Ruby Pratka

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

At least 700 young professionals across the province had to decline job offers outside of major cities in 2023 due to the ongoing housing crisis, according to a recent report by Quebec City-based, provincewide nonprofit Place aux Jeunes en région. The Estrie, Mauricie, Laurentides and Chaudière-Appalaches regions were the most affected.

Place aux Jeunes supports young professionals in a wide range of fields who live in Montreal, Quebec City, Gatineau or Sherbrooke and want to move to more rural parts of the province, explained director general Frédéric Raymond. “We work with everyone from vocational school graduates to people with graduate degrees. There are needs in every sector, including health, education and skilled trades,” he said.

Raymond said the housing shortage was “starting to become a brake” on workers’ mobility plans, resulting in “jobs that haven’t been filled.” An estimated 500 people cancelled their moves in 2022.

“Before the pandemic, we were starting to hear of some [cancellations] but it wasn’t a generalized thing,” Raymond said. He attributed the crisis to a multitude of factors – inflation, short-term rentals, an influx of newly arrived and temporary workers and rising house prices which lead people who would otherwise buy homes to rent longer. Inability to find a place to live sometimes forces families to put off major life decisions. “We hope they just pause their plans, but timing is everything, especially with a couple who both find jobs at the same time – they might not have that timing ever again, or not for a long time. It has a major impact on the local economy – jobs are going unfilled and these people aren’t spending money in the region either.”

Marc-André Lacroix is the director general of the Chambre de commerce Brome-Missisquoi. “We know [housing] is a concern, and there is talent that’s not coming into the region [because of it]. We don’t know how deep the problem goes,” he said.

He noted that some companies had solved the problem by allowing new hires to work remotely, at least temporarily. “If it’s a web-based job, the person can work pretty much anywhere, but they don’t know as much about the culture of the company and its impact in the community – there are intangibles that you lose. Factory workers can’t work remotely. In the case of an engineer, who would need to come on site [occasionally], the company has to pay to put them in a hotel.

Nonprofits in the region have also been affected. Sutton Museum director general Charles Constantin hired a Sherbrooke-based curator. “We ended up giving him a transportation allocation for whenever he has to come here … advance planning is the key.”

Former Sutton councillor Patricia Lefèvre is the director general of the Parc d’environnement naturel de Sutton. She explained that in July 2022 the park hired an activities co-ordinator. “We said we would help her find housing, and at the beginning we were very confident, but we just kept finding temporary solutions for a few months here and there. After a year and a half, she said it just wasn’t going to work. We knew we were going to lose her.” The co-ordinator ultimately stepped down and moved to Montreal. Lefèvre said the organization also “lost our chief landscaper” because he couldn’t find a house in Sutton for his growing family. The park organization has already decided to shelve its popular day camp program this summer because of fears that out-of-town camp staff won’t be able to find housing. “The people working here now are the ones that already have housing,” she said.

Lefevre suggested a variety of partial solutions, including employers “clubbing up” to rent out houses for staff, and cities providing tax incentives for landlords who choose to rent their properties to local workers instead of tourists, facilitating construction of social or affordable housing or group-owned housing trusts, and blunting the impact of galloping property values on taxpayers by applying the new values only to newly sold homes. She observed that municipal financing relies heavily on property taxes, which incentivizes municipalities to build more summer homes – “high-value properties which don’t require a lot of services” – than homes for local workers. “Companies, municipalities and individuals can put little band-aids on the problem, but the real solutions will have to come from the federal government,” she said.

“We can’t destroy the habitat of the chorus frog, but we can destroy the habitat of the local worker – and that’s what we’re doing,” she concluded.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A new political party is gearing up to make its mark on the municipal political scene in Sherbrooke. The name Vision action Sherbrooke was reserved with Elections Quebec effective Feb. 2. According to Élections Québec, reserving a party name is an optional preliminary step a person or group can take before formally registering a party. The group’s name does not appear on the list of parties that have formally applied for authorization.

If Vision action Sherbrooke completes the registration process, it will become the second recognized municipal party in Sherbrooke. The council is currently divided between representatives of Sherbrooke citoyen, the party of Mayor Evelyne Beaudin (six seats) and independent councillors (eight seats).

According to Élections Québec, the party leader is Cédrick Hamel, an executive at a Sherbrooke-based sales lead generation company and former president of the Fédération étudiante de l’Université de Sherbrooke. He also worked for the campaign of Philippe Pagé, now a spokesperson for Beaudin, when Pagé was the Québec Solidaire candidate for Richmond in 2022. Hamel, who The Record was unable to contact on Wednesday, told La Tribune he wanted to “improve the debate” in municipal politics. He added that for the new party, “everything remains to be built.”

City council sources indicate that the new party will draw inspiration from Renouveau Sherbrookois, the party of former mayor Bernard Sévigny, which dissolved in 2019. Councillor Danielle Berthold, city council president and the only former member of Renouveau Sherbrookois still serving on council, told The Record she did not want to comment. Attempts to reach Sévigny were unsuccessful.

Former councillor Vincent Boutin, the last leader of Renouveau Sherbrookois, has been executive director of La Grande Table, a food security organization, since 2022. He said he was “keeping an eye on what was happening” but didn’t have immediate plans to re-enter active politics. “I’m an observant, interested citizen,” he said.

“In 2019, we ended the activities of the party because we felt there wasn’t an appetite for it,” he said. “Four years later, I feel things have evolved. Having a party allows you to put a structured team in place; it allows you to develop a vision for a city with a bunch of [other people] who share that vision; it helps get candidates and volunteers and funding. The fact that there would be two different visions [in a two-party election campaign] will help people make a choice.”

Lennoxville Councillor Claude Charron, who sits as an independent, said he would “prefer a fully independent council,” where every member votes according to their own convictions and the priorities of their district. “As an independent, I came in to represent Lennoxville … but if you’re in a party, you would vote the party line.” He also expressed concern that having two parties alongside a contingent of independents could lead to “stagnation” if there was no clear majority. “Look at the federal or provincial government; when it’s a minority government, you go around in circles.”

In a brief email, Pagé said Beaudin was “thrilled to see citizens getting together to exercise their citizenship.”

The next municipal elections in Quebec are scheduled for October 2025.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Bromont mayor Louis Villeneuve summarized the feelings of many Brome-Missisquoi homeowners when he told a December council meeting, “Une année de rôle n’est pas une année drôle” – a property assessment year isn’t a fun year.

Rarely has that been truer than this year, when property values in some municipalities with new roles this year – assessed based on July 2022 market rates and updated in 2023 – more than doubled.

One of those municipalities is West Bolton. Several West Bolton homeowners have contacted the BCN in recent weeks with concerns about their property value rising. One homeowner who preferred not to be named said their property value jumped by 113 per cent since the last assessment, when no previous increase had exceeded 9.1 per cent. A nearby homeowner, Marie-Christine Moulin, said the assessed value of her home had risen by 80 per cent, and an unused adjacent piece of land she owned by 125 per cent. Michelle Chartrand said her property value had risen by 224 per cent.

“The mayor [Denis Vaillancourt] said the assessment role showed an average increase of 84 to 87 per cent,” Moulin said. “How can that have happened in three years?”

In response, West Bolton reduced the residential tax rate from 53 cents per $100 of assessed value to 36 cents and announced it would allow citizens to pay their tax bills in four installments instead of the usual three. “Some [property owners] will end up paying the double [of their previous tax bill] anyway.” (Although Vaillancourt told the BCN in a brief email exchange before the release of the budget that the tax rate would “naturally” have to go down, he did not respond to further requests for comment.)

The MRC Brome-Missisquoi coordinates property value assessments for 16 Brome-Missisquoi municipalities, including West Bolton, and mandates an external firm to do the actual evaluations. Evaluations must be carried out 18 months before the entry into force of a new assessment role – meaning that for West Bolton and other municipalities getting a new role in January 2024, their evaluations are based on property values as they were in July 2022 – near the height of the pandemic-driven bidding war over rural second homes, as Patrick Lafleur, assessment department co-ordinator at the MRC de Brome-Missisquoi, explained. “West Bolton has a special situation – there are places near Brome Lake that have sold for a lot.”

Marie-Hélène Cadrin is a board member and spokesperson for the Association des évaluateurs municipaux du Québec and an evaluator at J.P. Cadrin, a Sherbrooke-based firm which recently carried out Bromont’s assessment role. She said pandemic-driven demand put “strong market pressure” on the region.

“Inspectors visit the properties and collect data … on the size, the materials, the state of the building, whether there were renovations or a basement added. We analyze recent transactions and sales and apply that to the properties. We ask the question, ‘How much would this house sell for?’”

Lafleur and Cadrin note that homeowners can contest their property value assessment with the MRC. However, several homeowners are skeptical of this process, which they pay for out of pocket – $88.80 for a property which is valued at less than $500,000 and $355.00 for a property valued between $500,000 and $2 million. However, some homeowners are skeptical of that process. “I wrote to the MRC with very specific questions quoting the Ministère des affaires municipales qualitative criterion like access to commodities, risk associated with the land, noise, frontage, topography, dust, wind orientation, etc. They told me to fill a form. I sent another question and they sent me a link to a video which does not address my question at all. The MRC is judge and jury in this situation in which it is making money,” Chartrand said. Moulin said she plans to contest her assessment once she receives her tax bill.

Cadrin and Lafleur rejected any notion that political and economic considerations could affect property evaluations. “A lot of people think we are aiming for the highest value we can get, but as an evaluator, I don’t get any advantage from a higher value,” Cadrin said.

Jimmy Desgagnés, an evaluator with the Fédération québécoise des municipalités, noted that Quebec’s property evaluation system “dates back more than 40 years” and is applied equally to major cities with thousands of transactions per year and towns like West Bolton with only a few hundred total properties, although he said “extreme sales” weren’t factored in.

