Ruby Pratka

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Lac-Brome Museum is launching a community-based fundraising campaign to raise the more than $1.5 million needed to get its long-planned expansion across the finish line.

The expansion is expected to take the form of a 6,000-square-foot extension to the current reception building, which will hold three galleries (including one featuring a new permanent exhibit on the Abenaki people), an expanded reception area, a collections lab, storage space and “flexible spaces” that can be rented out for events, Denis Piquette, executive director of the Brome Lake Historical Society, which oversees the museum, previously told the BCN. It will also be equipped with an elevator and washrooms accessible for people with reduced mobility, and a heating system which will allow it to stay open year-round.

Earlier this year, the historical society received a $2.21-million grant from the federal government through the Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing and Communities Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) program, focused on developing “community spaces” in official language minority and Indigenous communities using energy-efficient construction techniques. The grant covered 60 per cent of the estimated cost of the project.

After the grant was confirmed, the next step was to get the necessary approvals from the Town of Brome Lake (TOBL), which funded the hiring of a consultant architect to make sure the museum fit in with the town’s wider urban plan. “We met with [the architect] and then met with the town’s consultative committee on urbanism. Council reviewed and approved the project on Sept. 2.

The last major step – before breaking ground on the extension itself – is fundraising to cover the remaining 40 per cent of the costs of the project. The fundraising campaign will be formally launched at a ceremony at 10 a.m. on Oct. 10 on the museum grounds (inside the children’s museum in case of rain).

“We are trying to raise about $2 million, and any donation would get a tax receipt,” Piquette told the BCN last week. “We haven’t worked out all of the details, but key donors will be officially recognized with a wall space or something like that.”

Piquette said the historical society has been assured of “a few good-sized pledges already” and hopes to raise the full amount by the end of the year. Some engineering studies remain to be done before the municipality can issue a building permit. “We don’t really have a deadline, as long as we have enough to start paying for construction costs,” he said. “We hope to start building by early spring of next year.” If all goes according to plan, he expects the annex to open in spring of 2027.  

TOBL spokesperson Ghyslain Forcier confirmed that the town had paid for an architect to review the project, but said any further support, such as a financial contribution, help with the crowdfunding campaign or donations of objects for the exhibits, would be “up to the new council” which will take office after the Nov. 2 election.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS is now offering a new test for human papillomavirus (HPV), one of the leading causes of cervical cancer, public health officials announced last week.

The test replaces the “pap smear” test for HPV and cervical cancer that women are generally advised to get every two to three years between the ages of 21 and 65. Women will now only have to get tested every five years, unless they are at particularly high risk due to a weakened immune system, chronic HPV infections or a history of cancer in the genital area. Regular testing will begin at age 25 instead of 21. The new test is also more precise than its predecessor, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

The new test is not less invasive than the classic “pap smear,” which involves a family doctor or gynecologist inserting a speculum into the patient’s vagina and then using a small brush or spatula to collect a sample of cells. However, patients can now choose to have their doctor do the test or collect the cell sample themselves under a doctor’s supervision. According to the MSSS, studies are also underway to look into the effectiveness of take-home test kits.

Dr. Valérie Carré is a gynecologist at Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins hospital. She explained that the previous test – developed more than 50 years ago, before scientists made the link between HPV and cervical cancer – was designed to detect precancerous cells; by detecting the virus before it can cause cervical cancer, it allows doctors and patients to get ahead of the disease.

“When the HPV test is negative, we are not worried for the next five years. We can space out the tests more, and it’s more reassuring for the patient. It’s also cost- and time-effective because it allows us to focus follow-up testing on those who really need it.”

HPV is a very common sexually transmitted disease – more than 80 per cent of women who are sexually active will be infected at one point in their lives. HPV infections often clear up on their own, especially in younger women. People who test positive may be referred for further testing, although Carré hopes the more precise exam will reduce the need for invasive follow-up testing for patients who ultimately don’t need it.

The new test has been rolled out gradually, region by region; it is now available in 12 of Quebec’s 19 regions. Concurrently, there’s an ongoing provincewide vaccination campaign against HPV; the vaccine – which is injected in the upper arm like most vaccines – is free to anyone under age 46 with a cervix. Appointments can be made via ClicSanté. While getting the vaccine lowers your risk of developing cervical cancer by 90 per cent, it does not remove the need for regular exams, Carré said. 

Carré said social taboos around discussing young people’s sexuality – especially in preadolescence, when the HPV vaccine is recommended – are still causing unnecessary anxiety, and at worst, unnecessary infection. “We need to inform people as early as possible as to what HPV is, what the consequences are, and the importance of vaccination and testing to get ahead of the precancerous cells.” 

“The HPV test is part of the efforts of the MSSS to prioritize cancer prevention,” public health officials said in a statement. “It should be noted that HPV infection is the leading cause of cervical cancer. Early detection of this disease allows for faster action to prevent the health of affected women from deteriorating, which represents a step forward in women’s health. It should be noted that the MSSS is working on implementing the first-ever national health prevention strategy, which will focus in particular on the adoption of healthy lifestyle habits and early screening.”

“”The fight against cervical cancer is crucial. This requires better access to a screening test like this. It’s a major advance in preventive health that can really make a difference. This is very good news for women in the Eastern Townships,” said Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest. “I’m proud that they can now benefit from it, and I encourage them to take advantage of it now.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

More than 100 people attended the town of Bromont’s first Housing Forum (Forum sur l’habitation), held Sept. 20 at the Centre communautaire de Bromont.

In the morning, town officials met with property developers and community organizations working to improve access to housing. In the afternoon, participants had the opportunity to take part in six workshops designed to collect their opinions and impressions about the housing situation in Bromont. The first workshop was focused on the town’s housing report, released in August, which indicated that access to property, access to affordable rental housing and population growth would continue to be major concerns in the coming years. The second, third and fourth workshops dealt with types of housing, regulations around add-on housing units and best practices for integrating new residential building projects into the urban landscape. The fifth session covered affordable housing, and the sixth gave participants the chance to “make a wish” for the future of housing in the municipality.

Access to affordable housing is a major challenge in the municipality, for homeowners and aspiring homeowners as well as renters. The housing report found that a two-person household would have to earn just over $130,000 – $30,000 more than the current median household income – to afford to buy a home, and that the rising cost of home ownership meant people who would otherwise decide to buy a home are renting longer, increasing demand for rental units and pushing rents upward. One in five renters and one in 10 homeowners spend 30 per cent or more of their income to stay in their homes. The majority of people who work in Bromont don’t live there, and the report suggests housing costs are a factor.

Mayor Tatiana Contreras told the BCN the forum was the first of a series of planned consultations about the housing policy and the long-planned revision of the town’s urban plan. The town also recently created a $300,000 affordable housing fund, to incentivize developers to propose affordable housing projects.

“I found it extraordinary that so many people wanted to participate on a beautiful Saturday afternoon,” she added. “People talked about what they were most worried about – densification and preserving the landscape. I really want to thank them for their enthusiasm.”

Those who didn’t attend the in-person event but still want to express their concerns can fill out an online questionnaire on the town website until Oct. 4. The form is available in French only, but answers written in English will be taken into account. After the Oct. 4 deadline, town staff will compile the data and “use it to help us put together a housing policy to make sure projects respond to the needs of the population,” Contreras said.

Contreras said the consultation was “the first step in an ongoing process” of determining the future of residential development in Bromont. “There will be a new council [after the Nov. 2 election] but council will continue to work on this.” She expects the housing policy to be released in January, before the new urban plan.

“This forum marks a significant step in our public participation approach, essential for fueling reflection on the revision of the urban planning scheme and the development of our future housing policy,” communications director Amélie Casaubon said in a statement. “Other discussions with stakeholders will be organized so that we can hear all points of view, in accordance with our public participation policy.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A coroner is calling for better coordination between the Sûreté du Québec and local ambulance services following an investigation into the death of a woman in Stukely-Sud in 2022.

Jocelyne Lessard, 66, lived in Longueuil but had a secondary residence in Stukely-Sud. Shortly after 5:30 p.m. on June 12, 2022, she called 911 to report that an unknown man had broken into her chalet and was chasing her. “While the dispatcher is asking Ms. Lessard various questions, a man demands the car keys,” the report prepared by coroner Kathleen Gélinas goes on. “Ms. Lessard is shouting in pain and no longer responding to the 911 dispatcher’s questions.”

“Without interrupting the call, the dispatcher contacts the Sûreté du Québec. When a man starts speaking to the dispatcher in place of Ms. Lessard, the [911] dispatcher connects him to the Sûreté du Québec dispatcher.”

The call is transferred again, from the main Sûreté du Québec (SQ) dispatch centre to the SQ call centre for the MRC Memphremagog. About 40 minutes after the initial call, an SQ supervisor arrives at the cabin; the supervisor and their colleague search the house and Lessard’s car, which is parked nearby, and find no one. They respond to an apparently unrelated call which turns out to have been made from Lessard’s phone. The officers locate the phone and find Lessard nearby, unresponsive. She was pronounced dead later that evening. According to the coroner’s report, she died due to blunt force trauma to the head.

Three weeks after her death, Jean-Philippe Coutu, a Waterloo man with documented mental health problems, who had been pulled over by the SQ earlier that day for a suspected traffic violation and “made incoherent statements,” was charged with second-degree murder; he was later found not criminally responsible. The Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, the provincial body charged with investigating suspected police misconduct, also investigated, but found no wrongdoing on the part of the SQ officers.

A coroner’s report can only be released once all other investigations surrounding a death are complete, hence the release of Gelinas’ report nearly three years after Lessard’s murder. Coroners can rule on the cause of a person’s death, but cannot assign blame to any one person or institution. However, they can and do make recommendations aimed at avoiding similar tragedies.

