full-time medical imaging technicians working in the Pontiac have applied to better paying jobs in Gatineau, while a fifth has possibly applied to a position in Ontario, a spokesperson for Outaouais’ healthcare network (CISSSO) confirmed in an email to THE EQUITY on Monday afternoon.
The news of these potential departures comes less than a week after the Quebec government extended bonuses and temporarily higher salaries to medical imaging staff in Maniwaki and Papineau hospitals, but not to those in Shawville and Wakefield hospitals, or the CLSC in Saint-André-Avellin.
The temporary financial incentives were first offered only to technicians at Hull and Gatineau hospitals in an effort to entice them to stay in their jobs rather than take higher paying positions in Ontario, but the technicians left anyway.
Meanwhile, elected officials in Outaouais’ rural communities expressed concern this policy would cause an exodus of technicians to the region’s urban hospitals where the pay was better, so the CAQ government extended these financial incentives to only two of four rural hospitals.
The decision sparked outrage in the Pontiac when it was announced last week. Politicians and healthcare workers warned the second exclusion would only intensify the competition the Pontiac Hospital faces when it comes to retaining staff.
At a press conference outside the Pontiac Hospital on Thursday, Pontiac MNA André Fortin echoed this fear.
“They’re in the process of repeating exactly the same mistake they made last month,” Fortin, also health critic for the official opposition, told reporters in French, accusing the CAQ government of failing to recognize the particular needs of the Pontiac region.
He noted one of Pontiac’s technicians lives in Aylmer, while another lives in Chapeau, and that they now both have higher paying positions much closer to their homes.
“It’s almost like they want to lose workers, and then react, and then justify the increase,” Fortin said. “They’re doing things backwards. It would be so much easier to fix it now, before people take the hard decision to leave.”
Fortin said extending the financial incentives to workers at the Pontiac Hospital would cost about $150,000.
“To a government, that’s nothing.”
“I’m not surprised. It’s only taken three days and this is already the movement, as expected,” MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller told THE EQUITY Monday evening.
“I think that when people are not treated fairly [ . . . ] there’s no good reason why they should have to feel loyal any longer. We need to have the bonuses given before anybody leaves, because once they leave, we’re not going to be able to get them back.”
The Pontiac region shares six full-time imaging technicians between the Pontiac Hospital and the CLSC in Fort Coulonge, and two retired technicians help out part-time. Together, they are responsible for x-rays, ultrasounds, and other forms of medical imaging critical to most healthcare treatment.
If the five technicians succeed in their applications, the Pontiac region would be left with a single full-time staff member.
Toller and the region’s other wardens had two meetings with Minister of Health Christian Dubé in the week prior to the expansion of the bonuses and following both of them, she said she was assured by the minister that bonuses would be extended to all of the Outaouais.
She called last week’s agreement a “slap in the face.”
“Because we have loyal employees [ . . . ] I think at the last minute [the goverment] decided, ‘Oh, it’s not as much of a crisis,’ and their solution is they’re going to monitor the situation,” Toller said. “Well, this is unacceptable. We are not going to stand here and watch a crisis result.”
This Monday, the Outaouais’ four wardens and the newly elected mayor of Gatineau published an open letter demanding the Quebec government “offer fair and equitable bonuses to all medical imaging technologists in the Outaouais region.”
Toller said the MRC will also move a resolution to the same effect at its monthly Council of Mayors meeting this Wednesday, June 19.
THE EQUITY asked the health ministry for clarity on why the bonuses were extended to some hospitals and not others, but did not receive a response before publication deadline.
However, in a recent article from Le Droit, Minister responsible for the Outaouais, Mathieu Lacombe, suggested the exclusion had something to do with a hospital’s distance from Ottawa.

“The further away we are from Ottawa, the less temptation there is for employees,” he said in French. “Consequently, in Hull, Gatineau and Buckingham, we had to have a bonus that reached a maximum level.”
A ‘temporary’ and ‘incomplete’ fix
Under the new, two-year agreement announced last week, technicians at the Papineau Hospital will receive a $22,000 bonus and those in Maniwaki will receive an $18,000 bonus.
All technicians at those hospitals will also receive a 10 per cent salary increase for the summer period, granted staff commit to working an additional 2.5 hours every week.
Guylaine Laroche is the Outaouais president of l’Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS), the union representing imaging technicians in the region.
“The agreement we have now is a step in the right direction but it is clearly not sufficient,” she said in French.
She warned of the significant risk that technicians who weren’t offered bonuses move to hospitals where the bonuses are in place.
But she also said the temporary measures are insufficient in addressing the larger staffing shortage that has been plaguing the Outaouais’ healthcare network for years, both because they are temporary, and don’t include all radiology workers in the region.
Fortin also took issue with the premise of offering a bonus as a solution to the network-wide staffing shortages.
“It’s temporary, it’s incomplete, it’s not a measure that is efficient. What we need are salaries that are on par with Ontario,” he said.
Statistics provided by CISSSO show that the number of radiology technicians employed by the healthcare organization dropped from 122 in 2019 to 102 in 2024. Over the same time period, the number of nurses working for CISSSO dropped from 1984 to 1827 across the organization.
“This has been happening for a decade now, but now, we need to stop that,” said Jean Pigeon, spokesperson for recently formed healthcare advocacy group SOS Outaouais, at a second press conference at the Pontiac Hospital on Friday morning.
“We need to have permanent measures. We need to stop the flow of our healthcare staff that are moving away.”
The press conference, organized by local healthcare advocacy group Pontiac Voice, was attended by several leaders from Pontiac’s health network, including Pontiac Voice representative Josey Bouchard, Jennifer Larose, president of the CISSSO user committee and Anne Amyotte, president of the CLSC foundation.
Also in attendance was Sophie Pieshke, a radiologist currently on maternity leave. She worked at the Pontiac Hospital 10 years ago, and built her home in Shawville with the hope of returning to work at the hospital once her leave is up.
But on Friday she said she may have to reconsider.
“As much as my heart is at this hospital, my profession is medical imaging technician. I love my work, but with these working conditions, I have to ask myself what I’m going to do. Do I return to this hospital, or do I want to go somewhere else,” Pieshke said in French.