Moulin, one of the West Bolton homeowners, wondered aloud whether the system was built to respond to months and years of extreme sales. “We’re coming out of an exceptional period, and one day someone will look at that and say ‘What happened here?’ The method they use does not take into account the pandemic, and that’s something they maybe could have done – the current situation makes no sense.

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Quebec City residents who buy reusable diapers or menstrual products can now have a portion of the cost covered by the Ville de Québec through a subsidy program, launched Jan. 30. Those who take advantage of the subsidy can have 60 per cent of the purchase price of each pack of reusable products reimbursed, up to an annual ceiling of $100 for menstrual products and $200 per child for diapers. If the products are purchased from local businesses, up to 75 per cent of the cost is reimbursed. The program was first announced in December, but has since been revised to allow participants to apply more often. People can submit two applications every five years.

“For many, this program will provide the necessary boost to take action,” said Coun. Marie- Josée Asselin, the member of the city executive committee responsible for waste management. “A person could, for example, equip themselves at a reduced price with a set of washable diapers, or a menstrual cup and panties, depending on their needs. It’s one more tool toward a sustainable lifestyle.” In a statement, Asselin added that encouraging the use of reusable products is also expected to reduce waste and boost local businesses.

Limoilou Coun. Jackie Smith and her party, Transition Québec, championed the program alongside Coun. Alicia Despins (Vanier–Les Rivières; Québec d’abord) and the Regroupement des femmes de la Capitale-Nationale. Smith said it’s “amazing that it took so long” to put the program in place.

She said she pitched the proposal in May 2022. “There was a multi-party committee that was put in place; we all agreed it should happen, but then nothing happened for a really long time. The city did not want to manage it [directly] … they asked a few community organizations and then found an organization in Montreal [the Groupe de recommandations et d’actions pour un meilleur environnement (GRAME)] who manages it for a bunch of municipalities.” Lévis, Sherbrooke, Cowansville and the Sud-Ouest borough of Montreal have similar subsidy programs.

According to the GRAME, a person who uses disposable menstrual products will use about 15,000 tampons or pads over the course of a lifetime, and each disposable pad takes about 450 years to decompose.

Every year in Canada, 771 million disposable hygiene products are thrown out. Smith said while the “startup costs” are relatively significant for people who replace dispos- able diapers and menstrual products with reusable ones, the environmental benefits are significant. Pads and diapers “are used briefly and then thrown out and sent to the incinerator when they’re wet, so they reduce the efficiency of the incinerator, and it’s a lot of waste in terms of kilos.”

Smith said many local organic grocery stores, zero-waste stores and stores that sell baby products also sell reusable diapers or other hygiene products. Quebec-based companies Mme L’Ovary and Marie fil sell reusable menstrual products which can be found online or in select stores.

To learn more or apply for the subsidy, visit grame.org/protection-hygienique-lavable-subvention-grame.

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

The president of Quebec’s main nurses’ union has said negotiations with the provincial government are going “pretty well.

“We’re no longer talking to a wall like we were a few weeks ago; we’re no longer in a situation where they’re discussing their solutions and ignoring ours,” said Julie Bouchard, president of the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) at an online round table on Jan. 22.

The FIQ represents 80,000 health-care professionals across the province, including nurses, nursing assistants and respiratory therapists. It has been negotiating separately from the massive Front Commun bloc, which reached an agreement in principle with the government just before the New Year (see below). The FIQ has yet to reach an agreement.

In October, about 95 per cent of FIQ members voted for an escalating sequence of strikes, potentially leading to an unlimited general strike. In November and December, the union went on strike for eight non-continuous days before requesting the appointment of a mediator. Although progress has been made since then, according to the union, major sticking points remain.

Contentious issues include obligatory movement of staff, professional-patient ratios and financial incentives. “We want a salary [increase] that has an impact on our retirement – with bonuses and other cash incentives, we get more money, but it doesn’t impact our retire- ment; we want salaries, not bonuses,” FIQ negotiations spokesperson Marc-André Courchesne explained. The union also wants to end forced reassignment of staff – “You would never ask a heart surgeon to work in a CHSLD because that’s not the best use of their expertise … but the government seems to think one nurse or nursing assistant is as good as another,” said Courchesne.

“We are still far from an agreement, but it’s very respectful and we are even seeing a certain openness to our demands,” Bouchard said. “We

will take the time to present [members] with a proposal that will make a difference to our working conditions.” No further strike days are planned as of this writing.

Front Commun votes progressing; FAE agreement hangs in the balance

The Front Commun bloc, which represents more than 400,000 public sector work- ers in health, education and social services, announced an agreement in principle in late December; individual union locals are now voting on the main agreement and sectoral agreements for their fields. Voting began two weeks ago, and results will continue to roll in until mid-February. “I can’t give [detailed] results for the moment, but for the moment, we’re optimistic [the agreement will pass],” Yves De Repentigny, vice president responsible for CEGEPs at the Fédération des enseignants et enseignantes du Québec (FNE- EQ), affiliated with the CSN, of which the CEGEP Champlain- St. Lawrence teachers’ union is a member, told the QCT. “We recommended sending the agreement to a vote, but we don’t recommend people vote one way or another. That said, we wouldn’t send it to a vote if we thought it was terrible.”

St. Lawrence union president Stéphanie Plante said St. Lawrence teachers voted 91.7 per cent in favour of the deal. The Central Québec Teachers’ Association, also affiliated with the Front Commun through the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers and the CSN, approved its sectoral agreement by a 59.3 per cent margin and the main agreement by 75.8 per cent.

The Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE), whose members returned from a monthlong general strike after the holidays, is facing a make-or-break moment with its own agreement. So far, four member unions have voted for it and four (including the union representing teachers in the Quebec City region) have turned it down. The Syndicat d’enseignement Haute-Yamaska, in the Eastern Townships, casts the deciding vote Jan. 31.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Town of Brome Lake has received an official warning from the province’s public-sector financial regulator, the Autorité des marchés publics (AMP), after it granted a five-year contract for snow removal in the Iron Hill sector to an ineligible bidder.

The bidder, 9221-2745 Québec inc. was the only company to bid for the contract. According to the AMP decision, it “did not hold an authorization issued by the AMP on the date of its submission, although the amount of this submission ($1,214,136, taxes included) is higher than the government threshold [of $1 million] beyond which businesses must have an AMP authorization to bid.” The amount of the contract, just under $1.1 million including tax, also differs from the amount of the bid.

“The AMP also noted that on two occasions, the town negotiated the price of the bid received with the aim of ensuring that the final amount was lower than the government threshold. However, no negotiation is possible when it concerns a non-compliant submission; the town has therefore not respected the normative framework in force,” AMP communications director Stéphane Hawey said in a statement. “The city acknowledges that the submission received was not compliant.”

Brome Lake director general Gilbert Arel said the municipality was “very aware of the AMP rules” and town officials believed they were in the right. They were not aware, however, that the company lacked AMP authorization or that the final price with tax included would be above the $1 million threshold. He added that in past years, the municipality negotiated snow removal contracts for three seasons at a time, but that this contract was for five seasons; both the town and the company were managing a longer-term bid for the first time. The previous three-year contracts, he said, didn’t normally exceed the $1-million threshold.

“There was a complaint from another contractor who was aware that the bidder was not signed up, and [the AMP] started investigating,” said Arel. He said that since only one submission was received, officials believed they could negotiate one-on-one with the bidder in the hope of getting the amount below the threshold – which the AMP also took exception to. “That was the error we made,” Arel recalled.

The AMP recommended that the city end the contract at the end of the present season, put in place procedures to ensure that all bidders have the requisite authorization and scale up the training offered to employees – all of which the municipality plans to do. Another call for tenders for snow removal in Iron Hill will be launched in August.

No one from 9221-2745 Québec inc. could be immediately reached for comment Monday. “As far as we know [they are] in the process of signing up with the AMP,” Arel said.

Brome Lake will not face financial penalties because the AMP does not have the power to issue fines.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Several months before the October 2021 municipal elections in Saint-Étienne-de-Bolton, seven community activists and volunteers, who knew each other from around town – postal worker David Auclair, furniture maker and former councillor Harry Bird, animal refuge manager Anne-Marie Demers, engineer Nicolas Berger, medical equipment installer Joël Brulotte, young farmer Alexandre Berger and financial advisor James Penny – came together to form the Équipe Stéphanoise slate.

In a summary of their platform posted on social media, they “promise[d] … to ensure the conservation of landscapes, heritage and natural areas; encourage resilience initiatives, local and healthy agriculture, sustainable food autonomy; stimulate networking and sharing of knowledge and skills [and] maintain village security in a spirit of kindness and mutual aid.”

All seven were elected by acclamation, alongside two independent councillors, and Auclair was sworn in as mayor. However, by the end of January 2024, all but two – acting mayor Bird and Alexandre Berger – had stepped down, leaving the village of about 700 people one resignation away from being placed under administration by the Commission municipal du Québec (CMQ). A byelection is scheduled March 10, the town’s second in less than a year.

Bird, the only member of the slate with previous political experience, said it was “hard to say” what derailed the ambitions of Équipe Stéphanoise. “Definitely family, work and municipal life are hard to conciliate,” he said. He and others also cited increasing regulatory requirements, pressure from constituents and staff turnover as problems – the town has had five different directors general since 2021.

While few municipalities have been as troubled by mass resignations as Saint-Étienne-de-Bolton, out of all the municipal councillors elected or re-elected across the province in 2021, nearly one in ten has resigned, according to Elections Quebec data parsed by La Tribune. Smaller municipalities – where the offices of mayor and councillor are not full-time jobs – seem to be most affected. La Tribune’s findings are no surprise for several of the former councillors, who cited untenable work-life balance as their main reason for leaving.