In this case, Gélinas recommended that the SQ work with the regional 911 call centre, the Centre d’appels d’urgence de Chaudière-Appalaches (CAUCA), to “review as soon as possible the transfer procedures for a 911 call containing sensitive information taken during the initial call” and “review protocols which link primary 911 call centres to police emergency call centres to allow for a second call to communicate sensitive information, particularly when the speaker changes in a context of presumed violence.” She noted that the 911 dispatcher could have acted to alert police dispatchers that they were not talking to the initial caller. “I recommend that call transfer protocols be reviewed [to account for] cases where the speaker changes, in a context of presumed violence.” She noted that the implantation of long-awaited “next-generation 911” technology, slated for 2027, allowing callers to send text messages, photos and videos to a dispatcher and first responders to access more precise location information, would make emergency services more accessible and help first responders. “However, we can anticipate that situations involving a change of speaker could still happen.”

The Sûreté du Québec did not respond to a request for comment from the BCN by press time.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Brome Lake residents will be able to provide their input on the landmarks that have marked life and history in the community as part of the new civic consultation platform on the town’s website. Town officials intend for the platform, conceived by Joliette-based digital consulting firm Blanko, to be used to collect public input on a variety of public issues in the future, through quick surveys, polls, public consultations and presentations of major projects, they said.

“Included in the 2024-2028 strategic plan, this initiative demonstrates the municipality’s desire to strengthen citizen participation and foster open and constructive dialogue between the public and the municipal administration,” town spokesperson Ghyslain Forcier said in a statement on Sept. 24.

The platform, modelled on a similar project in Rimouski that was also developed by Blanko, was launched along with its first public consultation. “Citizens are invited to identify, on an interactive map, places of interest that, in their view, stand out in the Brome Lake area,” Forcier explained. “This approach helps fuel collective reflection and enrich discussions surrounding the overhaul of the urban plan … We’re very proud to be taking this step and putting in place a digital framework.”

“Residents are invited to submit spots that have had an effect on them, them whether it’s a heritage space or a place that that has a lot of memories for them or a memorable landscape or a cultural space, they can submit it with a photo; my colleague will take the data and it will be taken into account when we remake our urban plan.”

“This new tool reflects our desire to further involve the public in the decisions that shape our living environment. Everyone’s participation is valuable and will help us build projects that reflect the aspirations of our community,” Brome Lake Mayor Richard Burcombe said in a statement.

“Your input will be used, and it will influence certain ‘grandes lignes’ of our urban plan,” said Forcier, adding that the consultation platform was “bilingual, like all our tools.”

He said the platform would cost the municipality an estimated $2,500 annually, and was not covered by a grant.

Brome Lake intends to build on its experience with the digital consultation platform to develop a public consultation policy, along the lines of the policy recently developed in Bromont, over the course of 2026.

Brome Lake residents are invited to discover the platform online for themselves at portail.lacbrome.ca/en.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Starting this fall, COVID-19 booster shots will no longer be offered for free to the general public in Quebec pharmacies. The shots will still be free for members of high-risk groups, namely seniors 65 and older, people living in nursing homes or other shared living environments, health workers, pregnant women, people living in certain remote areas and younger adults with chronic health conditions. Quebecers who are not part of those risk groups will have to pay between $150 and $180 to get a booster shot, according to the Association québécoise des pharmaciens propriétaires.

Dr. Nicholas Brosseau is a public health specialist at the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) and a member of Quebec’s provincial immunization committee, which issues recommendations around vaccination to the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS). “I’m not involved in the decision – the health minister makes the decision – but there’s a Quebec vaccination committee and a pan-Canadian vaccination committee, and they both recommended a targeted vaccination program [focused on] older people,” he said. “That’s where we can make a difference.”

“Among young, healthy people, there is a very low risk of complications,” he said. “Most people have had COVID a few times and been vaccinated a few times. “Your first infection is usually your most severe. Long COVID is still a concern for young people, and we reduce the risk of long COVID [through vaccination] but recent studies have shown that yearly booster shots don’t make that much of a difference. The risk of long COVID is very low [if you don’t already have it after being infected several times].”

However, Brosseau cautioned that the “younger people are at lower risk” rule of thumb doesn’t apply to everyone, and that some young adults should get a booster shot. “Older people are often aware they are at higher risk, but sometimes young people with chronic illnesses – with diabetes or heart problems, for example – aren’t aware they are at risk. They are being targeted by this fall’s campaign.”

As of this writing, it was unclear how young people who were part of higher-risk groups, particularly those without a family doctor, would “prove” their status.

MSSS spokesperson Marie-Pierre Blier said more information about the logistics of the upcoming vaccination campaign would be announced “very soon.” Vaccination campaigns in previous years have typically kicked into high gear in early October.

While Blier said the ministry’s decision was based on “the most recent scientific information about who would draw the most significant benefits from vaccination,” she did note that “in previous years, significant quantities of doses were supplied to Quebec by the federal government, which is no longer the case.” 

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The municipality of Farnham has ordered further tests after higher-than-expected levels of per- and polyfluoroalkylates – more commonly known as PFAS or “forever chemicals” – were found in residue from the town’s water treatment plant.

Water treatment residue, also called sewage sludge or biosolids, is sometimes used as fertilizer for large-scale farming operations, in place of chemical fertilizer or manure. In March, Quebec’s environment ministry imposed PFAS concentration limits for biosolids, beyond which they could not be used for fertilizer. The new norms are scheduled to take effect in November. “When the Quebec government announced new standards [for PFAS levels], we could have waited a year [to test the biosolids], but I’ve always believed you need to be proactive for things like that,” Farnham Mayor Patrick Melchior told the BCN. “It turns out we’re higher than normal. We’ve ordered other tests and we should have the results from one day to the next.”

The town’s priorities are now to find out where the elevated levels are coming from and keep further PFAS contamination from leaching into the town’s drinking water, which is drawn from the Yamaska River, Melchior said. He emphasized that the levels detected were not threatening to human or plant health, but “we need to find out where it’s coming from to keep it from getting in the water. We need to take time to do things right.”

Melchior said local farmers and the Quebec Ministry of Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP) were contacted as soon as the higher PFAS levels were detected. “There have been discussions with [the environment ministry] and they have assured us of their support – they have to help us find a way.”

PFAS have been used for decades in fire retardants, antiadhesive coatings, food wrapping and some cosmetics, to make materials waterproof, stainproof or fire-resistant. According to Health Canada, prolonged PFAS exposure may affect a person’s liver, kidney and thyroid function; metabolism; and immune response. While many once-common uses of PFAS have been phased out since their health effects became apparent, the substances are notoriously hard to break down, hence the name “forever chemicals.”

“Once they’re there, they’re there, although maybe future scientific research will find a way” to remove PFAS from groundwater, Melchior said.

The fact that the chemicals have been so common also makes their sources hard to pinpoint. Farnham is home to a decommissioned military base, and outdated Cold War-era chemical storage practices at CFB Valcartier, near Quebec City, were linked to the contamination of groundwater in a nearby municipality. However, it’s far from clear that the elevated PFAS levels in Farnham are linked to the base. As Melchior pointed out, “these chemicals are in lots of things.” A worldwide study, published in 2024 in the journal Nature Geoscience, found that they were present in 31 per cent of groundwater samples. 

“We will investigate, and all parties need to get involved, because this concerns everybody,” the mayor said.

The Department of National Defence (DND) and the MELCCFP could not comment by the BCN’s deadline, although a DND spokesperson said a response would be provided at a later date.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

About 60,000 ducks were slaughtered in a preventative cull last week at Brome Lake Ducks after a single duck tested positive for H5N1 bird flu (also referred to as highly pathogenic avian influenza or HPAI) at one of the company’s breeding facilities.

For privacy reasons, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) does not reveal the specific locations of bird flu outbreaks at commercial poultry farms, but the company confirmed the outbreak had occurred on its premises in a statement sent to La Voix de l’Est. The company told the paper that it was concentrating on putting in place the disinfection measures mandated by the CFIA, and did not plan to comment further. The company had not responded to requests for comment from the BCN by press time.

Products purchased from Brome Lake Ducks remain safe to eat; according to the CFIA, there is no evidence that eating cooked poultry or eggs can transmit the virus to humans.

However, there have been isolated cases of humans catching the virus through contact with live birds, hence the practice of preventive culls. “A key part of managing HPAI outbreaks is the humane culling of infected domestic flocks,” a CFIA information document states. “Culling methods are quick and humane and aim to minimize suffering and distress. This measure is also extremely important in limiting spread of the virus and its opportunity to amplify, change and infect other species, including humans.”

On Sept. 15, the CFIA designated a large swath of the town of Brome Lake a “primary control zone” for HPAI, requiring all poultry farms operating in the area to conduct certain surveillance operations to detect suspected bird flu cases. Farms in affected areas are also asked not to bring new hens or baby birds onto their premises during this time. Farms where an infection has been detected are required to remove contaminated products through burning, burial or other approved methods; thoroughly clean and disinfect all affected surfaces and equipment, through a six-step process approved by the CFIA, before the measures can be revoked. For two weeks following the disinfection procedure, farms have the option of either implementing strict surveillance measures to ensure the outbreak is over, or letting the facility sit empty for two weeks.

This is the second time Brome Lake Ducks has been faced with a bird flu outbreak since the virus became endemic in Canada in 2022. That year, an outbreak hit four of its production facilities, leading to the culling of 200,000 birds. Three hundred employees were laid off during the time it took for the company to safely restart its operations. At the time, director of operations Angela Anderson told reporters it would take about a year, and several million dollars, for operations to return to normal. Farms are not reimbursed for costs associated with managing a bird flu outbreak; the business must absorb the costs of the cull itself, the disinfection process and any lost earnings.

In a statement, the Town of Brome Lake alerted residents to the outbreak and advised bird owners to disinfect places where birds were kept and limit contact with wild or commercially raised live birds. It advised small-scale poultry producers to limit the number of visitors to their farms and “avoid all contact, for example, personnel sharing” with larger operations.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town of Farnham is building a new community centre with support from a local foundation, officials announced last week.