Four Pontiac hospital techs apply for Gatineau jobs Read More »

Website, social media development main focus for Pontiac Tourism in 2023

Sophie Kuiper Dickson, LJI Reporter

Mansfield’s outdoor adventure basecamp, Aventure Hélianthe, was temporarily transformed into a board room on Thursday evening for non-profit association Pontiac Tourism’s annual general meeting.
About a dozen board members, local politicians, and interested residents gathered at the business’s outdoor bar for a 20-minute presentation of the group’s work over the last year.
The non-profit has as its mandate to promote and stimulate tourism in the Pontiac with the vision that the region becomes a “major tourist destination in regard to outdoor adventure, leisure and culture,” its annual report reads.
The association had $35,201.06 in revenue in 2023, $14,206.95 of which came from the SADC, and another $11,050.00 of which came from the MRC Pontiac by way of its FRR2 funding stream and its budget for partnerships and publicity.
The association’s total general costs for the year were $14,717.95, leaving $24,032.39 in the group‘s bank account as of Dec. 31 2023.
Emma Judd is secretary and board member with the tourism association.
She explained most of the association’s efforts went into setting itself up to take advantage of the $10,000 of free advertising that Google makes available for non-profits.
“For years we’ve been trying to tap into that but you need to have [a functioning website] set up to get that money and make it worthwhile,” Judd said, explaining that the association has been developing its Explore Pontiac website (explorepontiac.ca) so that it can begin to benefit from Google’s offer.
“We’re trying to get the most out of what people are searching for,” Judd said. “It’s all about finding the people who are looking for experiences an hour, two hours, three hours away, and trying to bring those people here.”
Judd said last year was the first the association began using the Google money.
“We are nowhere near the $10,000 that you can access,” Judd said. “We’re not spending that much on advertising, it’s just we don’t have enough content yet to put forward.”
The association’s 2023-2024 costs also included creating a promotional video and paying influencers to generate social media content about the Pontiac.
Judd said last year’s $24,000 surplus will be used getting promotional videos and reels on social media, and building the rest of the website.
An election was held at the meeting for three of the board’s nine seats. Jessica Forgues from the Pontiac Chamber of Commerce and Nancy Lemay from Chalets Prunella both stepped down from their seats, leaving them vacant.
Guillaume Lavoie-Harvey of Aventure Hélianthe was nominated by Mansfield mayor Sandra Armstrong for seat seven, which was previously vacant.
The board’s other members are Robin Judd of Starborn farms, Denis Lebrun of Domaine du Lac Bryson, Emma Judd of Circa B&B, Adam Thompson of Pine Lodge, Dennis Blaedow of Esprit Rafting and Jodi Thompson of Pine Lodge.

Website, social media development main focus for Pontiac Tourism in 2023 Read More »