“We don’t want to let anyone down, and we want to honour our commitments, but at a certain point, it becomes a mental health issue,” said Demers, a mother of two. “I used to be so motivated, but I’m not anymore.” She said she was proud of her team’s achievements – making the municipality certified bee-friendly and equipping it with a boat-washing station – but had no regrets about stepping down.

“I’d say I was working 20 to 25 hours a month [as a councillor], not counting reading documents or participating in public council meetings or answering constituent requests,” said Brulotte, 37, whose day job requires him to be on the road a lot. “Others were working closer to 40. Constituents also expect us to sit on committees and participate in community groups.” Demers and Nicolas Berger said they were quickly overwhelmed by the demands on their time, especially during a time of heavy staff turnover; Berger said he felt he “wasn’t up to standard” because he lacked time to read the hundreds of pages of documents put in front of him.

“You need to be rich or semi-retired or have a very flexible schedule … or you need to sacrifice a good amount of your personal time,” said Brulotte. “Do a student, a parent with a full-time job and a semi-retired 60-year-old widower all have the same opportunity to do well on council? They don’t … and that leaves large parts of the population unrepresented.”

Younès Boukala is president of the Union des municipalités québécoises (UMQ) young elected officials commission. He said his own job as borough councillor in the Montreal district of Lachine “is part time…but can easily take 35 hours a week.” He said the decision of young working parents not to see out their council terms is “sad but understandable,” amid the pressures of work-life balance, slow-moving bureaucracy and social media vitriol. “We are working on developing tools to attract [young elected officials] and care for them,” he said.

Jacques Demers (no relation to Anne-Marie Demers) is mayor of Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley and president of the Fédération québécoise des municipalités. He said it was “sad” to see councillors, especially young and enthusiastic councillors, jump ship around the province. “If we talk about day-care centres when we’re all 60-year-olds around the table, of course we know what a day-care centre is, but if it’s something that affects you personally [as a young parent] you’re going to fight for it.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

About 20 Japanese-Canadian families who were sent to Farnham after the end of the Second World War could soon have a memorial in their honour in the town, Mayor Patrick Melchior has said. The town council voted to provide “moral support” to the project in December, and further commitments could come in the next few weeks, he said.

The memorial project is spearheaded by Julie Tamiko Manning – a Montreal-based playwright and theatre producer who was born in Cowansville and grew up in Farnham – and a core group of volunteers from the Quebec chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) determined to bring a nearly forgotten chapter of the town’s history to wider attention.

More than 22,000 Japanese Canadians, mainly living in British Columbia, were forcibly sent to internment camps during the Second World War.

“If you lived within 100 miles of the coast or on any of the islands, you were interned, because the government believed you were a spy,” said Manning, a grandchild of internment camp survivors who has done extensive research on the history of internment in Canada and written a play about her family’s experience. Thousands of Japanese Canadians were imprisoned in Vancouver’s Hastings Park for months before being sent to camps in remote interior B.C., she explained. Her own grandparents were interned in Tashme, 200 kilometres east of Vancouver. In 1946, after four years of internment, the family was allowed to leave, but could not leave right away because Manning’s grandmother had just given birth.

“My assumption is that my family would have gone elsewhere, but because they left the camp so late, a lot of cities weren’t accepting Japanese-Canadian [ex-internees] anymore,” she said. “Farnham is where people were sent who didn’t have family or sponsors or a job offer in Montreal.”

She explained that 11 families, including her own, were moved into a large two-story house on Rue Principale, with an additional six or seven families housed on the nearby military base. Most of the families drifted away to move closer to relatives or into seniors’ residences, but her grandparents had bought a house outside of town as soon as they were able, and they stayed there.

“My grandfather continued to do manual labour and my grandmother was busy at home, raising nine kids,” Manning said. “I wonder what that was like, especially for her – she spoke no French and didn’t really speak English either.” They didn’t speak about their experiences, and Manning and her siblings, who didn’t speak Japanese, didn’t really ask.

Even as a third-generation Townshipper, Manning said she “never felt welcome” in the overwhelmingly white region. “I had never lived anywhere else, but I always felt like we were foreigners. In Montreal, I never felt that, but in Farnham I felt it all the time.” Manning said she believed the memorial project, the details of which are yet to be determined, would help “break down barriers” and familiarize people in the region with their own history.

Melchior, for his part, said he had heard vague stories about “refugees” coming to Farnham around the Second World War, but wasn’t aware of the details before Manning reached out to him. “I am a newcomer to this story and I’d like to learn more. We owe ourselves to learn more and share it with the population. We have an obligation of memory.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Four volunteer action centres in the region have received a combined $268,000 in funding for the expansion or renovation of their kitchens or food storage areas through a program administered by the provincial government via the Banques alimentaires du Québec food bank network.

The funds went to the Centre d’action bénévole (CAB) de Farnham ($100,000 toward establishing a community kitchen at its future location at the Centre d’art de Farnham), the CAB de Cowansville ($100,000 toward a commercial kitchen and cold storage room), the CAB Marguerite-Dubois in Bromont (just over $45,000 toward renovation and enlargement of storage space) and the CAB Aux 4 Vents in Waterloo ($23,475 toward renovation and new equipment purchases).

Jean Valiquette, director of the CAB de Farnham, called the funding “a drop in the bucket, but a welcome drop.” The CAB is currently trying to raise a total of $6 million to get facilities in the disused Centre d’art up to code and move its community kitchen and food and clothing distribution services there, where it will share a building with the Maison des jeunes, the Association des personnes handicapées physiques de Brome-Missisquoi and other community organizations. Valiquette hopes the move will be able to take place this summer. The Centre d’art doesn’t currently have a kitchen.

“We can’t do all we want right away, but with this money, we can at least get started,” he told the BCN. “We are starting from zero. We need a kitchen built to [provincial food safety] standards with gas, electricity, plumbing… it’s a lot of work.” Once the community kitchen is functional, Valiquette hopes the CAB can use it to run cooking activities and benefit people in need. “Last year, we handed out 14,000 meals, and we’re trying to improve on that,” he said.

The Farnham CAB expansion project has run into several obstacles, from difficulty accessing federal funding to vandals raiding a locked shipping container filled with donated clothes. Valiquette invited people interested in supporting the centre to visit its website or drop by its current location on Rue Principale during opening hours to learn more.

Cowansville expansion fund nears goal

In Cowansville, CAB expansion project manager Nathalia Guerrero Vélez said the funding would go toward a $765,000 project to equip the centre with an adequate, wheelchair-accessible kitchen; a cold storage room and a multipurpose room to run cooking workshops. Hot meals made in the kitchen will be given to the town warming centre and food bank or sold at an affordable price to support the CAB, Vélez explained. She said the centre is currently using a rented storage space which isn’t large or accessible enough for its needs.

She said the organization had already raised $541,000 through various government programs and nonprofits. A benefit lunch to support the kitchen project is planned for Feb. 2 at 11:30 a.m. at Campus Brome-Missisquoi; call 450-263-3758 for more information.

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

When the expanded and renovated Gabrielle- Roy Library reopens in March, it will be more than a place to study and borrow books. People experiencing homelessness, many of whom rely on city libraries to warm up, charge their devices and enjoy a few hours of peace and quiet, will be able to access social support and housing support resources at the library through the work of a designated resource person. “There have always been vulnerable people in Saint-Roch; there’s nothing new about that,” said Montcalm-Saint- Sacrement Coun. Catherine Vallières-Roland, the city’s point person on the library project. “With the pandemic and the housing crisis, homelessness is on the rise…and we want the library to remain an open and inclusive place where both homeless and housed people will feel safe.”

Vallières-Roland said the resource person, whose hiring has not been announced as of this writing, would have a background in social work and be in a position to “build trust and de-escalate certain situations” which might lead to conflict between library users. “A significant part of their work will be to support tolerance and calm the social climate,” Vallières-Roland said. The resource person will also connect vulnerable people with other services in the community. A security officer will be on duty in the library.

At least nine Canadian cities, including Winnipeg and Edmonton, have hired or announced plans to hire staff dedicated to homelessness outreach within the past several years; Vallières-Roland said the initiative at the Gabrielle- Roy Library was inspired by a project in Drummondville.

The decades-old library was closed for major repairs in August 2019 and was initially scheduled to reopen in 2021, but the pandemic, the labour shortage and construction problems led to major delays. As previously reported in the QCT, the four-storey library will be 25 per cent larger than its predecessor. The space will be organized for “harmonious cohabitation” and easy monitoring by library staff. Its collections will be organized into thematic areas (children’s space, culinary space, city life space, comic book space, language and literature space, creative space, travel space, music and film space, society and culture space, nature space and science and technology space) bringing together books and magazines, multimedia content and areas to watch and listen to that content, and collaborative workspaces. The glass-fronted building will include exhibition rooms, recording and broadcasting facilities and a creative hub with publicly accessible digital tools for artists and community organizations. It will also feature a “culinary hall” and a collection of 10,000 books in languages other than French, mainly English and Spanish. Vallières-Roland said she intends for the library to serve as an “entry door to the community” for new immigrants, people experiencing homelessness and anyone else who is as-yet unfamiliar with what the library has to offer.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Cowansville residents will still feel the pinch of a property tax increase despite a drastic cut in the tax rate, according to the city’s 2024 budget released Dec. 18.

Skyrocketing property values are the main reason why — the value of an average single-family home has increased by 58 per cent on the most recent roll, which was released earlier this year and based on July 2022 market value. Multi-unit buildings have gone up in value by an average of about 41 per cent, commercial buildings by 30 per cent, industrial buildings by 37 per cent and unused land by nearly 70 per cent.