The facility will feature meeting rooms of various sizes and a gym and be built on vacant land in the Des Braves neighbourhood behind the town’s existing recreation centre, the Centre Romuald-Potvin. It will be funded by the Fondation Farnham-Rainville and the municipality; town officials also plan to request government grants to further offset the cost to taxpayers. The cost, detailed timeline and appearance of the future multipurpose centre remain to be seen; Mayor Patrick Melchior told the BCN the project was “still at the architects’-sketch stage” and details about the cost of the project would become clear in the coming year. The project is expected to be completed sometime in 2027, in partnership with the Fonds de développement Farnham-Rainville (FDFR), which will contribute a yet-to-be-determined amount.

“This ambitious project…will offer practical and accessible installations, including offices and multipurpose spaces for the municipality,” Annie Lévesque, director of communications and citizen relations for the town of Farnham, said in a statement on Sept. 17. “It will allow us to centralize several activities under one roof, favouring the collaborative development of community activities. It will also offer inclusive and adaptable spaces for residents, community organizations and partners, including meeting and training rooms, family and community event spaces and a large gymnasium-type room for various sports activities.”

Melchior said the project had been the subject of discussions for several years. “We have nearly 50 accredited community organizations, and the population is growing fast,” he said. “We’ve had to refuse proposals from community groups for activities because we don’t have the space.”

The FDFR was founded in 1998 by the town of Farnham, the former neighbouring municipality of Rainville and members of the local business community to encourage businesses to set up shop in the area. Melchior said that now that the foundation has achieved its original goal – “the industrial park doesn’t have any vacancies anymore” – it is in a position to help fund community service-centred projects. FDFR board chair Serge Seney said in a statement that the foundation was “proud to contribute to a project that will reinforce the dynamism and vitality of Farnham.”

“This centre represents a major investment in the quality of life of our citizens and the dynamism of our community,’” Melchior said. “Over time, we’d like for the community to take ownership of it and enjoy it.”

File photo Record Archives, 2023

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Sherbrooke residents may see a lot of MNA Christine Labrie at community events over the next year or so, but there’s one place they won’t be seeing her – on Facebook.

In a long, since-deleted post on her Facebook page late last week, Labrie announced that she planned to leave the social network. Although at the time she said she planned to keep the page up for another two weeks or so, it already appeared to be deleted when The Record checked it on Sept. 22.

Labrie told The Record that she had been questioning the platform’s usefulness for the past two years, since around the time Meta began blocking content from Canadian news outlets. “I noticed that [the discussions on my page] were a lot less interesting than before, specifically because I was no longer able to post news articles. Before, I posted news articles several times a week to let people know about issues I had commented on or taken a position on, or thought they should know about,” she said.

Over time, she noticed a “depressing degradation of the constructiveness” of the quality of debate in the comments section of her posts.

“I think there were a number of people who made articulate and interesting contributions who gave up, because they were fed up with being answered in disrespectful ways or didn’t want to get involved in long debates,” she told The Record. “There was less and less thought-out debate and constructive discussion.”

However, she said the drop that spilled the vase was a post she made in support of the Fière la Fête Pride festival over the second weekend of September. “I wrote a post about Pride and how it was important to show up there [in support of the LGBTQ+ community],” she said. The comments section “degenerated quickly, with people making comments saying things like, ‘Homosexuality is a mental illness,’” she said. “I don’t have the capacity to filter out all of those kinds of comments, and there were people who were distressed by what they read.” With rare exceptions, the comments were not directed at Labrie personally, but she felt she had to take the post down before things got worse.

She noted that there were “always some comments to mask and people to block” when she posted about LGBTQ+ issues, especially trans issues, but this time, the quality of discussion went downhill faster and more virulently than usual.

“I have colleagues in the National Assembly, like [Liberal critic for LGBTQ+ issues] Jennifer Maccarone for example, who see that a lot,” she said. “I wasn’t that surprised [by the disparaging comments], except by the scale and speed this time around.”

“We talk a lot with advocacy groups, and we see that there has been a lot of hate and rage directed toward the LGBTQ+ community in recent years,” she said, citing a provincewide study by GRIS-Montréal, a group which gives talks in schools about sexual orientation, gender identity and tolerance based on the lived experience of LGBTQ+ volunteers. The study, released in January, found that the proportion of high school students who said they would be uncomfortable if their best friend was gay or lesbian had nearly doubled between 2017 and 2024, and that levels of discomfort were similar for boys and girls across all age groups, regions and levels of religious observance.

Labrie, who was a lecturer in women’s studies at the Université de Sherbrooke before she went into politics, said she didn’t want to be responsible for creating a space where citizens went to insult each other.  The second-term Québec Solidaire MNA, who closed her Twitter account several years ago and only rarely posts on Instagram, said elected officials don’t need a social media presence to do their jobs. “It’s important to be available, but there are several different ways we can do that,” she said. “Read traditional media, get in touch with us on our website, call us, write to us with any kind of questions if you want to know my position on any issue.”

She said the degradation of public debate had been one of the reasons she decided not to seek a third term. “I don’t recognize myself in the polarization of the political ecosystem,” she said. “I’ve always been uncomfortable with partisanship. I want to look for other possibilities to work with people and contribute to the community. I’ve seen enough of partisanship and I don’t want to be part of it. That’s also part of why I closed the Facebook page. I started it to discuss ideas, not to smear other people as enemies, but that’s not how social media works anymore. It got depressing.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest was given additional responsibilities when Premier François Legault went ahead with a long-planned Cabinet shuffle on Sept. 10. In addition to her portfolio as minister of sports, recreation and the outdoors, which she has held since 2022, Charest was named minister responsible for the Estrie region.

In that post, Charest succeeded Granby MNA François Bonnardel, who was named transport minister in Legault’s first cabinet in 2018 and was later moved to public safety. Legault chose to remove Bonnardel from Cabinet in a move that was widely interpreted as a response to his handling of the SAAQClic debacle.

In a brief French-language interview while en route to launch the espace konect small business incubator in Bromont, Charest said she was honoured to succeed Bonnardel, a longtime colleague who was “one of the reasons [she] got into politics.”

Charest represented Canada at three Olympic Games in short-track speedskating and remained involved in the Olympic movement in Canada after her retirement; she worked in public relations and communications, co-owned a gym and worked as a sports and nutrition communicator before she was elected in 2018. She was named sports and recreation minister in 2022 after a brief tenure as minister responsible for the status of women; she is taking over the Estrie portfolio for the first time. 

“You never know what’s going to happen when there’s a cabinet shuffle,” she said. “There had been some discussions about reducing the number of ministers. I didn’t really have any expectations around [getting a particular post]. I want to thank Mr. Bonnardel for the work he has done. I accept these responsibilities with a lot of humility.”

Each of Quebec’s 17 regions has a designated cabinet minister, who usually holds another cabinet post at the same time. Charest said that having a regional portfolio was “like being an MNA in a riding” except on a larger scale. “Our role is to ensure that the particularities of the region are taken into account by the government – to bring regional priorities to the table and make sure everyone is well represented.”

Charest noted that the Legault government has designated four broad policy priorities for the coming year – the economy, public safety, state efficiency and identity. “Estrie can position itself well in those four sectors. The question is, how can we take its strengths into account and work on those four priorities in the region in collaboration with other stakeholders?”

She said she is eager to meet with stakeholders and advocacy groups serving the wider region –  “just like we do in Brome-Missisquoi” – including groups serving the English-speaking community, such as Townshippers’, and groups working to promote health care accessibility.

Charest said she did plan to run in the next election despite polls suggesting the CAQ government was headed for a bruising defeat. “This is a very important job, and I take it very seriously, and the experience has been positive over the last few years working with communities.”

Charest reminded constituents that her Brome-Missisquoi riding office is always ready to address their concerns in French or English.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

English-language school boards, parents’ groups and teachers’ unions are reacting with caution and some optimism after former Treasury Board president Sonia LeBel succeeded Bernard Drainville as education minister on Sept. 10.

The long-announced cabinet shuffle saw Drainville move from the education portfolio to environment and former housing minister France-Élaine Duranceau take over LeBel’s old Treasury Board post. Other high-profile moves included Geneviève Guilbault leaving transport for municipal affairs, former infrastructure minister Jonatan Julien – a former Quebec City councillor who’s intimately familiar with the headline-making third link and tramway projects in that region – moving to transport, Pascale Déry – who angered many in the English-speaking community by becoming the face of the government’s restrictions on English universities and out-of-province student enrolment – moving from higher education to employment, and Martine Biron moving from international relations to higher education. Christopher Skeete was named minister responsible for relations for English-speaking Quebecers – a responsibility which he held in Legault’s first cabinet. Ian Lafrenière took over the public safety portfolio from François Bonnardel, under scrutiny for his handling of the SAAQClic debacle as transport minister, who was not named to cabinet. Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest, who keeps her previous portfolio as minister of sport, recreation and leisure, will take over Bonnardel’s former file as minister responsible for Estrie.

The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA), of which the Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB) is a member, welcomed the shift from Drainville to LeBel in education. “We look forward to rebuilding the strong and respectful relationship that once characterized our sector’s collaboration with the ministry,” said QESBA president Joe Ortona. “Our school boards stand ready to propose solutions and innovative approaches to further strengthen an already successful system for our students, staff, and communities.”

In a later interview, Ortona said he knew “very little” about LeBel and didn’t know what to expect from her tenure. “They [the Coalition Avenir Québec government] don’t have a good record in terms of education and an even worse record in terms of English education. We want to meet and build bridges [but] we are being very cautious.” Major priorities for QESBA include securing greater control over school board budgets and dealing with the impacts of the cuts announced earlier this summer.

“The only time we got to meet with Minister Drainville was on Bill 23 [a reform of school board and service centre governance from which English boards were ultimately exempted],” Ortona added. “Other than that, we have been largely ignored by a government which has done the bare minimum to keep dialogue open. I will be pleasantly surprised if things change.”

Major public sector unions have previous experience with LeBel, who led negotiations with teachers and with the Common Front of public sector unions. “I didn’t speak with her, but I believe she spoke with [my counterparts at the two major francophone teachers’ unions],” said Heidi Yetman, president of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers. “I heard that she and her team were respectful and competent, and we came to an agreement. We are pleased but cautious, because it is the CAQ and they are very anti-union.”