PHS Girls are Rugby Champs

Girls victorious, boys finish close second

Glen Hartle, LJI Reporter

The Pontiac High School (PHS) rugby pitch was abuzz on Wednesday as the PHS Panthers played host to the regional rugby championships for the RSEQ (Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec). Matching the fever on the field was the large contingent of spectators camped out to take in the excitement.
The first-place teams in the league for girls and boys received direct entry into the finals. The PHS girls team had already secured its spot in the finals, as had one of two Falcon boys teams from Hull’s Philemon Wright High School (PWHS).
Two hotly contested semi-finals determined who their adversaries would be. The Rugby Sevens format was used where teams fielded seven players on a full-sized pitch, leaving lots of space for gameplay. And play there was.
First up were the girls in a game pitting the PWHS Falcons against the D’Arcy McGee High School Gee Gees from Gatineau, where the Gee Gees proved to be the stronger of the two. The size and power advantage of the Gee Gees powered them over and through the Falcons, booking their place in the final against the Panthers.
In the final, the Panthers came out of the gate firing on all cylinders and scored seemingly at will.
Iyla Smith scored within the opening minute of the game on a spectacular individual effort and, while the Gee Gees put up a good fight, they had no answer to the multi-pronged attack of strength and speed they stood against.
Standouts Hannah Twolan and Kira Paulin once again showed their sheer athleticism and determination, leading the team on both ends of the field.
Coach Phil Holmes made clear his pride in the team as he beamed from the sidelines.
“It has been an awesome journey from the first practice in the fall of 2022 with 10 girls who had never touched a rugby ball, to our final where 21 girls finished an undefeated season and won their second championship in as many years,” Holmes told THE EQUITY.
“These girls have worked hard, practicing mornings through the winter, recruiting their friends to join the team, and have built a strong and close-knit group.”
For their part, the PHS Panthers boys team took to the field in their semi-final against the second PWHS Falcon team and it was clear from the opening whistle that they intended to write their own story into the finals.
Where the Falcons brought speed and size, the Panthers fielded more grit and passion and therein found their way to victory. The Panthers had strong ball possession throughout, with Morgan Barr and Bennett Rusenstrom leading the charge in scoring.
In the final, they faced even more speed from the first and top-finishing Falcon team. In a fierce match where desire was palpable on both sides, the Panthers showed no fatigue from their semi-final and pushed hard right to the final seconds of the game, ultimately falling marginally short of victory by a score of 12-10.
Barr and Rusenstrom were once again key, with captain Cade Kuehl on the sidelines thanks to concussion protocol after a hit he had sustained in the semi-final.
Referee Mike Cheung summed up the final well.
“It was a competitive match with both teams showing a lot of heart and intensity on the field – the better team won the day,” Cheung said.
Boys coach Colin Boolsen-Vorster agreed.
“There is a phenomenal difference in skill level from the first game we played relative to the performance tonight.”
“It was unfortunate that Kuehl was injured during the semi-final as it was a challenge to replace him as he is the captain and has a unique skill set critical for the smooth functioning of the team,” Boolsen-Vorster said. “Had he remained fit and healthy, the impact on the scoreboard may well have been profound.”
Whereas the girls team now has two seasons under its belt, the boys mark this season as their first, and their march through to the finals shows that they intend to stay.
“For our first rugby season the groundwork for a boys’ rugby program has very definitely been laid and many of our key players will return next season,” Boolsen-Vorster said. “They’ve come a long way and I’m really proud of them.”
RSEQ sports coordinator Phil St-Martin was on hand for the matches and, in presenting the pennants to the winning teams, complimented the sportsmanship and gamesmanship on display throughout the season. “These pennants are well-deserved,” he lauded.
And the applause from the spectators certainly concurred.

PHS Girls are Rugby Champs Read More »

Pontiac Pride finding its groove with Chapeau bowling party

K.C. Jordan, LJI Reporter

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

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Pontiac High School theatre hits new heights

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.

Pontiac High School theatre hits new heights Read More »

Incinerator again dominates questions at meeting of mayors

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.

Incinerator again dominates questions at meeting of mayors Read More »

Warm, dry spring brings bushfires to Bristol, Pontiac

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.

Warm, dry spring brings bushfires to Bristol, Pontiac Read More »

Municipality of Pontiac seeks public input on park revitalization project

Guillaume Laflamme, LJI Reporter

The Municipality of Pontiac held a series of community consultation sessions over the weekend to gather input from residents of all ages about how the parks in Quyon and Luskville should be improved.
This was one of the first steps in the municipality’s plan to revitalize its parks in both communities, a project which is anticipated to take several years.

“The purpose of the exercise was to survey the population regarding their current experience of the parks,” said Nathalie Larose, recreation coordinator for the municipality.
The municipality plans on gathering further public feedback by way of a survey, which will be available in May. Survey questions will aim to build on comments received during last weekend’s meetings.
The municipality hopes to apply for a grant for the revitalization project from Loisir sport Outaouais, representatives of which were also present at the meetings.
Despite the potential for additional funding, Larose said securing grants can take time, and that for now the project will be financed with public funds.
Long-time Quyon resident Laura Stewart has been bringing her kids to activities in the town’s park for years.

She attended the consultation event on Saturday because she believes that the Quyon park is a staple of the community, and desperately needs to be upgraded.
“The Quyon park is a diamond in the rough,” she said. “The potential for it is endless with proper management.”

Stewart said she thought improvements could be made to the softball field, which she believes has been a “backbone in the community forever”, as well as to the dugouts where the teams hang out when not up to bat, and to the bathroom facilities.
She noted that Saturday’s discussion also touched on the possibility of introducing a camping section along the Quyon waterfront, an idea that has been discussed since the area was damaged by a recent spring flood. The municipality has hired the firm A4 Architecture to develop a project based on community’s feedback.

Municipality of Pontiac seeks public input on park revitalization project Read More »

Bryson greenhouse to bring fresh produce to the Pontiac year-round

Camilla Faragalli, LJI Reporter

Owner ‘in discussions’ with Bryson Farms about potential purchase of farm

Anyone driving along Highway 148 near Bryson has probably noticed the construction of a massive structure next to the Ultramar gas station.
The building, officially named the Serre Bryson Greenhouse, belongs to Jian Zhang, who has owned and operated the gas station and convenience store beside it for nearly a decade.
On Tuesday afternoon, after years of planning and construction, Zhang opened his greenhouse doors to the public, offering a tour to Pontiac MP Sophie Chatel, MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller, as well as other interested members of the community.