In response, the city has slashed the tax rate. The rate for a single-family home or an agricultural property is now 62 cents per $100 of value compared to 94 cents last year; multi-unit residential buildings are now taxed at 97 cents rather than 72 cents and vacant land is taxed at $1.24 rather than $1.29. Rates for commercial buildings have been reduced from $2.15 to $1.74 for buildings worth less than $800,000 and $2.33 to $1.94 for those worth more than $800,000; for industrial buildings, rates have been reduced from $2.21 to $1.76 and $2.38 to $1.96 respectively.

According to data provided by the city, 84 per cent of residential property taxpayers will see an increase of less than $300 and about 18 per cent will see a tax reduction. The average increase is 5.3 per cent or $145.50. Residential utility and service fees will rise slightly — from $190 to $197 for water, from $145 to $152 for sewage, from $140 to $145 for garbage collection, from $31 to $32.50 for recycling and from $60 to $65 for septic tank emptying. Water and sewage fees for businesses will rise from 52 cents per square metre and 28 cents per square metre to 58 and 32 cents respectively. Residential pool taxes will remain the same at $35 for an above-ground pool and $70 for an in-ground pool.

The owner of an average home can expect to pay a total of $2,908.50 in taxes and utility fees, compared to $2,763 last year. The city has switched the tax payment schedule from four yearly instalments to five (in February, April, June, September and November).

“In the current inflationary context, where prices for most goods and services have risen significantly, the 2024 budget has been prepared in particularly difficult conditions,” said Mayor Sylvie Beauregard. “Rising interest rates, the labour shortage, the housing shortage and various social and community issues are among the challenges we have to work with — and will have to work with in 2024.”

She referred to the jump in property values — and the corresponding decrease in tax rates — as “historic”.

“The uncertainty around property taxes in 2024 has been felt by a lot of citizens and it was essential for us to reassure the population. We worked to reduce the impact on citizens to maintain a balance between economic growth and the need to protect residents’ purchasing power … in light of the cost of groceries and gas, we wanted to give people a little breathing room [with the five-instalment payment plan],” she said. “The last few years, people have had no tax increase or a very minimal one, but we have no choice this year because the costs of everything are going up.”

Major infrastructure projects planned for the coming year include the replacement of pumping equipment at the water treatment plant, the construction of a new road and new water and sewage lines serving the new francophone primary school, reinforcement of the Mitch Bédard dam, replacement of a fire engine ladder and the first steps — architectural plans and estimates — for the long-awaited renovations to the aquatic centre. Beauregard also spotlighted a $250,000 investment — 67 per cent coming from a provincial subsidy — in pickleball fields. “We had to prioritize essential [infrastructure] projects, but we didn’t want to cut recreation,” she said.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé urged Quebecers to avoid emergency rooms unless suffering from severe symptoms as health officials warned of accelerated COVID and flu circulation in the leadup to the holidays.

Overcrowded emergency rooms and long wait times have been a recurring theme in Quebec over the last several months. As this story was being written on Dec. 22, three of the four hospital emergency rooms in the Estrie region – Granby Hospital, Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins (BMP) Hospital and CHUS Fleurimont – were operating at over 100 per cent capacity, and a patient waiting on a stretcher in the BMP emergency room could expect to wait nearly 19 hours.

“There are many people who come for urgent care who don’t have an urgent problem,” Dubé said. “I’m not saying they’re not worried, but their concerns aren’t urgent. There are other things [people in this situation] can do – take care of yourself at home, ask for advice from your pharmacist, call your family doctor’s office if you have access to one, call 811 or the pediatric helpline,” he said, acknowledging that 811 wait times may be longer than usual at times due to the nurses’ strike.

Dubé pointed to a seasonal resurgence of respiratory viruses, winter vacations, an ongoing labour shortage and the strikes as among the many reasons for emergency room overcrowding. “Emergency rooms are always functioning at 100 per cent [staffing levels], even during a strike, but some other departments are only functioning at 40, 50, 70 per cent,” he said, adding that the government respects the right to strike.

Public health director Dr. Luc Boileau warned that COVID-19 infections were still rising, largely due to a recent variant (JN.1) that is believed to be more contagious – although not necessarily more virulent – than its predecessors. Case numbers were believed to be “nearly doubling every week,” he said, with an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 new cases per day. Flu cases have also been on the rise over the past several weeks, and are expected to “go into a period of more intense activity” over the coming months, Boileau said, with H1N1 (the “swine flu” variant which led to a pandemic in 2009) expected to be responsible for a significant number of infections. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – which isn’t usually dangerous for healthy adults but can send young children and vulnerable people to hospital – seemed to have peaked, according to data shown by Boileau, but was still circulating.

“If you have a fever, stay home. If you have symptoms and you must go out, wear a mask…until the end of your symptoms. If you’re sick, wait ten days before coming into contact with vulnerable people and avoid non-essential events,” Boileau said, emphasizing the need to “stay vigilant” and protect young children, elderly people, people with weak immune systems and those who are pregnant.

“In the event of symptoms, it is important to take actions that limit the transmission of viruses and to use advice and guides to treat yourself at home. When symptoms worsen, call Info-Santé at 811 option 1. After assessment, the staff may refer you to a medical appointment if necessary,” Miriam Filion, a spokesperson for the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS, said in a statement. “The Info-Santé services, the Front Line Access Desk and various information tools on our web pages are also available in English.”

Boileau called on people who don’t have up-to-date COVID or flu shots to get vaccinated. “It’s not too late and it’s not just to protect yourself for the holiday season – these infections will be there all winter,” he said.

COVID and flu vaccines are free in most pharmacies, and effective at preventing complications leading to hospitalization, even if they don’t prevent all infections, according to Dr. Nicholas Brousseau of the Institut national de la santé publique du Québec (INSPQ). A vaccine for RSV was recently approved for use in Canada for seniors, but is not widely available yet, Brousseau said. He said both the Quebec and federal vaccination committees would evaluate the vaccine in the coming months and conduct a cost-benefit analysis to see if it was “relevant” to roll out a widespread public vaccination campaign for the illness.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Earlier this fall, Ireland Bassendowski was thrilled when she got into her first-choice university, Bishop’s University in Lennoxville. Then came the Quebec government’s announcement that tuition fees would double for Canadian students from outside the province. Bassendowski, an aspiring math teacher who lives in Dawson’s Creek, B.C. and whose family has a vacation home in Knowlton, is looking at British Columbia and Alberta schools. She now thinks she’ll do her degree outside of Quebec, despite the government’s decision, announced Dec. 16, to exempt Bishop’s from the tuition increase.

“When [my parents and I] heard tuition would go up, I started applying to other places and I actually found a program I liked better,” she said. In Quebec, she said, “things are just really unsure, and we can’t take that chance.”

“Ireland didn’t have a Plan B [other than Bishop’s], and after the policy change, we were forced to look at other places. We didn’t know whether it would be reversed, so we had to look at other places,” her mother, Diane Bassendowski, told the BCN. “The uncertainty worried us – what if she got to her second or third year and then they changed the policy again? Our hearts really go out to all of the kids in Grade 12 who are facing this turmoil.”

Ottawa high school student Jackie Evans said she has wanted to study at McGill University ever since she was little. More recently, the aspiring physicist has been drawn to a bachelor’s program there that integrates physics and philosophy. On a campus visit last year, she was “blown away” by the architecture and the feel of the campus. Her father, Aaron Evans, is a McGill grad and was “excited and happy” that his daughter was keen to attend his alma mater. However, since this fall, she’s been taking a closer look at programs at the University of Toronto and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.

“I really enjoyed spending time in Montreal and studying at McGill; it’s a national treasure and highly regarded around the world,” Aaron Evans said. He called the government’s decision to double tuition fees for out-of-province students at McGill and Concordia “really disheartening.”

“Either they knew it would be crippling to [the English universities] and they did it anyway, or they didn’t, and they’re incompetent,” he said. Like the Bassendowski family, Aaron and Jackie Evans said they were concerned that a policy that would discourage enrolment would ultimately lead to a lower-quality student experience. “The extra tuition is not ideal, but our main concern is around the quality,” said Aaron Evans. “If we have these concerns, then other people have these concerns and it turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Both Jackie Evans and Ireland Bassendowski speak French and were looking forward to potentially attending school in a bilingual environment. Bassendowski said the experience of the past few months has changed her perception of the Quebec government but not of francophones or Quebecers at large. “I know it’s not the people’s fault,” she said.

Although they don’t keep data on why students refuse offers of admission, Bishop’s, McGill and Concordia have all expressed concerns that the uncertainty of the past few months, combined with the tuition increase for out-of-province students at McGill and Concordia, could have long-term knock-on effects. “We will not congratulate the government for limiting the damage to Bishop’s that [it] has itself caused. The incoherent policies will have a devastating effect on the Quebec economy and on the Quebec university network in general,” McGill media relations officer Keila DePape said in a statement.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The city of Bromont is expecting to tighten its belt in the coming months, city officials announced Dec. 11. Mayor Louis Villeneuve, finance director Stéphane Brochu and director general Francis Dorion presented the 2024 budget and five-year infrastructure plan at the final council meeting of the year. The budget includes a residential property tax increase of just under eight per cent and an emphasis on the maintenance of essential services.

“Everyone has been through a difficult year and had to make difficult budget choices, and it’s kind of the same thing for the city,” said Villeneuve, commenting that this year’s budget was “the least simple” he has seen in ten years in municipal politics. “Our needs are changing, not just due to growth, but due to [evolving] ways of doing things…and this is happening in conditions that aren’t ideal. Since 2006, taxes on home sales have allowed us to build up a fund that was sufficient to avoid tax increases. This year, we’re seeing a construction slowdown due to rising construction costs and interest rates. This has an inevitable impact on the budget.” Service costs have also risen sharply, according to data provided by the city – fuel, natural gas, asphalt, roadwork and maintenance costs have all gone up by 20 per cent or more (roadwork costs have risen by 37 per cent), salaries have risen and the city’s contribution to the MRC has risen by 11 per cent. The city received fewer bids from outside contractors for ongoing projects, pushing prices up, Dorion explained. Additionally, certain city infrastructure, including some water and sewer lines, was “reaching the end of its useful life,” he added.