Like Ortona, Yetman hopes to have the opportunity to meet with LeBel in the near future. “We are facing a lot of budget cuts that it looks like will harm students, and we hope to have a meeting with her because she needs to hear from us. I’ve already sent a letter to congratulate her and request a meeting.” Yetman said she hopes LeBel will address “systemic underfunding” in the public school system and pay more attention to the specific needs of the English sector. “We’re used to working with few resources, and now we have even less,” she said. “We’re still stuck with a lack of funding for education, and education is the basis of a healthy society.”

Katherine Korakakis, president of the English Parents’ Committee Association of Quebec (EPCQ), is also eager to meet with LeBel to “share the perspectives of English-speaking families and to work together on solutions that ensure every child has the chance to thrive,” she said in a statement.

EPCA is calling on LeBel to “prioritize the success and well-being of students by reinforcing support services, maintaining qualified staff in schools, and engaging directly with parents as active partners in education,” the statement said.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Women without access to a family doctor will have an opportunity to get gynecological exams in a safe and welcoming environment; get tested for cervical cancer, common sexually transmitted and bloodborne diseases; and take long-term contraceptive measures (implant, IUD, prescribed birth control) at the GMF La Pommeraie in Cowansville on Nov. 1. Horizon Pour Elles will also be onsite to offer resources to anyone who might be experiencing domestic violence or concerned about a friend or family member in a dangerous situation.

The clinic is free and open to women from around the Brome-Missisquoi and Haute-Yamaska regions – and anyone who has a uterus, whether or not they use the word “woman” to describe themselves. English service is available on request. However, space is limited and advance reservations are required.

Dr. Anne-Patricia Prévost is a family physician at the GMF La Pommeraie. She started the tradition of the twice-yearly women’s health clinics a few years ago; the Nov. 1 event will be the sixth. She said the clinic is a precious opportunity to help patients who have had trouble accessing reproductive health care while training the next generation of health professionals. “Maybe you don’t have a family doctor, or you haven’t seen one in a while, or your family doctor doesn’t do gynecological exams, or the timing hasn’t worked out.”

“There will be medical students and nursing interns there on the day, and we take the opportunity to train them,” she explained. “It’s good to have a day where we see the same kinds of cases in one block.” 

Prévost and her colleagues will be volunteering their time to run the clinic. For Prévost, the community clinics are part of the GMF’s mission. “We had another respiratory health day last weekend; we took patients who had COPD or asthma and had them see a respiratory therapist, a doctor and a nurse to get evaluated,” she said. “When there’s a multidisciplinary team there, it improves things. The patients learned a lot, they were very happy and they got up-to-date testing. For us, the clinics are motivating; they remind us why we do what we do.”

Prévost has been reaching out to social media bulletin boards, community groups and employers to encourage them to refer their female employees to the clinic. “A lot of the time, as a woman, you’re used to forgetting yourself, thinking of others first, taking the kids to the dentist but not thinking about whether you need to see the dentist,” she said. “There are times when you need to put yourself first.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Budget launch season may be three months away, but Abercorn mayor Guy Favreau is already telling residents of the village of 341 people to prepare for a tax increase.

Favreau presented a “financial resilience update” to citizens over the summer. In it, he stated that based on current average property values, raising the tax rate by one cent would bring an estimated $15,000 in additional revenue to the municipality. “Three cents on the tax rate provides the revenue required to replace a $45,000 culvert ($150 per house),” he explained. “In 2026, $660,000 of roadwork is planned in the three-year capital program. If the village does not obtain significant grants or borrow, it would need to budget 44 cents on the tax bill to pay for this in cash (or $2,200 for a $500,000 residence).” According to the presentation Favreau gave at the time, over $400,000 in additional annual revenue over the next ten years was needed to move forward with basic upgrades to roads and sewage infrastructure.

“We have a financial situation that is precarious,” Favreau acknowledged in a later interview, citing loss of expected provincial grants as one reason the municipality is in difficulty. “We need to invest, and if we do that without grants – or even with grants – we are expecting to have to increase the tax rate, because we have some infrastructures that are in a critical state.”

“Some of our grant requests have been refused, and others have funded 30 or 40 per cent of a project when we were expecting 50 per cent,” he said. “There are also some projects that we can’t keep putting off, for safety reasons – this winter exposed a certain fragility in our water and sewage network, with aging infrastructures and things that break in the middle of winter.”

“We don’t have a Mont Sutton or a Ski Bromont or a big industrial project; these are typical rural problems where the main source of revenue is property taxes.

Favreau said the municipality has two major “residential development opportunities” which would widen the town’s tax base – a development of 30 to 80 homes along Rue Thibault Nord and a proposed apartment complex along Rue Thibault Sud that would include three 12-unit buildings, two eight-unit buildings, 14 triplexes and six townhouses, for a total of 60 to 100 new housing units. If both projects come to fruition, they could double the village’s population, but they would bring a much-needed injection of revenue. He also noted that a third site was being considered for development.

“The two projects have been in the works for four or five years and for all sort of reasons it has not worked,” he said.  “Since I took over one of my objectives has been to get them going and help correct some of that inequity … they are socially, financially and legally complex projects, and navigating all of that has not been easy.” He said the municipality needs to “establish a framework” to allow developers to put forward projects that are realistic, socially acceptable and affordable for young families.

“The housing crisis is serious – to own a home in Abercorn, you need an annual family revenue of $104,000. There are people who have lived all their lives here whose children will be run out of town because they can’t afford to live here, and that’s a real shame.”

Although some residents have supported the idea of a mobile home park, Favreau said he didn’t see that as a way forward. “Mobile homes depreciate in value. If we want to help people build wealth, that’s not how we’re going to do it. There are other options – condos, tiny houses, accessory dwellings, these are things we will look at…co-ops and nonprofit trusts are other ways to promote access to property. Renting can be a viable long-term option as long as there are not abuses, and there are also federal programs to help first-time homebuyers access housing. There are a lot of interesting possibilities that need to be developed. It’s harder than we think, but you have to start somewhere.” Preserving agricultural and forested land while making room for development is another conundrum, faced by Abercorn and many other smaller rural municipalities.

Favreau said he didn’t believe the “culture of begging for money” by relying on government grants for essential infrastructure was sustainable. “The cost of infrastructure has nearly doubled since 2019, but grants have gone down,” he said. “On paper, [because of the rise in property values], we’re the third richest municipality in the MRC, but we don’t have the means to invest.” He said he plans to consult constituents on various development and forestry issues. “There are a lot of retirees here with expertise, and I want to bring that to the table. We have our work cut out for us for the next ten years.”

Favreau became mayor in November 2022, succeeding Guy Gravel. Gravel and three town councillors dramatically resigned at a council meeting earlier that year, citing an untenable work environment; the town was then placed under temporary administration by the Commission municipale du Québec until a byelection could be held – a byelection which became unnecessary after one of the two candidates dropped out mid-campaign. Favreau, an architect with no prior political experience, was acclaimed. At the time, he told the BCN he planned to finish Gravel’s mandate and then “pass the baton” to someone else. Now he isn’t sure whether to run for re-election this fall. “I think it might be the time to pass the baton, but at the same time, I’m worried that everything we just talked about will just fall in the water.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

(Note that this story contains detailed descriptions of child abuse.)

On April 29, 2019, paramedics found a seven-year-old girl in her father and stepmother’s home in Granby, near death after her whole body – including her nose and mouth – was covered in adhesive tape. The girl – whose name is under a publication ban – died a day later, and her case made national headlines.

Further investigation found that the girl was malnourished and had other unexplained injuries. The girl’s father and stepmother were arrested – the stepmother was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder while the father pleaded guilty to unlawful confinement. Only after the end of the legal proceedings could coroner Géhane Kamel carry out her own investigation into the girl’s death. Kamel’s report, released last week, laid out a panoply of communication failures and missed signals in the months and years leading up to the day she died.

“Even though some parts of this report are difficult to read, it is my duty to give this child a voice,” Kamel wrote in the report. “Help is available for those who need it.”

Kamel’s investigation found that the girl was an “intelligent child, whose potential was hidden behind difficult behaviour.” She was raised by her paternal grandparents until she was three, due to a history of “parental instability,” before being put in the care of her father and stepmother. Eight months before her death, she was diagnosed with an attachment disorder, “which can manifest after some parental behaviour (negligent, coercive or violent) or a major event such as a [parental] breakup, grieving or a change in caregivers.” After a series of attempts to run away from home, her family doctor had recommended her father and stepmother lock the door at night, a method Kamel describes as “questionable.”

The investigation found that both adults responsible for the child’s care tended to dismiss her behaviour as manipulative or capricious, and warned other adults against taking it at face value. Her father seemed to alternate between proactively seeking help managing his daughter’s condition, and disappearing off the radar of social services agencies. In school – when she was sent there – the girl complained about being hungry, stole food, had meltdowns and once told a teacher she didn’t want to go home. A year before her death, a mental health support worker was brought in after she expressed suicidal thoughts. Her case was flagged to Quebec’s directorate of youth protection (DPJ) at least three times; despite what now seems like “a major red flag” in Kamel’s words, school officials discussed having her homeschooled. “For children at risk of neglect in their living environment, it is strongly recommended to prioritize in-school education, to maintain a safety net,” Kamel wrote. She also flagged communication difficulties between the school, the DPJ and health and social services professionals handling the child’s case.

In November 2018, the police were called. In an eight-minute interview at a local police station, the child told the officers, “What happens at home stays at home.”

“This interview raises many fundamental questions. First, is it really the most appropriate way to keep a child safe to meet them in a police station, a place often perceived as intimidating, even threatening, for younger children?” Kamel wrote. “Can we really be surprised that she didn’t want to speak?”

Kamel also observed that in the months and years leading up to the girl’s death, she was seen by a succession of DPJ intervention workers “with no real cohesion” to their actions, and that there was little co-ordination between the government agencies responsible for helping her. “It is necessary to strengthen ties between the various authorities to facilitate access to the intervention history of children in the care of the DPJ. Current systems do not guarantee an effective safety net,” she wrote.

