Pontiac

Pontiac Pride finding its groove with Chapeau bowling party

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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

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Glen Hartle, LJI Reporter

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

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Incinerator again dominates questions at meeting of mayors

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Charles Dickson, LJI Reporter

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

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

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

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

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

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Warm, dry spring brings bushfires to Bristol, Pontiac

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Guillaume Laflamme, LJI Reporter

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

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Municipality of Pontiac seeks public input on park revitalization project

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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.

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Three municipal councils call for halt to incinerator project

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

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.

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

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

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

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

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 »

Citizens’ groups launch campaigns to oppose incinerator

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

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

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

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

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

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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