The challenge, Dorion told reporters, was being able to maintain existing services and honour existing financial commitments (including debt reimbursement, which takes up about 15 per cent of the budget) while respecting taxpayers’ capacity to pay.

Tax rates for all types of property will rise, after a tax rate freeze in 2023. The residential tax rate has been raised from $0.558 per $100 of value to $0.604, meaning that the owner of an average single-family home with municipal water service can expect to pay $3,415 in property taxes, not including utility fees – $260 more than last year. Owners of multi-unit buildings with six units or more will pay $0.647 per $100 rather than the previous $0.598; owners of non-residential buildings will pay $1.578 rather than $1.458, owners of industrial buildings pay $2.104 rather than $1.944. Tax rates on agricultural land will also rise, from $0.488 to $0.528. Taxes on unused land covered by the city water network will nearly double, from $0.698 to $1.208, mainly as an incentive to encourage construction.

Utility fees will go up for both residents and owners of other types of property. Water fees, which had been stable since 2015, will rise from $226 to $237 for both homes and businesses. Residential septic tank fees will jump from $65 to $90 and sewage management fees from $110 to $137. Recycling and commercial water and sewage fees will also rise slightly.

Brochu said 85 per cent of the city’s current revenue comes from residential property taxes. He said he hoped further development of the industrial park and sales of city land there will help shift some of the tax burden from residents to businesses and bring the city an estimated $39 million in additional revenue.

Five-year infrastructure plan

Villeneuve and Dorion presented the city’s five-year infrastructure plan – a first for the city, which, like most municipalities, usually releases a three-year infrastructure plan at the end of every year. Dorion said a five-year plan made long-term planning easier. He said the current plan would focus on “essential investments.”

The five-year plan laid out $190 million in investments, of which $76.4 million would be paid by taxpayers, $16.7 million financed by land sales in the industrial park and $37.8 million by subsidies from other levels of government. Dorion gave a rapid overview of major upcoming projects including upgrades and extensions to the town’s sewer and water networks, upgrades to the water treatment plant which will allow more water to be pumped in from the Yamaska river, the first phase of construction of a new sewage treatment facility, the long-awaited new main fire station, Parc Grégoire, the Lac Bromont beach and a new public green space within the industrial park.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Bishop’s University has received a show of support from one of its English counterparts after it was given a partial exemption to the CAQ government’s planned fee hike and language strategy affecting English-language universities.

In October, Minister of Higher Education Pascale Déry announced plans to double tuition for out-of-province Canadian students enrolled in undergraduate programs and certain masters’ programs and introduce a minimum tuition rate for international students. At the time, she argued that the measure would help counter the perceived anglicization of Montreal and keep Quebec taxpayers from subsidizing out-of-province students who took advantage of Quebec’s relatively low tuition fees and then returned home to work. Bishop’s is the smallest English-language university in the province, which receives 30 per cent of its students from the rest of Canada. After Bishop’s argued that the fee increase posed an “existential threat,” Déry indicated she was willing to relax some aspects of the policy for them. The opposition Liberals have called for it to be scrapped entirely.

In a Dec. 14 directive, Déry partially walked back the tuition increase, reducing the total base rate from $17,000 to $12,000 (The base rate for Quebec resident undergraduates at Bishop’s is just under $3000). The policy allows Bishop’s to enroll up to 825 Canadian out-of-province students at the current out-of-province base rate of just under $9,000. Funding for Bishop’s, unlike for McGill and Concordia, will not be tied to reaching French-language proficiency targets, although it will still be expected to aim for 80 per cent of their non-Quebec undergraduate students to reach intermediate French proficiency by the end of their studies.

Vannina Maestracci, a media relations officer for Concordia University, said Concordia supported the exemption for Bishop’s. “We are relieved to see that Bishop’s particular circumstances were taken into account by the government. The support provided by the community around Bishop’s also demonstrated how important this institution is for the Townships,” Maestracci told the BCN.

Echoing comments made by Bishop’s principal Sébastien Lebel-Grenier, Maestracci noted that despite the softened measures, the damage may have already been done to out-of-province enrolment, at least for this year. “Following the negative message sent to prospective students from outside Quebec over the last two months as well as the confusion surrounding tuition fees, we have already seen a decrease in applications of around 20 per cent for out-of-province students and 30 per cent for international students. Given this, despite tuition fees for out-of-province students now having been set at $12,000 rather than $17,000, we believe that the assessment of anticipated financial impact we did in late October still holds and that the new measures will result in a loss of about 10 per cent of our budget,” she said.

McGill University officials said in a statement that McGill “is very happy that Bishop’s University will largely escape the targeted, punitive measures that the Quebec government is inflicting on Concordia and McGill, Quebec’s other anglophone universities. We will not congratulate the government for limiting the damage to Bishop’s that the government has itself caused. The incoherent policies will have a devastating effect on the Quebec economy and on the Quebec university network in general.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Sutton mayor Robert Benoît and director general Pascal Smith presented the 2023 budget and three-year infrastructure plan at the Dec. 13 council meeting.

City officials painted a relatively rosy picture of the town’s finances despite an uncertain overall economic situation marked by inflation, rising costs and interest rates. “This is our third budget since being elected, and we have pursued our initial objective of gradually restoring a balanced budget so as to no longer draw on the unallocated surplus to finance our current expenses,” said Benoît. “We are very satisfied with the work accomplished.”

The city expects to run a deficit of slightly over $960,000 this year, compared with $1.14 million last year. Smith noted that “further work would be conducted” in the coming year to look at different ways to “optimize” the city’s long-term debt of $10.8 million.

According to a city information document, the budget’s main aims are to maintain the current level of services to citizens, implement the family and seniors’ policy and the cultural policy, reduce utilization of the surplus and keep property tax increases down.

On the property tax front, residential, multi-unit residential and agricultural property tax rates will rise by just over 6.5 per cent, from 48.9 cents per $100 to 52.1 cents. Unused serviced land and non-residential buildings will see the largest increases, at 7.15 per cent (71.3 to 76.4 cents) and 7.24 per cent (88.3 cents to 94.7 cents) respectively. Water, sewage and septic tank fees will stay stable, with garbage collection fees decreasing slightly (from $198 to $196.30). The owner of an average single-family home in the Village sector will owe a combined $3,617.12 in property taxes, debt service and utility costs – an increase of $162.13, or 4.69 per cent, from last year; in the Mountain sector, the average homeowner will pay $3,546.90, an increase of $77.88 or 2.24 per cent. A homeowner with a house that isn’t served by the city’s water or sewage networks will owe an average of $3,160.80 – an increase of $157.45 or 5.24 per cent.

The city’s primary expenses are in transport, including road maintenance (25 per cent of the budget), public safety (16 per cent) and environmental hygiene including waste management (14 per cent), economic development (13 per cent) and administration (12 per cent). Smith noted that a large part of the security cost increase is attributed to an increase in the town’s contribution to the Sûreté du Québec, which is tied to combined property value. “Since property values went up [last year], we had to expect an increase in our Sûreté du Québec share,” Smith explained. The share the city pays to the MRC also rose by 14 per cent. “There’s a whole system that should be called into question there,” Benoit said, noting that the MRC and SQ shares paid by each municipality have no correlation with the amount of services requested or provided.

Smith noted that the municipality is reliant on taxes for 82 per cent of its income, and more than 90 per cent of tax revenue in Sutton comes from residential property taxes.

After concluding the budget presentation, Smith presented the city’s three-year infrastructure plan. Projects on Sutton’s to-do list for 2024 include major upgrades to water and sewage infrastructure on Western St. North, two culverts at the intersection of rue Réal and rue Harold and along Chemin de la Vallée-Missisquoi, long-awaited upgrades to Parc Gagné, the replacement of a bulldozer and a 12-wheeler truck and the creation of a dog park at the end of Rue des Puits – the winning project in the participatory budget poll held this fall. Smith noted that there would be no participatory budget poll in 2024. “It’s an excellent project, but it takes a lot of energy,” he said.

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

The sweeping reform of the Quebec health-care system steered by Health Minister Christian Dubé was voted into law a few hours before sunrise on Dec. 9 after an all-night debate.

The law, expected to go into effect in six months, will create a single Crown corporation, Santé Québec, responsible for the administration of the entire health system, merging local health administrations and hospitals into the provincial body.

This centralization has been widely criticized by unions, patient advocates and politicians, including six former premiers – Liberals Daniel Johnson Jr., Jean Charest and Philippe Couillard and péquistes Pierre Marc Johnson, Lucien Bouchard and Pauline Marois – who argued in an open letter that the centralization was a “dangerous step away from the reform’s objective of making the health and social services network more efficient.” Dubé, for his part, has argued that the creation of a single agency would increase flexibility, creating a uniform system for employee seniority and allowing patients to get around long waiting lists by choosing to be treated in another region or at a private facility on the public dime.

At more than 1,200 pages long, featuring more than 1,000 articles and hundreds of amendments, the law is one of the densest in Quebec history. It was passed through closure, a procedure that allows the National Assembly to cut short debate and fast-track the passage of a bill. Some articles had yet to be fully analyzed in committee, despite well over 200 hours of debate.

Advocates for English-language health care have raised concerns about the bill. The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) wrote a petition against the bill that gathered more than 6,400 sig- natures. “This bill centralizes everything in Santé Quebec and eliminates all [individual] institution boards. One board of directors will be responsible for everything. There goes community input,” said QCGN president Eva Ludvig. “It’s an ill-thought-out bill to start with, and it doesn’t address the major issues, like backup in ERs and lack of access to family doctors.”