In May 2019, a month after the girl’s death, the Quebec government launched the Laurent Commission on children’s rights and youth protection, which, Kamel noted, led to legislative changes meant to improve information sharing between agencies responsible for child welfare and improve training for DPJ personnel and daycare educators, and to the creation of a permanent commissioner for children’s rights and wellbeing. The DPJ de l’Estrie, she noted, took the Laurent commission’s recommendations particularly to heart.

Kamel recommended that the Ministry of Health and Social Services put in place a single provincial registry for child protection, ensure that every child followed by the DPJ has an individual service plan, improve the funding and coordination of frontline psychosocial services, improve communication with the public prosecutor’s office where child abuse cases are concerned, improve child abuse awareness training for doctors and encourage the presence of social workers in schools. She called on the Ministry of Education to take stronger measures to prevent service interruptions for children at risk of abuse.

Coroners investigate thousands of deaths in the province every year – every apparent suicide, murder or death by accident or negligence; every road accident fatality; every unexplained death of a pregnant woman or young child; and every death in a public institution such as a prison or rehabilitation centre is investigated; so is every death where the cause isn’t immediately clear. The resulting reports are concise, laying out the known facts about how a person lived and died, and ruling on a cause of death. Many reports, but not all, contain recommendations about how to prevent similar losses of life. Kamel added an unusual element to that formula – a letter addressed to the little girl.

“You left far too soon, swept away by the injustice and silence of a world that should have protected you,” Kamel wrote. “Your wings were stolen before you even had time to spread them. You had the right to grow, to run, to dream, to laugh. You had the right to love, to gentleness, to a life filled with tenderness and safety. That right was taken away from you. From up there, if you see us, know that we have not forgotten you. Your name … resonates like a call to never look away again, to open our arms and our hearts to the children who cry out in silence.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Bromont unveiled its public consultation policy on Sept. 3, becoming the first city in Estrie and the second in the province to formalize the right to a citizens’ initiative – allowing citizens to order up a public consultation on an issue if their request gets enough signatures.

The policy was developed through a public consultation process of its own in partnership with the Institut du Nouveau Monde and an intergenerational citizens’ committee. Its stated goals are to reinforce transparency, encourage citizen engagement, optimize public consultation and counteract disinformation, and to ensure that citizens receive feedback on their proposals from decision makers.

“The objective of this policy is to ensure that projects submitted for consultation can be discussed and improved through co-development with various stakeholders, in order to foster a shared and comprehensive vision of the issues addressed and better projects,” a city information document reads. The policy does not replace existing urban planning consultation procedures or referendum processes. Any resident 16 or older can submit a project for consultation, although projects can’t be led by a single individual – at least two leaders must take on the project and submit a proposal. The number of signatures required to bring about a public consultation is high – 20 per cent of the town’s population or 15 per cent of the population of any given neighbourhood for a hyperlocal issue – although petition sponsors have six months to gather all of their signatures. The consultation can take a number of different forms depending on the nature of the proposal.

The policy can be used to put forward initiatives around urban planning, sustainable development, housing, land conservation, cultural affairs, parks and public places, transit, community activities and investment priorities. Two calls for proposals for citizens’ initiatives will be launched each year. A permanent citizens’ committee will work with city officials to “evaluate the relevance” of public consultation requests.

“If a citizen wants to address an issue that affects the whole municipality or their neighbourhood there is a process by which they can initiate a public consultation if they gather enough signatures,” Mayor Tatiana Contreras told the BCN. “The objective is to be more efficient and give concrete results. We have people in Bromont with ideas and knowledge, and the objective is to be more efficient and give concrete results. I would like for this experience to bring us closer [as a community] and make people want to get involved.”

Contreras specified that public consultations normally take place in French, but “we’re always able to respond to all of our clientele.”

“The process leading to this adoption was marked by multiple consultations: surveys, a citizen forum during Family Day, publication of reports, and public events, allowing for the collection of 11 contributions from citizens,” the city’s department of communications and citizen experience said in a statement. “While the policy was positively received for its transparency and openness, several citizens also expressed a desire to simplify its access and implementation; this citizen feedback will inspire the drafting of the future implementation guide and municipal action plan in the coming months.”

Further information can be found on the city website at Bromont.net.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Brent Figg and Alice Krips Figg were on their way home from a family visit to Detroit late last month when they handed their passports over to a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) agent in Windsor, Ont. for what they believed would be a routine inspection. Instead, the Bromont couple, who have spent the last 14 years as legal temporary residents in Canada, were told they had two weeks to settle their affairs and leave the country with their six children – four of whom are Canadian-born and two of whom were babies when their parents left the United States. Now, their neighbours are petitioning federal Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab to grant the family a last-minute reprieve.

The family’s work permits expired in July, but they believed, based on past experiences at the border, that the CBSA agent would grant them a grace period. Instead, the agent gave them two weeks to leave, which ended Sept. 8. They are remaining in the country to wait for the outcome of a new application. In the interim, the couple have pulled their two eldest children out of school to respect the conditions of their visitor visas, which state that they aren’t allowed to study – even though provincial regulations in Quebec allow children of parents in irregular migratory situations to attend school. Krips Figg explained that the family “wanted to do everything by the book” to avoid putting their four younger children’s Canadian citizenship at risk.

The family’s love affair with Canada began in 2010 when Brent Figg, a computer engineer and rowing instructor, accepted a job with Manitoba’s elite rowing program. “That

was our pathway towards a dream and a desire for stability for our family. The US had gone through a housing crisis not long before, in 2008. We felt like things were not really certain in that regard on that side of the border of how we would be able to afford a home,” Krips Figg remembered. “That was the beginning of our Canadian dream.”

The Figgs lived in Winnipeg for four years and sprinkle their speech with Manitoban cultural references, referring to provincial elected officials as MLAs and mentioning Louis Riel’s story as something that inspires them in tough situations. Figg’s career as a rowing coach led the family from Winnipeg to London, Ont., where he trained members of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic teams, and then to Knowlton, where he worked with Aviron Québec. Stringing together temporary work permits, the family settled in Bromont and sent their children to French school; the parents brushed up on their own limited French by looking over their children’s homework and chatting with other parents at the hockey rink.

Krips Figg explained that she started working on the family’s permanent residence applications in 2021, but that they ran into delays, caused by the pandemic and by the short-term nature of her husband’s contracts.

“We were in this strange, nebulous, one day to the next space… where we kept thinking we’d be able to ask our employer to support our application,” Figg remembered. “We also see this separation into the gig economy in the cultural sphere, it’s the same thing, right?”

The couple have applied for permanent residence for themselves and their two American-born children four times through the federal Express Entry system. The first application, Krips Figg said, was rejected due to a problem with how Figg’s coaching certification was put in the system. The others expired before a decision was made, apparently due to pandemic-related backlogs. Over the years, the couple has been unable to consult their own immigration file and only rarely able to speak with an immigration agent on the phone. Navigating what Brent Figg calls the “faceless bureaucracy” has been a demoralizing challenge.

“We were not prudent in not applying sooner – no question about that – but it also gives us a great deal of empathy [with other foreign workers],” he said. “We have a level of training, education and stability that others may not have, and we’ve been able to hire a lawyer at different points in this process. We can imagine the situations of leverage and exploitation that others can be placed in because of this, and it’s not funny. The temporary work cycle is something that is very difficult to break out of.”

In the interim, Bromont mayoral candidate Michelle Champagne has launched a petition on the family’s behalf, arguing that their deportation would rip apart an “exemplary, well-integrated, law-abiding family.” Krips Figg said the support the family has received from their neighbours has been “amazing.” The petition has received more than 900 signatures.

The couple are awaiting a decision on an extension to their visitor visas. They have contacted Brome-Missisquoi MP Louis Villeneuve and MPs in ridings they’ve previously lived in to help navigate their file and request ministerial intervention; they’re also in touch with Conservative shadow minister Pierre Paul-Hus through a mutual acquaintance. As of this writing, they’re waiting to hear back.

The online petition in support of the Figg family can be signed at petitionenligne.net/non_a_lexpulsion_famille_figg_bromont.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

On Sept. 3, federal minister of housing, infrastructure and communities Gregor Robertson, Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault, Brome-Missisquoi MP Louis Villeneuve and Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest announced the opening of the last stretch of the planned expansion of Highway 35, between Saint-Sébastien and Saint-Armand. The highway expansion had been in the works for several years, and while several elected officials the BCN has spoken to about the project over the years were worried about its impact on agricultural land and local businesses, they were also eager to welcome the highway.

“With the completion of this important milestone, the mobility of people and goods between Quebec and the United States will be facilitated. In addition, road safety and the quality of life for residents along Route 133 will be improved, as trucks will be able to use this new, faster route,” Guilbault and Robertson said in a joint statement. “Phase III of this major project, which spans 8.9 km, includes numerous road infrastructure projects as well as a major environmental compensation plan. This plan has led to the creation of one hectare of wetlands and four hectares of fish habitat, as well as the reforestation of over 24 hectares of forest, through the planting of 35,000 trees, and the protection of 75 hectares of land of high ecological value. The total cost of its implementation is $222.9 million, which includes a financial contribution of $82.1 million from the federal government through the New Building Canada Fund 2014-2024.”

In terms of infrastructure, the project included the extension of Highway 35 over a distance of 8.9 km between Saint-Sébastien and Saint-Armand, with two lanes in each direction on divided roadways; the construction of a 400-metre bridge over the Pike River;   the construction of an interchange and an overpass at the junction of Highway 35, Champlain Road and Route 133, in Saint-Armand; the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Route 133 and Champlain and du Moulin Roads, in Saint-Armand and the construction of an overpass (extension of Route 202) over Highway 35 in Pike River. The reforestation project is located between the highway right-of-way and the Pike River in the municipalities of Pike River and Saint-Armand.

“The opening of the final section of Highway 35 is a big step for Brome-Missisquoi. It will make our roads smoother and safer, and it will also give a major boost to our local economy and the quality of life of our residents. I’m proud to see our community benefit from a project that’s moving forward while respecting the environment,” Villeneuve said in a statement. “Thank you to all the partners who worked together to make this a reality.”