The first of its kind in the region, this greenhouse will be powered entirely by renewable energy sources, namely passive solar energy and energy generated from composting organic matter.
These energy sources will make it possible for the greenhouse to be sustainably heated year-round and grow produce Zhang plans to sell to local farms to be distributed to consumers through the winter months.
“For now we’ll do more hardy vegetables. Later we’ll do something like tomatoes or cucumbers, because they need more sun,” Zhang said, adding that, as far as he is aware, there are currently no other local sources of freshly grown vegetables in Pontiac during the winter.

Zhang says he’s witnessed the challenge of cultivating off-season fruits and vegetables in Canada intensify in recent years with soaring fuel prices and inflation.
He hopes his new greenhouse project will offer a model for local, sustainable agriculture that will contribute to the development of a climate-friendly regional economy.

MP Chatel said she is concerned about food security in the region, especially with the current water shortages in the south-western United States where much of the Pontiac’s fresh produce comes from.
She said she believes projects such as Zhang’s will ensure year-round access to fresh produce in the region, “despite what happens in the world and despite what happens with climate change.”
Zhang intends to use ecological concepts throughout all of his farming processes.
“I think this is the future,” he said.
Zhang has already begun growing test plants in the greenhouse to make sure the his systems are working properly, and hopes to be fully operational before next winter.

How the greenhouse will work

The inspiration for this greenhouse project came from an innovative ecological greenhouse concept popular in China.
Recognizing significant climate differences, Zhang has customized the technology so the greenhouse can continue to operate through Canada’s winter months, using a combination of solar heat stored in the mound of earth next to the greenhouse, and energy created from decomposing organic matter.
Zhang is using two diverse composting methods to do this: the Jean Pain method, and a method referred to as the aerated static pile (ASP) method, both of which will heat the greenhouse in the winter without an active energy input.

While the passive solar greenhouse is popular in China, particularly in the province of Shouguang, Zhang says that in Canada, the technology is rare.
“I’ve done research and I think this is the first greenhouse in Canada to link the Jean Pain and ASP system to heating a greenhouse that’s this big,” he said.
Zhang explained that he is doing his best to adapt the technology to local conditions, and is prioritizing the use of local renewable resources for his project.

“This involves using more earth and wood structures instead of metal,” he said, noting that only 10 per cent of the materials he has used have been imported, and that the rest of his building materials have been sourced locally.
Chatel, who was visiting farms throughout the 41 municipalities within the riding she represents as part of an initiative her office calls “farmer’s week”, told THE EQUITY she’s never seen anything like it.
“I’m very impressed. Especially with the heating from compost – it’s pretty amazing,” she said.

Working with Bryson Farms

Zhang intends for his produce to be distributed locally, minimizing the pollution associated with the long-distance transportation of produce.
To do so, he will be teaming up with local organic farm Bryson Farms, as well as other farms, to supply produce for their clients through the winter.

“Jian has the experience and the connections in China to actually make this happen, and the wherewithal and the desire. Whereas a lot of people would see this as being just not possible,” Collins said.
“Jian is a brilliant man, but he probably needs gardening experience. Terry and I have been doing this for 25 years [ . . . ] so we’re working together to get this greenhouse functioning.”
Zhang said he is in discussions with the owners of local organic farm, Bryson Farms, to potentially buy their business, but that details of the sale are still being worked out.

The discussions have not prevented the farm’s owners Stuart Collins and Terry Stewart from helping Zhang start growing vegetables in the greenhouse.
“They have more experience,” Zhang said. He noted that other agricultural businesses have expressed interest in working with him, but that to date, Bryson Farms is the only one he is collaborating with.
“We are in discussions. That’s really where it stands at present,” Collins confirmed. “We’ve been helping him with his new greenhouse and trying to get it planted.”

A team effort

Assisting Zhang in his venture is his 29-year-old nephew Ryan Zhang, who moved to the Pontiac from Vancouver two years ago to help his uncle run the new greenhouse business.
“I remember one day after dinner he [Jian] gave me a call and we talked for almost two hours, because he really wanted to expand his business,” Ryan recalled. “He thinks he’s got a really good opportunity.”
Jian Zhang first moved to the Pontiac in 1997, initially acquiring the Marché Bryson Mart and then purchasing the Ultramar gas station near Bryson in 2014. He says his goal is to shift from traditional retail to an environmentally friendly business.

With a master’s degree in engineering from China, a PhD in energy economics from France, and as a certified management accountant here in Canada, Zhang believes he has the background knowledge to make his greenhouse venture successful.
Zhang’s innovation has received support from more than members of his own family.
Bryson locals Cathy Fox and Clifford Welsh have contributed substantially to the project.
“He [Zhang] contacted me about whether I’d be interested in helping with the worm farming,” Fox said, explaining that Zhang had wanted to farm worms for local fishers.
“I suggested we also use worm farming to improve the soil in the garden, and integrate [them] in composting,” she said.