Dubé caused alarm in the English-speaking community last week by proposing an amendment that would allow the Santé Québec board to withdraw bilingual status from health facilities that provide less than 50 per cent of their services in English after consulting with provincial and regional health-care access committees and the Office québécois de la langue française. He later modified the amendment so the access committees must recommend – not only be consulted on – the change and a regional access committee must ap- prove removal of status by a two-thirds vote.

“We are confused about why the amendment needs to be there in the first place, since [the government is] saying they don’t want to touch ac- cess to health care in English,” Ludvig said.

“If regional access committees are active and functioning and the provincial access committee is kept abreast of the community’s needs, [the new amendment] should be sufficient to prevent the removal of bilingual status, but it all depends on the final wording,” said Jennifer Johnson, executive director of the Community Health and Social Services Network (CHSSN), who spoke to the QCT the day before the bill was passed. “If they’re asking for a decision [from the access committees] it’s acceptable, but if they’re just asking for our opinion, it’s not. This bill is not supposed to affect an English-speaking person’s ability to access health and social services; that is the guarantee that we have had since the outset, although I am a little skeptical. We’re not satisfied until we’ve seen the final wording.”

Both Ludvig and Johnson said they would keep a close eye on the regulations devised by the Ministry of Health and Social Services as part of the bill’s implementation process in the coming months. The regulatory process is “where the rubber hits the road,” Ludvig said. “We are going to be watching and trying to bring to Quebecers’ attention when we see things that aren’t in their interest.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

City officials in Sutton expressed relief and satisfaction after the release of a study showing that the town’s water table is on stronger footing than expected.

The study carried out by independent hydrogeology firm LNA, which takes into account the impact of a potential drought, found that the water table that currently supplies the Academy well in the Village sector can safely supply up to three times more water per day than is currently tapped from it. If a well is installed at the spring near Route 215, more than 5.5 times more water per day can be safely extracted.

Mayor Robert Benoît and director general Pascal Smith presented the report on Dec. 5 at a public meeting attended by about 50 members of the public, current and former councillors and officials from the city’s urban planning, public works and public safety departments.

“We have good news – we no longer fear water shortages in Sutton. In terms of quantity, we have plenty,” said Smith. “We need to know how much there is and what we should do with it. We don’t have all the answers yet.”

The difficulty lies with the town’s geography and existing water infrastructure. Sutton has two separate water networks – one using groundwater in the Village sector and one supplying the Montagne sector from surrounding lakes. Each one serves around 1100 homes. For several years, Sutton has been grappling both with periodic water shortages, particularly in the Montagne sector, and an acute housing shortage. In April 2022, Benoît announced a moratorium on construction in the Montagne sector to relieve pressure on the water supply. A subsequent study found that the Montagne sector didn’t have any significant water reserves of its own.

Smith noted that 13 studies on the water supply had been carried out in the past 40 years, mostly focusing on how to increase the flow of water in the Montagne network. The LNA study, he said, “looked at things from a different angle,” considering the capacity of the current Village groundwater supply to supply the whole town.

Over the next several years, the city plans to invest $7-10 million in a 2,350-metre pipeline and pump system to pipe water to the sector from the village and provide 258 homes with municipal water service. The Mont Sutton chalet and the Huttopia campground would also be connected to the network. Initial engineering studies are expected to begin next year.

In the longer term, the city is considering the installation of 1,200 metres of additional pipeline, one additional booster pump and one reservoir at the top of Chemin Boulanger, which would service 741 additional homes and cost an additional estimated $10 million. Ultimately, more than 80 per cent of the current Montagne network could be covered by the Village network once work is complete.

“This is a big number, and we would have to double the debt of the city…so we need to find sources of funding for that,” said Benoît, alluding to government subsidies and user fees. The municipality would most likely have to take out a loan to cover costs, which would lead to a bylaw and a potential referendum. The mayor said he expected “a big debate” in the years to come around the kind of development that could, or should, take place in the Montagne sector.

The moratorium is expected to remain in place, at least in part, until construction of the pipeline project or projects is completed. “Water availability in the mountains, particularly in the Maple sector, is still not sufficient to supply new construction. On the other hand, in the Academy sector, which is served by individual wells, it would be possible to relax some of the more restrictive zoning and subdivision measures, provided that the natural recharge of water to the village’s water table is preserved,” a city information document states. “We know we have a lot of water; now we have to know how to protect it,” summarized Claude Théberge, director of public works for Sutton.

The initial studies presented last week cost the city about $200,000 over two and a half years.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Homeowners and commercial property owners in Farnham will see their tax bills creep up by about 6 per cent in the coming year, city officials announced on Dec. 4. As far back as July, Mayor Patrick Melchior hinted that tax rates would rise, saying the city had to “keep its head above water” amid rising inflation.

The BCN was unable to watch the budget presentation due to technical difficulties with a planned livestream, and Melchior was travelling and unavailable for further comment, but town officials shared a public Powerpoint presentation breaking down the highlights of the town’s $20.2-million budget, of which 77 per cent ($15.6 million) comes from tax revenues.

The presentation showed that total expenses were expected to rise by just under 6 per cent, with the biggest cost increases in the areas of administration, public safety and environmental hygiene. Spending for transportation and arts and culture was expected to decrease.

The general tax rate will be raised from $0.663 per $100 of evaluated value to $0.70, and contributions for the MRC and SQ will both rise by a few tenths of a cent per $100. As a result, the tax bill for an average single-family home with access to city water and sewer service is expected to increase by about $160. The tax bill for an average home without access to water or sewer service will rise by about $146.

Tax rates will also rise for most other types of property – from $0.588 per $100 to $0.625 for agricultural land, from $0.593 to $0.663 for forested land, from $1.91 to $1.947 for industrial property and from $0.683 to $0.72 for a property with six or more housing units.

Residents can also expect higher utility and waste management costs. Garbage and recycling fees will rise from $40 to $45, water service fees from $165 to $180, sewage fees from $160 to $170 and septic tank fees from $165 to $180.

Tax bills are payable in six installments, with the first installment due Feb. 15.

Infrastructure plans

Major infrastructure investments planned for 2024 include renovations to the town’s water purification and filtration plants ($3.46 million); extensive road work on Rue Jacques-Cartier, Rue Meigs, Rue St-André and Rue St-Alphonse; the acquisition of a new pumper truck ($1.4 million) and the installation of a new splash pad in Parc Uldège-Fortin. The presentation, accessible on the city’s website, contains a detailed list of infrastructure projects.

Budget season

Municipalities traditionally make budget announcements for the coming year in December. Bromont will announce its budget Dec. 11 (after the BCN goes to press) and Sutton’s announcement takes place Dec. 13. Cowansville and Brome Lake will announce their budgets Dec. 18.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A former religious retreat centre in downtown Sutton is the object of a tug-of-war between the Town of Sutton and the administrators of the non-profit organization that oversees its maintenance.

The Villa Châteauneuf is a former convent and school that was built in 1911 on a 25-acre plot donated by philanthropist and politician Eugene Dyer, who stipulated that it be used for educational purposes. In 1971, it was transferred to the Foyers de la Charité, a network of religious retreat centres-slash-utopian communities based in France and affiliated with the Catholic Church. In June 2023, amid declining religious participation and the impact of COVID restrictions, the papal delegate of the Foyers de la Charité decreed the closure of the entire network; the last six permanent residents of the Sutton centre, elderly laypeople who shared all their goods in common, moved out in September.

Since then, the building has stood empty, maintained by members of a volunteer governing board. Board members want to donate it to Le Chaînon, a Montreal-based organization for survivors of domestic violence. The town wants to acquire the complex – which has eight buildings with a total of 60 bedrooms, a chapel and a maple grove and is worth about $15 million according to the board – for use as a community centre, replacing the aging Centre John-Sleeth. Sutton mayor Robert Benoît said the vast facility could also be used for a daycare, meeting rooms, housing for temporary workers and/or a hub for local nonprofits. “It’s a magnificent place…and it should be given back to the citizens of Sutton,” he said.

“As noble as the mission of Le Chaînon may be, we believe the project we are presenting respects the vision of the land’s original owners,” Benoît said, referring to the Dyer family, who have veto power over any project. He added that the Diocese of St-Hyacinthe would also have to participate in any discussions. Sutton resident Ann Dyer, Eugene Dyer’s great-great-granddaughter, opposes the Chaînon plan, saying the board is “trying to give away the convent” to an organization with no connection to Sutton or Eugene Dyer’s stipulations.

Dyer said she and her sister, Diana Dyer, who oversee the family trust, were “in full agreement” with the property going to the town. “We propose a joint venture with the Church and the town to keep this going,” she added.

City officials said in a statement that there are “two ways to resolve this situation reasonably – either Le Chaînon gives up the donation, or the chair of the board of directors agrees to meet, with representatives of the diocese, the municipal council and citizens to discuss the terms of a harmonious transition with a view to the creation of a community centre in the Foyer de charité building.”

Board chair Serge Poirier said the board received four proposals from various nonprofits in the past few months, and no proposal came from the city. Benoît denied this, saying he and Poirier had what he assumed to be a constructive meeting about the building’s future in mid-September before the board cut off communications.

Vice-chair Victor Marchand said the board decided to donate the complex, which still has “sheets on the beds and dishes in the cupboards” to Le Chaînon because of the “expertise and solidity” of its proposal and the lack of services for domestic violence survivors in the area. He said the board “learned about the community centre project [on Dec. 6] when it came up in council.”