Pike River mayor Martin Bellefroid and St-Armand mayor Caroline Rosetti had not responded to requests for comment by press time, although the municipality of Pike River celebrated “good news!” on its social media feeds.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town of Dunham is rethinking its water strategy after facing a second exceptionally dry summer in four years.

“Everything is dry everywhere – this is unprecedented,” mayor Pierre Janecek told the BCN late last week. “We saw something like it three years ago, but even then there was water on the bottom of the stream [beds]. There’s nothing whatsoever, even in the big streams that irrigate the farmland. Even in the Yamaska River, you can see the rocks at the bottom. It’s nothing to laugh at.”

Speaking on the eve of Labour Day weekend, he said the town had not received significant rain for at least a month, and that summer heat waves had exacerbated the problem. He said several local businesses and farms have had to have water reserves trucked in; others have asked to use untreated water from Lake Selby for things like handwashing and keeping toilets operational. 

Dunham doesn’t have a water treatment plant, and water from the lake is not safe to drink. The town of 3,600 people is entirely reliant on well water, and on trucking in water when well water becomes insufficient. “In the long term, we’ll eventually need a water network, but we don’t know if citizens want to pay for that,” Janecek said. “A water network or a reservoir, these are things we can envision, but there will be a lot of logistics involved. If a bunch of towns are in the same situation as us, we can get grants and organize something. We’re going to need to do it at some point.”

Along with Sutton, Brome Lake and Frelighsburg, Dunham introduced water conservation guidelines – stopping short of outright restrictions  – this summer, discouraging residents from washing their cars, filling pools and watering their lawns. “We did remind people to be mindful of water use – it’s our blue gold, but it’s their responsibility,” said Janecek. His counterpart in Frelighsburg, Lucie Dagenais, said residents were being asked to “show good citizenship and wait to wash their cars until after we’ve had some rain.”

In Frelighsburg, the centre of the village is served by a water network, but most people are reliant on well water, and the town provides untreated water for cooking and washing in emergencies. Dagenais said the town received fewer requests for emergency water than during the 2022 drought, but in the interim, many people have had deeper wells dug and become more aware of water saving strategies. “We are not worried about the water table in our area, we’re privileged, but everywhere in Quebec, a lot of water goes to waste,” she said. “We need to do more to protect our reservoirs and wetlands.” 

“Back in the spring, we had so much rain we could have grown rice, and now – nothing,” Janecek observed. “It’s like nature is flipped upside down. This is the direction we’re going in.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Nine months after announcing that its on-demand shuttle service in Brome-Missisquoi was here to stay, Transdev has discontinued the service.

The Aug. 25 announcement came the same day the company launched a new bus loop serving Bromont, Cowansville, East Farnham, Granby and Saint-Alphonse on weekdays, in partnership with the MRCs of Haute-Yamaska and Brome-Missisquoi.

The BCN was unable to reach a Transdev representative for comment; however, Émile Cadieux, principal vice-president for Quebec and the Maritimes at Transdev, told La Voix de l’Est that low ridership prompted the decision to discontinue the shuttle service.

The service ran seven days a week and had stops in Cowansville, Dunham, Frelighsburg, Sutton, Brome Lake, Brigham, Ange-Gardien, Farnham, Bedford, Saint-Armand, Stanbridge East, Saint-Ignace-de-Stanbridge, Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge, Stanbridge Station, Sainte-Sabine, Pike River and Abercorn, as well as at the Autoparc 74 park-and-ride in Bromont where riders could catch onward Limocar buses to Sherbrooke or Montreal. Shuttles had to be reserved in advance via a call centre or an app – unlike the new bus loop, which operates on a fixed schedule. The shuttle service was rolled out as a free pilot project in June 2024. In December, the company announced plans to make the service permanent, at a cost of $15 per ride. That lasted just nine months. Cadieux argued that without government assistance and a significant increase in ridership, it was impossible to run the service profitably.

Sutton mayor Robert Benoit said he found out the service was being discontinued from a constituent, who got in touch with him after trying and failing to book a ride through the call centre. “I was very disappointed that the company didn’t let us know, especially since we have been in touch with them for the last two years [to try to make the service work]. They did everything they could to make sure it wouldn’t work.” Benoit, who occasionally used the shuttle service himself, said the service was regularly interrupted for lack of drivers, the initial price of $6 per ride had been raised to $15 without warning, and co-ordination between the shuttle service and onward Limocar service to Sherbrooke and Montreal was lacking, meaning riders sometimes waited an hour or more in Bromont. “It’s the same company [offering the shuttle and the intercity buses] – I don’t understand why it wasn’t better organized.” Despite its flaws, he said the end of the service was “really bad news for us.”

Benoit said the vast majority of people who used the service were from Sutton, and Sutton is not served by the new bus loop. Suttonites who don’t have access to a car and who want to travel within the region or catch an onward bus are now out of options – “unless you get a lift from your friend or a carpool from a Facebook group.”

Sylvie Berthiaume is a spokesperson for Solidarité Environnement Sutton (SES), a climate action group which has lobbied for better public transit to and from Sutton for several years, and a member of the Brome-Missisquoi sustainable mobility committee. She shared many of Benoit’s concerns about the quality and reliability of the shuttle service, and said she sympathized with Suttonites who lost a service they’d come to rely on. She called for a “paradigm shift” toward publicly funded mass transit in the region.

“Private bus transit has no future” in the region, according to Berthiaume. “To bet on that was a mistake. We need to seek out sustainable funding from the public sector. It’s a question of justice for students, seniors and low-wage workers to be able to get around, and the smaller municipalities have to be served. We have businesses that have recruitment issues because it’s hard to find housing and there’s no public transit [to bring workers in from surrounding municipalities].”

In the short term, she said she hoped the schedule and route of the new bus loop could be adjusted to better serve Sutton. In the medium term, she said the province could impose a licence plate tax to fund regional public transit. “It’s essential to have a bus service in the region. Now every household has to have two cars or more … having one car and accepting the tax is better than having two.”

Benoit said the municipality was “considering its options,” including appealing to the Quebec Transport Commission and the MRC and looking at other ways to bring transit back to Sutton. He didn’t think a publicly funded transit system, as proposed by SES, was feasible. “Tell me how much that will cost the municipality and where we’re going to get the money.”

No one from the MRC Brome-Missisquoi was immediately available for comment over the Labour Day holiday.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town of Waterloo will get a seed library and a community “food forest” with herbs and fruit trees before the end of the year after the municipality sent out a call for citizen-led, town-funded environment and sustainable development projects.

“The first edition of Waterloo’s environmental participatory budget has reached a new milestone. After analyzing the six projects submitted, the selection committee has selected three ideas that will be implemented by the end of 2025,” Waterloo communications director Marilynn Guay Racicot said in a statement. “Since only three proposals met both the participatory budget criteria and the planned budgetary limits, the city will not use a popular vote [to determine the winning projects] as initially planned. All available funds, $6,000, will be invested in the realization of these three ideas.” Two of the proposals, a community orchard and a “collective urban microforest,” will be fused to form a single community food garden. The third proposal is the seed library, which will be set up at the Town Hall in a specially selected cabinet; gardeners will be able to pick up free seeds and contribute their own seeds after harvest.

Over the past few years, several municipalities in the region have turned to participatory budgets to give citizens a direct role in planning projects; citizens are asked to propose small projects, usually with an environmental, recreational or intergenerational focus, that can be carried out on public land within a specific budget and time frame. A selection committee weeds out projects that don’t meet the criteria, and those that do are usually submitted to a popular vote. Since only three eligible projects were submitted and their combined cost didn’t exceed the $6,000 Waterloo had set aside, the vote wasn’t necessary.  “It’s the first time we’ve done this, and all of the submissions we got were interesting,” said Waterloo director of urban planning Marc Cournoyer. “Even some of the projects that weren’t eligible will be considered in other contexts. We got some good ideas from people.”

Resident Jérémie Byron, a software developer and passionate recreational gardener, proposed the seed library idea after seeing a similar project take root in his old neighbourhood in Montreal. “There will be a cabinet in the Town Hall and people will come to borrow the seeds, take them home, plant them and harvest them,” he said, adding that the range of vegetable, herb and flowering plant seeds on offer is still to be determined. “It’s a great opportunity to raise people’s awareness of urban farming, and buying local, and promoting biodiversity, local plants and pollinators. It’s really good news – it’s a great opportunity to get more citizens involved in gardening. Maybe eventually we’ll have a seed festival around the seed library.”

The two collective gardening projects were proposed by Manon Godard and Laurie Fortin-Magnan. Godard is the co-ordinator of the local Maison de la Famille, the mother of four children – including one who is now a biologist and another a nature technician – and a passionate gardening advocate. She said she hopes the garden, the exact location of which hasn’t been determined, will help cut down on heat islands, serve as a hub for environmental education workshops and provide an oasis of calm in the centre of town – in addition to an oasis of fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. “Maybe it will also inspire people to [start gardening] on their balcony or in their homes – you don’t need a huge space to garden,” she said.  “I want it to be possible to duplicate [the garden] elsewhere, and to create an image of our city as a green, eco-responsible city.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Quebec’s Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) confirmed last week that a case of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) – a rare, tick-borne bacterial infection almost unknown in the province until now – had been detected in the Estrie region.

The infection is spread by a bite from the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) – a tick common in the U.S. midwest that is larger than the black-legged tick which causes Lyme disease. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, nausea, stomach pain, muscle pain and the distinctive rash which gives it its name; severe cases can lead to permanent brain damage, hearing loss or death. Early treatment with the antibiotic doxycycline can prevent severe illness. The disease cannot spread from one person to another.

The MSSS “is aware of the situation and is closely monitoring it to obtain further details on the presence of this disease in Quebec,” MSSS media relations co-ordinator Marie-Claude Lacasse told the BCN. “Generally speaking, mosquito- and tick-borne diseases are on the rise. This is an expected consequence of climate change.” She referred requests for further comment to the CIUSSS de l’Estrie–CHUS, which did not respond by press time.