She explained that her husband Cliff, being naturally skilled with “anything to do with plumbing,” also contributed by building a system that worked for the greenhouse.
Despite the local support, construction of Zhang’s project, which began last year, has not been without its difficulties.
“Sometimes it’s very challenging,” Zhang said, giving the examples of the initial collapse of the dirt wall that spans one side of the greenhouse, and the two motors he has already burned through trying to motorize the massive rolling thermal blanket that covers it.
“We’ve had a lot of such difficulties but we’ve taken lessons and made analyses to find the solutions to make it better and adapt.”

Zhang said that many local businesses have become integral suppliers and partners during the preparatory phases of the greenhouse, particularly Luc Beaudoin of Do-It-All Construction in Bryson and Ronnie Hodgins of Home Hardware in Shawville.
“I’m really grateful I’ve got so much help from people,” Zhang said. “Without them I would not be able to realize my dream.”

A vision for the future

Zhang says that his 10,000-square-foot greenhouse will serve as an experimental model that he hopes, if successful, can offer a template for other greenhouses.
“With little investment, I think we could spread and promote the technology to existing greenhouses. I think it’s something very, very feasible” Zhang said.

Zhang hopes to set a precedent in the Pontiac by demonstrating the effectiveness of his adapted concept, and aims to refine it until it becomes replicable across the region.
“This is my passion. And I’m really glad I can contribute. I’m really glad to have this opportunity.”

Bryson greenhouse to bring fresh produce to the Pontiac year-round Read More »

MRC Pontiac funds support bid for abattoir

Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Reporter

The MRC Pontiac has confirmed it has offered financial support to a bid that was placed for the purchase of local Abattoir les Viandes du Pontiac.

The business assets were listed for sale after it filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
At a special meeting on Wednesday the MRC’s Council of Mayors voted in favour of a motion that enabled the MRC to use funding from components 3 and 4 of the Fonds regions et ruralité (FRR) to “finance certain steps aimed at maintaining the slaughterhouse’s activities on the territory,” as the motion read.
The deadline to submit a bid for purchasing the business was last Friday, Mar. 15. Bids for purchase were submitted to the bankruptcy trustee, Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton.
On Monday, the MRC’s economic director for agriculture Shanna Armstrong confirmed a bid had been placed with the support from the MRC.

“We would never usually have money just sitting that we could use to put a bid in on a project like that, but because it sits so perfectly with a project that is already underway with the MRC, this was an opportunity that we could potentially try and help save the abattoir,” Armstrong explained.
The money used to support the bid was taken from a pot of funding originally intended for the AgriSaveur food transformation project the MRC currently has underway.
Armstrong said the MRC saw investing in keeping the abattoir operating as complementary to the original intention of the AgriSaveur project – supporting local farmers in transforming their agricultural products so they can sell them directly to consumers.

She could not share how much money the MRC had contributed towards the bid that was submitted “because nothing is finalized yet.”
While she was not able to share any names, Armstrong said once the news broke of the abattoir’s potential closure, a handful of local producers approached the MRC to find a way to keep it running.
Closure could pose big problems for local producers
The abattoir opened in Shawville in 2018. It specializes in slaughtering animals, and butchering and packaging the meat.

The next closest abattoir to offer these services is in Thurso, Que.
As the only abattoir in the Pontiac, its presence makes it possible for some local animal farmers to sell their meat directly to consumers at a more competitive cost.
Gema Villavicencio raises yaks on her Bristol farm, Pure Conscience.
“We pretty much depend on the abattoir for the slaughtering of our yaks. We’ve never tried anywhere else,” she said.

“We’re so lucky to have the abattoir five to 10 minutes away from us, compared to having to drive them for an hour or two away. The quality of the meat would just not be the same, and the cost is also affected by how long you have to travel to slaughter your animals.”
She said she believes the abattoir is integral to the community, both because of the service it offers and the employment it generates locally.
Phil Holmes sells baskets of a variety of butchered meats from animals he raises on his farm in Clarendon to 30 clients every month.

He said in addition to the inevitable price increase he will have to adopt if the abattoir closes, he is concerned about where he will get this year’s beef butchered, and he believes many farmers would be in the same boat.

“Usually if you want to get in with the abattoir in Thurso, you need to book it a year ahead,” Holmes explained, noting this is due to high demand at the abattoir.
Having passed the typical period where he would book his time slots for butchering, he is worried it will be challenging to find a facility willing to do the job.

MRC Pontiac funds support bid for abattoir Read More »

Three municipal councils call for halt to incinerator project

Charles Dickson, LJI Reporter

Mayor Spence to replace warden as spokesperson on EFW file

The councils of the municipalities of Otter Lake, Thorne and Waltham passed resolutions at their monthly meetings last week calling for a halt to any further development of the project to build a garbage incinerator in the Pontiac.

The plan to build an energy-from-waste (EFW) incinerator was unveiled by Pontiac County warden Jane Toller through a pair of community town hall-styled meetings she convened in June of last year. At that point, the warden reported that all 18 of the county’s mayors had already endorsed the proposal. Her efforts to convince municipalities to pass supportive resolutions, which had already been underway for months, resulted in eight having done so by the time she went public with her plan.
Thorne and Waltham were among those that passed resolutions declaring their support for the incinerator project last year. But, in unanimous votes by their councils last week, both municipalities rescinded their previous motions of support.