Benoît said the notice of reservation, which needs to be approved by the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs (MAMH), could be the first step of an expropriation process. However, he said, “We don’t want to expel [Villa Châteauneuf]; we want to talk to them.” He noted that the notice of reservation doesn’t block Villa Châteauneuf from selling the building.

Poirier said he didn’t trust the city to maintain the Villa Châteauneuf complex, and the Le Chaînon donation represented “a golden opportunity” to create a rural retreat for vulnerable women. He was not optimistic about the outcome of a potential meeting between the board, the city and the diocese. “They invited us to a meeting last week, but instead of letting us in on the discussions from the beginning, they have a preconceived idea,” he said.

Le Chaînon communications director Ségolène Roederer said she was aware of the board’s intention to donate the property to her organization, but preferred not to comment further “because officially, there hasn’t been a donation.”

“If everyone decides to sit at one table and talk about this, we’ll find a solution, but if we’re stubborn, [the conflict is] going to last a while,” said Benoît.

Representatives of the Diocese of St-Hyacinthe and the MAMH could not comment in detail before the BCN went to press on Monday.

If you think “bizarre tug-of-war” is editorializing, feel free to dial it down.

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Advocates for health-care access in English are alarmed by a proposed amendment to the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government’s health-care reform bill, Bill 15, that would give Santé Québec, the Crown corporation created to manage the health system, the power to remove bilingual status from health-care institutions.

Health Minister Christian Dubé tabled Amendment 111.1 before the health and social services committee of the National Assembly on Nov. 28. It would give the Santé Québec board the power to revoke bilingual status from health facilities which provide less than 50 per cent of their services in English. The board would be able to request withdrawal of a facility’s status after consulting with the provincial and regional health-care access committees and the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF).

Dubé tabled four language-related “transitional” amendments before the committee, including one that would ensure institutions with bilingual status are recognized as such by Santé Québec, another to prolong the validity of existing regional health-care access plans for anglophones until Santé Québec approves new ones and a third to authorize Santé Québec to communicate with recognized bilingual institutions in English.

The fourth, Amendment 111.1, would create “a process of removal of status” for health facilities that want to remove their own bilingual status obligations, Dubé told committee members.

Liberal health critic André Fortin raised concerns about the amendment. He wondered aloud how the 50 per cent threshold would be determined, for which Dubé and the civil servants testifying alongside him, lawyer Mathieu Paquin and associate deputy minister Daniel Desharnais, provided no immediate specific answer. Fortin also mentioned that bilingual municipalities where the English-speaking population had fallen below 50 per cent had the opportunity under Bill 96 to vote to keep their bilingual status – an opportunity that doesn’t appear to be available to bilingual health facilities under the proposed law. Fortin called on Dubé to create a mechanism where communities could refuse the removal of bilingual status from “their” health facility.

Debate on the amendment was ultimately suspended to give ministry officials more time to consult with the OQLF and outside experts. He has since said he is open to withdrawing the amendment if it undermines the government’s commitment to maintain access to health care in English.

“I do want to reassure the people watching that there won’t be any change [to access to services in English],” Dubé said during the committee hearing, which was livestreamed.

Antoine De La Durantaye, a spokesperson for Dubé, maintained that Bill 15 “would have no impact on access to care for English-speaking people. Everything is maintained – access plans and access to interpreters. There will be no change in services offered to anglophones or in the status of their hospitals.”

Despite those reassurances, the proposed amendment caused alarm in the English- speaking community. “I’m not sure where this is going to go, but we are very concerned about it,” said Richard Walling, president of the Jeffery Hale – Saint Brigid’s advisory committee.

Jeffery Hale – Saint Brigid’s is the only designated bilingual health institution in the Quebec City area. Walling said “maybe 10 or 20 per cent” of the combined clientele of Jeffery Hale Hospital and Saint Brigid’s Home is anglophone, and the hospital’s minor emergency clinic and CLSC serve thousands of people from the surrounding neighbourhoods – mainly francophones. “It all depends on how [the proportion of anglophones] will be applied and assessed. If they count everyone who comes into the minor emergency clinic and CLSC, I have no idea how they’ll check that.” Walling said he would be watching future developments “as closely as possible.”

For Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) president Eva Ludvig, the debate around Amendment 111.1 reflects wider problems with Bill 15, which Dubé has said he hopes to adopt before Christmas. “Its flaws are numerous and its implications far-reaching; the government appears to be still making it up as it goes along,” she said in a statement. “This is part of a very nasty pattern with the CAQ: it seems the only way they feel they can protect and promote French is to restrict or deny the rights and access to services of the English-speak- ing community here – even when those minority-language rights are guaranteed by law.” A QCGN petition against Bill 15, available on the National Assembly website, has gathered over 6,400 signatures.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The federal government has signed a $100-million deal with Google to compensate media outlets and ensure that articles from Canadian news outlets remain accessible on the market-dominating search engine, Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge announced last week.

Earlier this year, Google threatened to de-index articles from Canadian news outlets unless the federal government walked back the Online News Act, a law passed this spring in order to create a mechanism for online platforms with annual revenues of over $1 billion to compensate news outlets. The company has agreed to put $100 million annually, indexed to inflation, into a compensation fund for Canadian media.

“For more than a decade the media sector has been disrupted by the web giants. More than 500 media outlets have closed, thousands of journalists have lost their jobs and a lot of information has gone unreported,” St-Onge, MP for Brome-Missisquoi and a former communications union representative, told reporters Nov. 29 on Parliament Hill. “Everywhere, governments are seeking to establish a more level playing field between the online giants and the media. Here, we’ve decided to pass the Online News Act. We’ve [also] found a way forward to respond to Google’s concerns.”

“Following extensive discussions, we are pleased that the Government of Canada has committed to addressing our core issues with Bill C-18, which included the need for a streamlined path to an exemption at a clear commitment threshold,” Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google and its parent company Alphabet, said in a statement. St-Onge, for her part, called the agreement “a historic development” and said the government had made no significant concessions to Google. However, the $100 million annual payment agreed to was below the $172 million for which Google was liable according to previous government estimates.

St-Onge said the agreement would allow Google to “do business with a single collective representing all admissible media outlets.” Much remains to be seen about how the money will be divided and administered. Quebec Minister of Culture Mathieu Lacombe has called for CBC and Radio-Canada to be exempt from receiving money and for Quebec to have “a seat at the table,” and the Conservatives have pledged to repeal the act in the event they take power.

Brenda O’Farrell is the president of the Quebec Community Newspapers Association, which represents 33 English-language, bilingual and diaspora publications across Quebec (including the Record and the BCN). She said the agreement is a partial victory for Canadian media outlets. “The fact that there’s an agreement with Google is a good thing. What was at stake is that news in Canada would not be searchable on Google, and that catastrophe has been averted.”

However, she still has concerns about the law itself and about how the funds will be distributed. “The bill is a flawed piece of legislation. Everyone thinks it’s going to help media, but it will help some media partially,” she said. She pointed out that instead of negotiating compensation with individual media outlets, as originally planned, Google will negotiate with a collective. “The big dailies will be at the front of the line, they will carve out a bit for the Globe and Mail and a bit for the [Toronto] Star and Postmedia will get the remnants. [Major dailies] have gotten the lion’s share of every benefit and they have still cut jobs, circulation and coverage. Support for local media still needs to be addressed.”

O’Farrell called on the federal government to support small, local media outlets with ad buys and other targeted programs. “The foundational problem is that the government has to stop looking at media as one-size-fits-all.”

The law goes into effect Dec. 19. Walker stated that “While we work with the government through the exemption process based on the regulations that will be published shortly, we will continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian publishers.”

Google and Meta, Facebook’s parent company, are the only two companies covered by the law, designed to cover online platforms with annual revenues of $1 billion or more. Since June, people in Canada have been unable to share news content on Facebook. As of this writing, no agreement has been reached with Meta. “It’s up to Facebook to show why they are leaving their platform [open] to disinformation and misinformation instead of sustaining our news system,” St-Onge said.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A Cowansville woman who was facing deportation to Nigeria earlier this month has been granted a last-minute reprieve, according to a community organization that had been assisting her with her case.

Philomena Williams arrived in Canada in 2018 via the now-closed irregular border crossing at Roxham Road and applied for asylum, arguing that her religious beliefs put her safety at risk in her home country. According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, under most circumstances, foreign nationals in Canada can apply for refugee status if they have “a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, political opinion, nationality, or membership in a particular social group” or “would be subjected personally to a danger of torture, a risk to their life, or a risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment if they were returned to their home country.” The Roxham Road crossing has been barricaded since March 2021, but at the time, many of the several thousand people who crossed the U.S.-Canada border via that route were allowed to apply for asylum.

Applying for asylum is a complex process involving several rounds of hearings where asylum seekers must prove that their safety is in danger if they return to their home countries. Canada ultimately accepts about 68 per cent of asylum applications, including 64 per cent from Nigeria. In Williams’ case, her appeals fell on deaf ears – “her [initial] application, her appeal and even her pre-removal risk assessment [a last-ditch application for a stay of deportation aimed at preventing deportation to an unsafe environment] were refused” – according to Micaela Robitaille, a support worker at the Centre Femmes des Cantons who helped Williams with her case. Robitaille argued that Williams was “afraid because, in addition to the critical political, economic and social situation in Nigeria, she is part of a religious minority that is persecuted in this country. It was the death of her daughter, murdered because of her religious affiliation, which pushed her to try to find refuge in Canada in 2018.” During her five years in Cowansville, Williams got a job and put down roots in the community and at the Centre Femmes des Cantons.