Dr. Alex Carignan, a microbiologist and infectious diseases specialist at the CIUSSS, commented on the case on social media, noting that the patient was responding well to doxycycline treatment. “This infection causes high fevers, a distinctive rash, and can lead to death if not properly managed,” he wrote. “We knew this bacterium would arrive in the coming years, but unfortunately, it has arrived a little earlier than expected.”

Jade Savage is a professor of entomology at Bishop’s University and the creator of the eTick portal, which aggregates crowd-sourced tick data across Canada. She said the recent case of RMSF in Estrie was the first known human case in Quebec in many years, but that cases were not unheard of in Ontario. The eTick portal has recorded 100 to 200 sightings of dog ticks per year in Quebec over the past few years, Savage said.

Savage said RMSF is spread in the same way as Lyme disease, when a tick bites an infected animal – often a rodent – and then bites a human. Ticks need to latch on to their hosts for about 24 hours in order to spread infection. “Dog ticks are big and kind of flashy, and people tend to notice them more readily than the black-legged tick,” Savage said. “They prefer grassy, open areas and can withstand drought better than black-legged ticks.” The two tick species “are very different, but both will readily bite you.”

Savage is a Gen-Xer who grew up on the West Island of Montreal at a time when ticks were not a concern in Quebec. She said the prevalence of different species of ticks – and different, unfamiliar types of tick-borne infections – is an “evolving situation” in light of climate change. 

“For a human, a tick bite itself is no big deal, but the concern is the pathogens,” she said. “Different types of pathogens will arise; some will get more common and some less common. Climate change and environmental changes have a quick impact on distribution, and the proportions of different ticks will change over time. There’s absolutely a climate connection, because they’re very adaptable. Most of the species have recently arrived from the U.S. and they just climb their way up.”

Savage advised people who are worried about tick-borne infections or who spend a lot of time outside to cover up well, wear closed-toed shoes, use DEET- or icaridin-based insect repellents and take precautions to keep rodents away from their property. Further tick bite prevention strategies can be found on the eTick portal at ticktool.etick.ca.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Legault government is betting on preventive health care to ease the burden on the province’s health care system, as regional health authorities navigate budget cuts, stubbornly long emergency room wait times, ongoing labour force challenges and an aging population.

Surrounded by local and regional health officials at the Frederic Back Tree Pavilion of the Montreal Botanical Garden, Health Minister Christian Dubé; minister responsible for social services Lionel Carmant; minister responsible for sports, leisure and the outdoors and MNA for Brome-Missisiquoi Isabelle Charest; minister for seniors Sonia Bélanger and director of public health Dr. Luc Boileau launched what they described as a ten-year preventive health care strategy on Aug. 21.

Over the next year, the government plans to invest $15 million in a series of preventive health care strategies, including scaling up testing for diabetes, heart disease risks and certain types of cancer ($5 million); supporting programs run by local health authorities that help people quit smoking ($4 million); increasing the accessibility and visibility of recreation programs for children, adults and seniors who aren’t already physically active ($5 million); encouraging research and innovation in health monitoring and fighting online disinformation  ($800,000); and encouraging public buy-in ($200,000). Over the long term, the strategy’s stated goals are reducing by 10 per cent the rate of premature deaths due to socioeconomic inequality and the impact of chronic illnesses on the health system.

“Our commitment has always been to address what is urgent while also ensuring we act on what is important. This is why health prevention is at the heart of our government’s strategic vision for a healthy Quebec. By adopting an ambitious national strategy today, we are ensuring greater consistency between government actions and those of our partners … to better respond to current and future health challenges,” Dubé said. “We need to act at the source to ensure the sustainability of our health system and thus prevent [illness and injury] today to protect all future generations. Prevention is part of the solution to release the pressure on our health network…and if we reduce the pressure, we will ensure access for those who need it. We’re encouraging people to take their own health in hand.”

Carmant, a pediatric neurologist before he entered politics, said he was happy to see the government investing in preventive health care. “Prevention has always been a priority for me. As soon as I entered politics, I implemented Agir tôt, which involves early screening for our little ones – and it works! I’m very pleased that our government is taking this direction because prevention is the foundation of good physical and mental health.”

“Obviously, we will always have to act curatively, but acting upstream, in prevention, obviously, is super important. And that of course involves good lifestyle habits, it involves physical activity, it involves access to these activities for all clienteles, young people, the less young, those with disabilities, for all socioeconomic classes,” Charest said, adding that a new call for submissions for a sports infrastructure grant program would be announced in the coming weeks.

Ministers did not take questions from the floor at the announcement. In a brief media scrum outside the venue, Dubé told reporters that more concrete measures would be announced over the next few months.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Geneviève Carter was on vacation in the Laurentians when the life she knew was ripped out from under her. The Plastube plastic tubing plant in Granby, where she had worked as a machine operator for 23 years, had closed overnight after a sudden bankruptcy. “People showed up for work and saw a sign saying the plant had ceased its activity,” Carter said. As the union president, she began fielding calls and emails from frantic colleagues, while trying to reconcile with the impact of the closure on her own life.

“There had been highs and lows [over the last few months], we saw a dip in orders, but we’d been through that before, so we didn’t ask ourselves all that many questions,” she said, recalling that as late as July 18, she had been told at a company dinner that there were major projects in the pipeline, but by the second week of August, her colleagues were meeting with bankruptcy trustees. About 100 people, including 77 unionized staff, knew each other.

“There were people with 44 years of seniority, and we were very united. It was a hard pill to swallow, a wildcat closure (fermeture sauvage) like that.”

Julie Bolduc is president of the CSN union federation, of which the Plastube union was a member, for the Estrie region. She said overnight closures like that of Plastube are “fortunately not that common.”

“In my experience, Plastube is the first time this kind of closure has happened. There was a lack of transparency about how things were going before they declared bankruptcy, which is why it was a surprise,” Bolduc said. The company’s books are now being handled by Raymond Chabot, and the province’s bankruptcy register indicates it had debts of more than $12 million at the time it closed.

The union is now helping former employees sign up for the federal Employment Insurance (EI) and Wage Earner Protection (WEP) programs. Bolduc said employees are eligible for a minimum payout of about $8,900 under WEP, but she has no idea when the money might be distributed. “In the interim, some employees have turned to food banks. The workers have not received anything since their last paycheque in early August,” she said. “Fortunately, the federal government has suspended the weeklong waiting period for EI, and we have a Service Canada contact helping make sure everything is going correctly. There’s not only the financial aspect, there’s also the psychological aspect – a period of mourning you have to go through – and we can’t neglect that. We don’t want people to just scatter everywhere.”

The union is also working with Emploi Québec to help employees – many of whom have not had to fill out a job application for decades – find new jobs. “We’re helping people redo their CVs, decide if they want to go back to school, if they want to retire,” said Bolduc. “If you’re over 50, it won’t be easy [to find something new].” About ten temporary foreign workers with closed work permits have been left in the lurch by the closure of the plant and may have to return to their home countries. 

Carter, for her part, said she hasn’t had time to sit down and think about her own future. “I thought I would finish my career at Plastube, but now I have to go back to doing CVs… and I have to keep helping my members. It will be hard, but I think everyone will find something.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A busy few weeks are ahead in Sutton as the municipality moves ahead with consultations on its draft urban plan, tabled at the Aug. 6 council meeting. The plan aims to thread the needle between encouraging residential development; taking measures to protect agricultural, recreational and environmentally sensitive land; and protecting the area’s fragile water table – tested earlier this month when a water shortage forced town staff to truck water to the Mountain sector.

The new draft urban plan, the product of about four years of consultation and preparation, would set aside an additional 1,864 hectares of land for conservation, create a new protected agroforestry designation covering the existing agricultural zone, and set aside forested land adjacent to the Villa Châteauneuf for conservation – a move that Mayor Robert Benoit acknowledged was not only to preserve the land itself, but to put to rest rumours that his administration wanted to use it for a housing development.

The plan would maintain the existing moratorium on new builds in the Mountain sector due to ongoing problems with drinking water provision, which the mayor said would not improve anytime soon. “This year was the worst year – it’s getting worse because of climate change,” he said. “The only solution is really to pump water from the water in the valley, in the village. But that … was evaluated at about $20 million. How do you finance this investment of $20 million with an operating budget of $16 million per year? That’s quite a challenge for the city.”

“Following the identification of optimal solutions [to the drinking water problem in the Mountain sector], the implementation plan provides for the establishment of a specific urban plan, in

consultation with the public, that will define residential projects and related activities, while preserving the mountainsides and landscapes in compliance with the characteristics of natural and built environments and the capacity of public utility and road infrastructures,” town officials said in a statement.

The draft plan prioritizes new builds in the Village sector, where the water table is in better shape, including on the former Vieux-Verger property. In 2023, an affordable housing project heavily promoted by Mayor Robert Benoit’s administration on the site of a former vineyard hit a roadblock when voters rejected a $1.57 million borrowing bylaw through a register. Benoit explained that after the register, the land’s current owners decided to keep it – rather than ceding it to the city – and move ahead with a housing development project of their own, which will be presented to residents at a public consultation on Aug. 28. He had few details about the project, but said it would most likely involve more housing units than the project pitched by the city, and that construction could begin as early as this October if there was sufficient public buy-in.

Vieux-Verger is among several “priority lots” held in reserve by the municipality for future residential construction; according to the draft plan, 70 per cent of land on those priority lots needs to be set aside for residential development before development outside the priority lots can be considered.

With a view toward scaling up residential construction, the town has created three subcategories of residential zoning based on density – “discrete densification” aims to add accessory housing units to existing residential buildings without changing the volume of the

Buildings; “gentle densification” encourages a slight increase in current density in

certain sectors while preserving their architectural character; and “moderate densification” allows for the addition of multi-residential buildings with the aim of increasing housing

supply, particularly affordable housing.