Otter Lake was not among the early supporters of the project. In its July meeting last year, the municipal council rejected the supportive resolution put forward by the warden. Last week, the council passed a resolution that reaffirms its earlier opposition to the incinerator and states it will not support the development of another business plan for the project.
The warden has described a document recently provided by consulting firms Deloitte and Ramboll under a single-source contract of more than $100,000 as an “initial business plan,” suggesting that a second version of the plan will be required.

Though the municipality of Litchfield passed a resolution declaring its opposition to the incinerator last August, proponents of the project continue to assert that an industrial site in Litchfield, next to the Ottawa River, just west of Portage du Fort, will be the future location of the proposed facility.

The energy-from-waste proposal being advanced by the warden and most of the mayors would see 395,000 tons of garbage from urban areas throughout the Ottawa Valley transported by some 40 trucks per day to feed the incinerator. According to the warden, the project would save $1.7 million currently spent on transporting Pontiac’s 5,000 tons of garbage to a landfill in Lachute, as well as create 50 permanent jobs and produce electricity that could be sold, among other benefits.

In response to the EFW project, local citizens’ groups formed over recent months have begun to raise public awareness of what they see as significant environmental and health hazards presented by the envisioned incinerator. Their concerns range from toxic substances in air-borne emissions and the 100,000 tons of ash they say the facility will produce, to the production of carbon dioxide from the trucking and burning of the garbage, among others.

Meanwhile, at a meeting of Pontiac County mayors last week, it was proposed that Corey Spence, mayor of Allumette Island, replace the warden as the spokesperson for the incinerator project. This follows criticism by mayors of the warden’s handling of the file. Among their concerns has been her presentation to Renfrew County mayors of what she called “key findings” of the recently-completed initial business plan, prior to Pontiac County mayors seeing the document, much less approving it for publication. An email the warden is reported to have sent to the mayors advising them not to share their views on the incinerator with the public has also rankled a number of mayors.

Three municipal councils call for halt to incinerator project Read More »

Citizens’ groups launch campaigns to oppose incinerator

Charles Dickson, LJI Reporter

Friends of the Pontiac issues fact sheet, Citizens of the Pontiac urges face-to-face engagement

Efforts to convince Pontiac County mayors to oppose any further development of the energy-from-waste project have been launched by two local citizens’ groups over the past few days.
On Friday, Friends of the Pontiac sent a fact sheet to MRC Pontiac’s 18 mayors outlining what it sees as the four most important reasons to stop work on the incinerator proposal, accompanied by a draft resolution that the group hopes municipalities will pass to express their opposition to the project.
“We wanted to provide a solid fact sheet based on scientific information the mayors may not have heard,” Jennifer Quaile, spokesperson for Friends of the Pontiac, said in an email to THE EQUITY.

Quaile, who is a municipal councillor in Otter Lake and member of the MRC Pontiac waste management committee, says the document cites its sources so mayors can check the credibility of the information for themselves.
“We hope there will be some mayors who will give it serious attention and start asking some hard questions,” she said.
The fact sheet presents four reasons why the group believes mayors should vote against a garbage incinerator:

  • the high cost of construction ($450 million) and the likelihood the price will only go up as it did with the Durham York incinerator,
  • that energy produced by waste incinerators emits a tonne of C02 for every tonne of garbage burned and so cannot be considered “clean energy”,
  • that even with “state of the art” pollution controls, garbage incinerators emit mercury, lead, arsenic, dioxins and furans and nanoparticles that contaminate air, water and soil and are a huge concern for farmers, and
  • that only 50 permanent jobs will be created, far fewer than the number of jobs generated by alternate waste management strategies involving reusing, recycling and composting options.
    Friends of the Pontiac, which formed last fall to oppose the incinerator project, held its first public information meeting in Ladysmith in November (see Concerns voiced over incinerator project at Friends of the Pontiac meeting, THE EQUITY, Nov. 22, 2023).

Along with its fact sheet, the group also distributed a draft resolution to the mayors for discussion and approval by their municipal councils. Building on the key points outlined in the fact sheet, the resolution culminates in the decision not to support any further work in the development of the incinerator proposal:
“THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Municipality of _ will not support going forward with a garbage incinerator nor will it support the development of another business plan for this proposal.”
“The primary reason we did this is because we believe local councillors should have a voice, that mayors should not independently continue to support this project even when there is scientific evidence being brought before them that should cause them to reconsider going forward,” Quaile said.

Citizens of the Pontiac launches
‘Face to Face’ Campaign

Meanwhile, another group, the recently-formed Citizens of the Pontiac (CoP), has launched a campaign it is calling Face to Face.
In a press release issued Monday, CoP urges Pontiac citizens to speak their mind on the incinerator at the Council of Mayors meeting held at the MRC Pontiac building in Campbell’s Bay each month.
“In this campaign, we are urging Pontiac citizens to come out to the MRC office on March 20 at 6:30 pm, and every month thereafter, until the mayors vote down the incinerator project completely,” says CoP spokesperson Judith Spence.