The women’s centre held a vigil earlier this month and made a last-minute appeal to elected officials, including Brome-Missisquoi MNA Pascale Saint-Onge, Shefford MNA Andréanne Larouche and Immigration Minister Marc Miller, to ask that Miller use his discretionary power to suspend the deportation. Cowansville mayor Sylvie Beauregard also wrote a public letter of support. Miller ultimately took action, giving Williams a one-year reprieve to apply for permanent residence based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

“Everything happened at the last minute – I think she got a phone call [from the minister’s office] at about 8 p.m. on the day before she was supposed to leave for the airport,” Robitaille said. “The support [from the community] allowed the right people to realize how well integrated and appreciated she was. The day she was supposed to leave, instead of taking the plane, she came here, and there was so much joy, so much relief.”

The BCN tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with Williams via the Centre des Femmes. Robitaille said she is “working and moving on with her life,” and beginning the long process of applying for permanent residence. “She’s very touched by all the support,” Robitaille said.

Robitaille said the last few weeks have shown a lot about the power of community mobilization. “A lot of the time, people sign petitions and mobilize and go to protests and think it won’t change anything, but this time it did,” she said. “It’s a great story that ends well.”

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

At a press conference on Nov. 15 announcing plans to stage two Los Angeles Kings preseason games at the Videotron Centre in October 2024 (see article in this edition), Martin Tremblay, chief operating officer of Quebecor Sports and Entertainment and president of Gestev, said the Kings’ visit would be a “festival of hockey.” However, opposition parties across the political spectrum are not celebrating.

La Presse revealed on Oct. 17 that the subsidy of up to $7 million provided to Gestev by the provincial government to stage the event was taken from a regional development fund overseen by the province but normally managed by the Ville de Québec and surrounding regional county municipalities – without consulting the city. “There’s no more breathing room in the state’s coffers [but] this morning, we learn that to subsidize two NHL games in Quebec City, the government is using a regional development fund for local businesses and nonprofits,” interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay tweeted Nov. 18.

“In order to give a gift of $5 to $7 million to hockey billionaires, the government used a fund intended for local nonprofits … and bypassed the fund’s rules of operation. Is this a prudent use of public funds?” tweeted Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Paradis, the party’s point person for the Capitale- Nationale region. Québec Solidaire, for its part, announced plans to ask the province’s auditor general to investigate, with Jean-Talon MNA Étienne Grandmont saying a local food bank needed the money more – a suggestion echoed at the municipal level by Limoilou Coun. Jackie Smith.

Quebec Conservative Party leader Éric Duhaime called on the government to cancel the subsidy, saying, “I understand the CAQ is trying by all means to win back Quebec City voters … but it’s not by trying to buy them with tickets for a preseason Kings game that it will succeed.”

Mayor Bruno Marchand has said his administration “wasn’t involved” in the province’s decision.

Quebec City has been without an NHL team since 1995. “We lost our team and we’d like it back one day,” Lévis MNA Bernard Drainville told Radio-Canada. He said he believed the government had made the right choice to invite the Kings “to send a signal to the NHL” that Quebec City was ready for a team, but that the “timing wasn’t ideal.”

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

As the holiday party season approaches, Quebec public health director Dr. Luc Boileau is advising people in high-risk groups to get updated COVID and flu vaccinations.

“The situation is different from previous years, and that’s for the better, but there are a few worrisome elements,” Boileau said at a press conference on Nov. 15, pointing out that COVID, seasonal flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – the “cocktail” of viruses which filled emergency rooms last winter – are still circulating in Quebec. He mentioned that data indicated that seasonal flu infections are likely to peak around Christmas. “We’re not in flu season yet, but it’s inevitable, it’s on its way and it might be on its way quickly … it’s better to get vaccinated now than to wait for the wave to come,” he said. He added that RSV infections are also on the rise, although a wave of infections on the scale of last year is not expected.

“Then, of course, there’s COVID,” he said. “It is still around and circulating very actively in the community … we’re not in a wave, but we’re in a period of relative stability. It’s still here.” He said about 100 Quebecers are being hospitalized for the virus every day, and 50 – mostly seniors – are dying every week.

Boileau specifically encouraged people 70 and older, health workers, people with chronic illnesses, pregnant women and people who share a home with someone in a high-risk group to get up-to- date vaccinations. He pointed out that a flu shot given to a pregnant woman also provides some protection to the newborn baby. Boileau said vaccination was available to everyone in the province, but particularly recommended for people at high risk. He said over one million Quebecers have received a COVID booster this fall.

“It’s getting colder outside, there are going to be more and more gatherings and crowds in shops and so forth, and we’re heading for a time of year where, every year, there are a lot of infections,” Boileau said. He encouraged people to wash their hands frequently, stay home when sick and wear masks if they must go out while experiencing cold- or flu-like symptoms, even if they have tested negative for COVID. He noted that getting vaccinated reduces the risk of complications leading to hospitalization, helps prevent premature deaths and reduces the burden on the province’s health-care system. “Vaccines don’t prevent us from getting sick, but they prevent us from having to deal with the heaviest [consequences] of an illness, and avoid us having to go to hospital, or to the funeral home,” he said.

COVID and seasonal flu vaccinations are available at health clinics and at most pharmacies, and can be given at the same time. Anyone who wishes to get vaccinated can make an appointment online on the ClicSanté portal or call the province’s bilingual vaccine hotline at 1-877-644-4545 (from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.). Those who have recently had a COVID infection or been vaccinated are advised to wait three to six months before getting a new shot.

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

All English public schools in the Quebec City region will be closed from Nov. 21-23 as members of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT) and unions representing support staff carry out a three-day strike.

Through their union federations, the striking unions are members of the Front Commun, a negotiating bloc which represents more than 400,000 public sector workers in health and education – all of whom are expected to take part in the strike.

“We respect the right to strike, and unless we advise you otherwise, we are inform- ing you that all our establishments will be completely closed during these three days of strike action. Therefore, no unionized employees, no parents/guardians [and] no students will be allowed to enter our schools and centres during this strike,” Central Québec School Board (CQSB) director general Stephen Pigeon and assistant director general Nancy L’Heureux wrote in a message to parents.

CQSB schools in the Quebec City region will also close Nov. 24 for a scheduled pedagogical day.

QPAT president Steven Le Sueur said teachers were striking because of longstanding concerns about pay, work-life balance, support for students with disabilities and staff shortages. “There is a teacher shortage, and the shortage is for a reason – it’s not a very attractive profession at the moment,” he said.

Le Sueur said he understood the strike created some difficulties for parents, but that “patience would be appreciated” under the circumstances. He added that teachers would not assign homework or extra work over the strike period.

The Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE), a union federation which represents over 60,000 teachers at French-language public schools around the province including in the Quebec City region, has announced plans to begin an unlimited general strike on Nov. 23. Le Sueur said an unlimited general strike could also be in QPAT’s future. “The way things are moving at the [negotiating] table, that’s a possibility. It would be a disappointment, but we have to do what we have to do. These issues have been on the docket for many years and it’s time to do something.”

“We have a great relationship with our staff, but what can you do, they’re in negotiations. We’re getting close to Christmas, inflation and interest rates are high. We have great sympathy for our teachers and staff and wish them well,” CQSB chairperson Stephen Burke told the QCT.

Education Minister Bernard Drainville has said the school year may be extended in the event of a long strike.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Sutton Elementary School, Massey-Vanier High School and the Campus Brome-Missisquoi vocational training centre will close Nov. 21 for at least three days and “potentially much longer” due to two separate teachers’ strikes, Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB) chairperson Michael Murray has said.

The three schools are jointly administered by the ETSB and the French-language Centre des services scolaire Val-des-Cerfs (CSSVDC). ETSB teachers are represented by the Appalachian Teachers’ Association (ATA), a member of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT) which is part of the Front Commun negotiating bloc of four large union federations; CSSVDC teachers are represented by the Syndicat d’enseignement Haute-Yamaska (SEHY) which is part of the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE), which is not part of the Front Commun.

Both the Front Commun and the FAE are negotiating a new collective agreement with the provincial government, but the two federations have taken slightly different tactics. Front Commun members will hold a three-day strike from Nov. 21-23; FAE members plan to launch an unlimited general strike on Nov. 23.

SEHY president Sophie Veilleux has said picket lines around CSSVDC schools, including the three jointly administered schools, will be “watertight.” QPAT president Stephen Le Sueur has said ATA members won’t cross SEHY picket lines, forcing the English sectors of the three bilingual schools to close for the duration of the SEHY strike. Other ETSB schools are expected to reopen Nov. 24.

“Before students [at the three schools] leave on [Nov. 20], we will have wound up the first term. Students are aware that they will be off for at least six days and potentially much longer. Teachers can share reading lists with students, and so forth, so students can do some independent study, but we don’t have a systematic means of resuming instruction,” said ETSB chairperson Michael Murray. “[Education Minister] Bernard Drainville has said this isn’t a holiday [for students], but we have yet to find a practical way to teach without teachers.” He added that the school board would not pressure teachers to cross SEHY picket lines, and that asking teachers to shift to online learning is “not a viable long-term solution.”

Veilleux said FAE members voted for an unlimited general strike because “there have been no significant advances” in negotiations between teachers and the government over the last several months. She said members are concerned about staffing shortages, wages, insufficient support for students with disabilities and newly arrived immigrant students, and promised help that never comes. “When a student needs a special education technician, don’t tell us that the technician is coming [eventually] – the person needs to be there,” she said.

Veilleux said she hoped the strike would be as short as possible, adding that the union had no strike fund for its members. “We want a quick, satisfying agreement, and we want the things we agreed to be applicable at the beginning of the next school year, and for that, we need an agreement in principle before Christmas. We understand the inconvenience this can cause, and we’re not doing it for fun.”

Le Sueur raised several of the same concerns as Veilleux about working conditions, and said QPAT teachers could join FAE teachers in an unlimited general strike if negotiations don’t move forward in the coming weeks. “The way things are moving at the table, that’s certainly a possibility. It would be a disappointment, but we have to do what we have to do,” he said.