The town also plans to expand the existing industrial zone at the intersection of Principale, Schweizer and Scenic Streets and encourage the arrival of businesses “in harmony with Sutton’s economic identity,” focused on recreation or agriculture, Benoit explained. A new recreational tourism zoning designation will be created for Mont Sutton and the Huttopia campground, allowing further development under certain conditions. A creation and innovation hub focused on agriculture, food security and energy independence initiatives will also be set up on the grounds of the former Golf des Rochers Bleus.

Residents can consult the draft urban plan on the city website or access a paper copy in English or French at the town hall or the public library. They can submit written feedback to urbanisme@sutton.ca until Sept. 10 or make an appointment to discuss the plan in person. An official in-person public consultation will be held Sept. 11. From Sept. 12-19, adjustments may be made to the plan following public comments. The finalized plan is expected to be adopted at the Oct. 1 council meeting.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Bedford Pole Community Health Committee (CCSPB) is organizing the first edition of Parlons Santé/Let’s Talk Health, a health fair to be held on Saturday, Aug. 23 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., in front of the entrance to the Bedford CLSC/CHSLD. The event is organized in partnership with the CIUSSS de L’Estrie-CHUS. Participants will have the chance to discover services offered by several nonprofits working with seniors and other vulnerable populations, and by the CLSC itself. Health professionals and CIUSSS personnel will be onsite to answer people’s questions and give guided tours of the CLSC. A dozen community organizations will have kiosks onsite, and tours in English will be available if there is demand. The event is open to all.

“This project has the potential not only to promote the longevity of the Bedford CLSC, but also to strengthen the links between the population and our region’s healthcare resources,” said CCSPB president Pierrette Messier-Peet. She said she hoped the event would make people more familiar with services available onsite in Bedford.

In light of service cuts at the CLSCs in Knowlton and Sutton, the CCPSB wanted to make sure that the services offered by the CLSC in Bedford are known and used. “We thought, if people use these services, they’re less likely to close,” Messier-Peet said. “There are a lot of services available that the population is not aware of, and the CIUSSS has not done a lot of promotion in the past. We have a walk-in clinic and an X-ray service in Bedford, but people don’t know that, so when something happens, they go to the ER in Cowansville and wait 12 hours and come out frustrated. We want to show people, ‘This is what you have within reach in Bedford.’ The guided tours will not only describe the services but explain how to access them.”

Messier-Peet said the idea came from her experience opening schools in rural francophone communities in Alberta. “We filled the schools when we held open houses and parents could see what kinds of resources were available.” The CCSPB approached the local GMF with the project and doctors and managers there were eager to get involved. The CIUSSS also got on board with what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind collaboration between a community organization and public health. 

The CCSPB, which recently became a nonprofit, is focused on maintaining and developing health services for residents of the eight municipalities of the Bedford pole. It was founded in response to the abandonment of the CHSLD expansion project, and it continues to mobilize community stakeholders to improve access to care.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Sherbrooke-based suicide prevention organization JEVI is inviting anyone who would like to honour a loved one lost to suicide, learn more about how to help someone struggling with suicidal thoughts or talk about their own mental health to a candlelight walk in the woods to mark World Suicide Prevention Day on Sept. 10.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. in Jacques-Cartier park and include a walk along Lac des Nations.

There will be information kiosks on site where JEVI outreach workers will discuss myths and realities around suicide, and participants will light candles at 8 p.m. to honour those who have taken their own lives and show solidarity with the bereaved. Outreach workers will be on site to speak with those who need immediate support. The walk around the lake will take place rain or shine, and move at a leisurely pace to accommodate those with mobility issues.

The march has been an annual tradition since 2019, with a brief interruption during the pandemic. Sylvie Potvin is an outreach worker, discussion facilitator and trainer at JEVI. She says the annual evening nature walk creates “a peaceful climate where it’s easy to have conversations – and that’s what we want. We want people to feel less alone, and feel able to have an open dialogue on hard subjects. If we were in the city, with the traffic, we couldn’t hear each other.” It also allows people who might not have thought of calling the organization’s helpline or using its support services to learn about help that’s available. “Walkers, rollerbladers, dog walkers will come toward us and ask, ‘Why is there a march?’ and learn about our services that way.”

Potvin has been working in suicide prevention for more than 20 years and seen perceptions of suicide evolve, but says there are still many myths that persist. “One myth that keeps coming back is that when people threaten suicide, they are being manipulative – for example, if someone tells their partner, ‘If you leave me, I’ll kill myself.’ I understand that [the person’s partner] might feel trapped if that happens, but that is a sign of real distress, and it needs to be taken seriously, because you don’t know how distressed they really are.”

Sept. 10 was established as World Suicide Prevention Day in 2003, and annual events are regularly held around the province. The Centre de prévention de suicide de Haute-Yamaska– Brome-Missisquoi (CPSHYBM) is planning a suicide prevention event in Cowansville; CPSHYBM executive director Anne Jutras said more details on that event would be forthcoming later in August.

Both the CPSHYBM and JEVI have bilingual crisis counsellors available. If you or someone you know is in need of support, get in touch with the organizations directly via their respective websites, or call the provincewide suicide prevention crisis line at 988 or 1-866-APPELLE.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

If you’re struggling to find an affordable place to live in Bromont, you’re not alone, a new report suggests.

Earlier this year, the municipality commissioned a consulting firm to produce an assessment of its housing market. The report, tabled Aug. 5, found that access to property, access to affordable rental housing and population growth were major concerns.

The report cited data from the Institut de la statistique de Québec, indicating that the city’s population was expected to grow 57 per cent by 2041 – an increase of more than 2,900 people –  putting further pressure on housing stock. Between 2014 and 2024, the city added an average of 196 housing units – homes or apartments – per year; 2021 was a banner year with 374 new units, although construction dropped off in 2022 and 2023.

The report’s authors predict that access to property will continue to be a struggle for young families, as house prices continue to rise – the average price of a single-family home rose more than eight per cent between 2021 and 2024 alone, from $580,500 to $731,250. For co-owned properties, the rise was five per cent. The report states that the median combined income of Bromont households in 2020 was $100,000, but a household would now have to earn a combined $130,262 to reach the recommended threshold for being able to buy a single-family home; to buy a property as co-owners, a household would have to earn $112,596.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the cost of buying a home, the report showed that home ownership decreased by five per cent between 2011 and 2021, even before the post-pandemic price spike.

“Due to rising property prices in Bromont, households tend to stay in the rental market longer, increasing demand for rental housing,” the report’s authors observed. About one in four households in Bromont rented in 2021, compared to just under one in five in 2011. Of those who were renting, one in five spent more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, and about one in 25 was living in a unit that was too small or too costly for their needs. The rental market in Bromont is overwhelmingly made up of privately owned units – only one per cent, or 71 units, were owned by a public housing authority, housing trust or co-op; the provincial average is 3.5 per cent. 

Buying a home, the authors observed, does not necessarily mean a family is more financially secure; ten per cent of homeowners spend more than 30 per cent of their income to stay in their homes.

The report suggests high rents and housing prices are a disincentive for job seekers looking for work in the city. “The few housing units that are advertised are offered at prices that are too high for the majority of workers in Bromont’s businesses, services, and companies,” the authors write. More than three-quarters of workers in Bromont live outside of town.

Bromont began reviewing its urban plan at the end of 2022. At the time, city council identified housing as one of the five major themes of this review. To help clarify the affordable housing objectives for the urban plan and address the housing crisis, the city of Bromont created an ad hoc committee on affordable housing in 2023, made up of representatives from a variety of economic sectors.  The committee identified a need for affordable housing for families aspiring to homeownership, seniors and low- and middle-income workers.

When the report was tabled, Bromont mayor Tatiana Contreras told reporters a public consultation on housing was planned for Sept. 20. “We know that, in our deepest values, we want an inclusive Bromont. So, in the spirit of the public consultation, we are meeting on September 20 at the community centre for a day of exchange and reflection to put ourselves in solution mode.”  Contreras was not available for a follow-up interview.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Bromont residents may have access to a new permanent recycling centre in the near future, La Voix de l’Est reported late last week. The paper reported that discussions are underway between the municipality and Écotri Désourdy to explore the feasibility of building a new écocentre as a public-private partnership.

“For the citizens of Bromont, having a local écocentre is a must,” Bromont mayor Tatiana Contreras told the BCN.

There is only one permanent recycling centre in Brome-Missisquoi, the Écocentre régional in Cowansville, administered by the MRC of Brome-Missisquoi (MRCBM). Several years ago, the MRC had a network of six “non-permanent” recycling centres open one Saturday a month; several of the centres closed during the COVID-19 pandemic due to safety and staff availability concerns. The last such centre, in Bedford, closed last year “for budgetary reasons,” Nathalie Grimard, director general of the MRCBM, told the BCN. She said the system of non-permanent centres “ran out of breath,” unable to keep up with increasing demand. “The mayors decided to concentrate on the Écocentre régional,” Grimard said.

Ecotri Désourdy CEO Louis Désourdy has said he is prepared to offer a full-service recycling centre inside the company’s existing sorting centre for construction and demolition waste, near the scientific park, in partnership with the municipality, although it remains to be seen how much the project would cost and what exactly would need to be done to bring the centre into compliance with environment ministry regulations. He said the setup could be completed “inside two or three months” once the necessary approvals have been secured.

Grimard said several questions remain to be answered before the project can move forward. “We have not had those discussions yet, to say what materials [the écocentre] would receive, how much it would cost, who it would be open to – just Bromont residents or people from other municipalities in the MRC? – and what the impact on taxes would be.” The role of the MRC in administering the project, she added, would depend on whether it served a regional or strictly local clientele.

If the project goes ahead, it will be the first recycling centre in the region run by a public-private partnership – the first time such an opportunity has presented itself.  Grimard said it remained to be seen whether that was possible under current regulations. “We are bound by contractual rules and we have to see what kind of partnerships we can have – we have not verified that yet,” she said. She said the MRC’s council of mayors would decide whether to approve the project in collaboration with the city of Bromont.

Neither Contreras nor deputy mayor Nicolas Robillard was available for a follow-up interview. Écotri Désourdy staff referred a request for comment to director general Richard Caron, who was also unable to comment before press time.