“Come out, bring your friends, bring your family, get your five minutes to speak to the mayors face to face. The Citizens of the Pontiac (CoP) will be there to stand by you and to support you. This may be the most critical five minutes of your life,” Spence says.
More than 100 people attended a public information session convened by Citizens of the Pontiac in Campbell’s Bay on Mar. 2 that featured speakers who shared their concerns about garbage incinerators via Zoom from Ontario and England (see Concern over incinerator fills Campbell’s Bay Rec Centre, THE EQUITY, Mar. 6, 2024).

Citizens’ groups launch campaigns to oppose incinerator Read More »

Pontiacer organizes first-of-its-kind bull sale

Glen Hartle, LJI Reporter

Ron Hodgins has never been one to sit idle.
When he’s not raising purebred Bouvier dogs, or tending to his large greenhouse operation, or hosting and running the Pontiac Farmers’ Market each Saturday from May to October, or acting as the treasurer for the UPA (Union des Producteurs Agricoles), he’s actually running a robust farm operation complete with cows, donkeys, horses, chickens and peacocks.

Hodgins has been running his R & R Farms for some 20 years and comes by the craft honestly. His father Tom and his grandfather Herbert have farmed just up the road on the 7th Concession for generations.
Hodgins traces his own roots in husbandry back to raising rabbits for cash as a young boy and has a glint in his eye as he talks about his newest and most imminent venture: a bull auction.
Tuesday Mar. 12 will see a first-of-its-kind bull sale at Renfrew Pontiac Livestock auction house whereby year-old bull-calves from four local farmers will be up for grabs as an adjunct to the regular auction.

Joining Hodgins on the docket are producers Donna Courchesne and Andrew Simms of Bristol, Brian and Janet Rogers of Shawville, and Allan and Courtney Wallace of Foresters Falls.
Going back many years, there used to be auctions in Quebec at which cattle breeders could provide their livestock to the highest bidder.

A severe outbreak of bovine viral diarrhea changed things considerably and soon farmers were sending their cattle to a common feedlot location where rigorous tests and protocols were in place to ensure health and quality.

Locally, the Outaouais Bull Test Station Association was the primary feedlot option for producers. When its manager Garfield Hobbs closed it down, the conduit through which local producers were getting their livestock to a competitive market closed as well.
In the intervening years, producers have relied upon private treaty sales of the barnyard variety whereby cattle were priced for sale on a first come first serve basis. If the cattle were not sold in this manner, they were usually shipped and destined for beef.

But Hodgins’ hopes to change this with his new bull sale initiative.
For their part, Hodgins’ fellow consignors have skin in the game and are looking forward to both the auction and the future.
“We are grateful to Ron for this added opportunity to market our bulls to the beef producers of the region. We have two Charolais yearling bulls on offer in this inaugural sale,” Courchesne and Simms wrote in an email to THE EQUITY.

“We only have one bull to sell this spring but hope to have a few next spring,” Wallace said.
Auctioneer Preston Cull will make the call with Hodgins assisting and offering additional and contextual information for each bull that passes up for bid.

A first for the
auction house

Hodgins’ auction house of choice is the Renfrew Pontiac Livestock in Cobden, which has been in operation for 30 years.
The auction house is known for their Tuesday sales where one is likely to see as many animals from Quebec pass through as there are from Ontario. Typically, the cattle sold are destined for beef.
“We often sell heifers or bred-heifers,” says co-owner and farmer Matt Dick.
“This will be a first for us selling a bunch of bulls from one farmer or group of farmers in this way. There aren’t enough bulls to run a single event this time so we’re accommodating this sale within our usual Tuesday sale.”

For Hodgins, his vision of rebuilding a competitive showcase for local livestock producers for the purposes of breeding and carrying genetics forward is now seeing fruition and the wheels are fully in motion.
“The difference between me selling a just-weaned calf, which we call a stocker, for $3 a pound or selling a year-old bull that I’ve fed for the winter and one where I’m providing registration and guaranteeing their breeding should be substantial,” Hodgins said.
His pride in what he does shows as he flips through the auction catalogue taking time to explain the various lots and write-ups.

“EPD is the expected progeny difference and is what we use to evaluate an animal’s worth as a parent,” he said.
Located below each animal, or lot, are eight separate indicators helping prospective buyers get a better sense of each animal’s value and indicate each bull’s potential worth.
“Each animal is tracked with an ATQ [Agri-Traçabilité Québec] tag and this helps buyers know where the animals come from,” Hodgins explained.

The ATQ program, initiated in 2001, is concerned with the identification of animals, the identification of premises where animals are located, and the tracking of animal movements. The primary objective of this tracking system is to protect human health, animal health, and food safety.
Hodgins hopes that the sale this year shows potential and that by next year there may be enough participation that they can opt for a dedicated sale and one where they would make use of Direct Livestock Marketing Systems (DLMS) whereby broadcasts provide live video and audio to people around the world who cannot attend the auction in person.

In this scenario, potential customers are able to view the live video from the auction house as well as hear live audio of the auctioneer and can make bids online, which extends the reach of the sale.
“All of this for a sale which will take all of 30 minutes,” Hodgins laughs.
But it is clear that these 30 minutes mean the world to him and it is equally clear that he has put a great deal of thought, planning and effort into ensuring that they are 30 minutes well-spent.

Pontiacer organizes first-of-its-kind bull sale Read More »

Concern over incinerator fills Campbell’s Bay Rec Centre

Pierre Cyr, LJI Reporter

One hundred and twenty-four people attended a public information meeting at the Campbell’s Bay Recreation Centre on Saturday afternoon to hear concerns about MRC Pontiac’s proposal to build a garbage incinerator in the Municipality of Litchfield.
The meeting, convened by Judy Spence and her group Citizens of the Pontiac presented four speakers with extensive experience on the matter of energy-from-waste incinerators, all of whom joined the meeting via Zoom to share their views.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Paul Connett, is a graduate of Cambridge University and holds a PhD in chemistry from Dartmouth University. He is the author of the 2013 book The Zero Waste Solution and is an international expert in waste management and environmental toxicology. Connett, who doesn’t charge anything to share his expertise and channels all the profits from his sales of his books to support non-profit organizations, participated in Saturday’s meeting via Zoom from England.

“This is really an absurd solution for Pontiac,” said Connett who has shared his expertise on over 300 incinerator projects. “You will be producing 20 times more toxic ash than the trash you currently have,” he said, explaining that an incinerator that burns 400,000 tons of garbage produces about 100,000 tons of ash, which is 20 times the 5,000 tons of garbage currently produced across Pontiac County.
Connett said that the fly ash coming from the incinerator is particularly toxic with some extreme levels of lead and cadmium, and showed studies revealing that these chemicals, dioxins, and nanoparticles accumulate in the environment and contaminate surface waters and the food chain.
‘’Why would you play Russian roulette with your children’s brains?” Connett asked.
“Making dirty energy is stupid,’’ he said, adding that a big incinerator will ruin the image of Pontiac, reduce property values, threaten farming, and undermine hope for genuine economic development.
‘’You can’t be polite about it. You can’t keep quiet about it. You have got to shout and make some noise if you don’t want this to happen in Pontiac,’’ he said.
Connett believes the alternative for Pontiac is a good zero-waste program that will reduce residual waste to 1,000 tons per year.

He also said that, in contrast with the 50 jobs promised for the envisioned $450,000 facility, far more jobs would be created by having a good zero-waste strategy here in the Pontiac
“Our job today is not to find better ways to destroy material, but to stop making products and packaging using materials that must be destroyed,” he said.
The second speaker was Linda Gasser, who fought against the Durham York Energy Center (DYEC) incinerator project in Ontario and is with the group Zero Waste 4 Zero Burning. She shared that the cost of the project went up from the original estimate of $197 million to $295 million for the 140,000-ton capacity incinerator. She said the Durham York incinerator suffered two fires in its early days, as well as breakdowns requiring shutdowns of the facility for up to three months.
‘’No one should point to DYEC as an example to follow. It’s a failure in every respect,” said Gasser.

The next speaker was Wendy Bracken with the group Durham Environment Watch who was also involved in the environmental watch of the DYEC. She offered data that shows emissions of dioxin/furan more than 12 times above the legal limits. Bracken also brought forward weaknesses in the testing of the emissions coming from the incinerator, saying they were conducted too infrequently and for too short a period to provide an accurate indication of the level of toxins actually being emitted. According to Bracken, Canadian regulations and standards regarding incinerators are outdated when compared to those in Europe or the United States.

Next was Liz Benneian, a former newspaper editor with a degree in science, now working with the Ontario Zero Waste Coalition, who helped to run a successful campaign to stop an $800 million incinerator project in Ontario in 2005.
“We were able to prove that these plants never work as promised. We could prove their emissions were toxic,” said Benneian.
Benneian said that one of the characteristics of the incinerator experience is untransparent local government.

“In the Pontiac, why is public money being spent on business cases, and why is pre-agreement being sought to bring waste from Ontario while the public is kept in the dark?” asked Benneian. “What else is going on behind the scenes?”
According to Benneian, it should be obvious that the problem of waste generation cannot be solved by an incinerator that requires an ongoing production of waste.
“With only 5,000 tons of waste to manage, the incinerator is a solution we don’t need for a problem we don’t have,” concluded Benneian.
Benneian, Bracken and Gasser have helped more than 10 Ontario community groups in their battle to prove that an incinerator project was not a good solution for waste management. They succeeded in 100 per cent of the cases to have local and regional politicians change their mind and vote against an incinerator project.

After listening to the speakers at the meeting, Josey Bouchard, a Campbell’s Bay municipal councillor and spokesperson for the health advocacy group Pontiac Voice, declared that she will now support efforts to stop the construction of the incinerator.
“It is a dump, a glorified dump, and I don’t think our region should be anybody’s dump,” said Bouchard.
Video of the presentations will be available at www.citizensofthePontiac.ca over the coming days.

Concern over incinerator fills Campbell’s Bay Rec Centre Read More »

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