Ruby Pratka

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A proposal by a Knowlton citizens’ group to buy a four-acre stretch of vacant land behind St. Paul’s Church and transfer it to a nature reserve has come too late, according to the church’s pastor, Rev. Tim Wiebe.

In 2020, Wiebe signed the land over to Bromont-based development firm IMKOR. The company originally intended to build a four-story, 20-unit, 38,000-square-foot condominium complex on the land. The initial plan was scaled back amid public opposition, and IMKOR now intends to build three compact two-story buildings with a total of six units, further away from the nearby marsh. While the project has yet to receive final approval from the city, the agreement between the church and IMKOR effectively gives IMKOR control over the land.

The citizens’ group, Knowlton Concerned Citizens, outlined its proposal in an open letter addressed to “members of the congregation and the neighbours of St. Paul Anglican Church” and dated Oct. 23. According to the letter’s six signatories, Jacques Beauchamp, Alan Eastley, Tony Rotherham, Kirk Lynn, John Lawson and Ken Smarzik, “a multi-unit residential complex in the heart of the historic core of Knowlton would be a tragedy. Nothing short of a money grab exploiting the millions of dollars invested by the Town of Brome Lake, the Brome County Historical Society, and private citizens, trying to keep this historic and cultural area pristine for the use of the public, both current and future.”

“Our [proposal] was to lead a public fundraising campaign to purchase the land in question, and then transfer it to a nature reserve, forever protecting the land from development. The proceeds of the sale would be used to support the operational expenses of the church for the foreseeable future,” they write.

They say they made a counter-offer to the church and the Anglican Diocese of Montreal, under whose jurisdiction the church falls, “about a month ago” and received an acknowledgement of receipt.

Wiebe and Sauvé appeared to give the proposal short shrift. “The most important thing is that we are under contract with IMKOR – we can’t have any more proposals and they know that,” Wiebe told the BCN, weighing his words deliberately. “I want to be as generous as I can [to the citizens’ group]. I think they are trying to be creative and find a solution, but what they need to do is contact IMKOR – our hands are tied. A conversation did take place [between a representative of the church and the citizens’ group] with IMKOR’s permission, but what they are offering at present is not a serious offer. If you have an offer, you have a number [attached], not just ‘somewhere down the road, we’re going to raise some money.’”

“It would be [IMKOR’s] decision whether to give the land to anyone else or not,” Sauvé said. “Legally they would have to pass by us, and no one has done that yet. There has been no offer made to us.”

He added that IMKOR has tabled a request for a zoning change with the Town of Brome Lake in connection with the project, although he couldn’t say when the final proposal for the project itself would be tabled for council approval. If and when council approves the project, it will be subjected to a register, and potentially to a referendum of area residents. The signatories worry that a referendum would cause unnecessary division and expense, “tearing apart the community .. and endangering the future prosperity of the congregation.”

“In preparation for this eventuality, the Knowlton Concerned Citizens have already accumulated a majority of the signatures within the referendum zone against the development,” they write. The BCN contacted or attempted to contact several of the letter’s signatories, but no one was available to speak at press time.

Sauvé, for his part, said he was “very optimistic” that the current IMKOR proposal would clear the social acceptability hurdle, “Before we submit [a proposal], we have to show social acceptability. We presented the new project in June and we have conducted smaller meetings ever since. There are people who are ill-informed or who are not in favour of the project, and that’s normal, but they need to understand the differences between this project and the previous one. We won’t destroy the woods…and we’ve committed to building no more than six units.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Refusals of eligibility certificates for English instruction have gone up by nearly 50 per cent since the 2020-2021 school year, according to data shared with the BCN by the Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur (MEES).

Two hundred and fifty certificate applications were refused in the 2020-2021 school year, compared to 495 in 2022-2023 and 350 so far this year, the data shows.

Under the Charter of the French Language, students who enrol in English-language public schools or subsidized private schools must have an eligibility certificate. Certificates are usually granted to students under 18 who have a parent or sibling who completed the majority of their schooling in English in Canada; other students may be eligible under certain circumstances (for example, if a student has a learning disability or if their stay in Quebec is temporary). School boards work with families to submit eligibility certificate applications, but the final decision on whether to confer eligibility rests with the MEES.

School officials, including Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB) chairperson Michael Murray, have raised concerns in recent weeks about an apparent rise in the number of eligibility certificate applications being refused.

The ministry did not provide information about the geographical breakdown or the reasons for the refusals. However, since the passage of Bill 96, students with eligibility certificates have easier access to English CEGEPs and face less demanding language requirements in CEGEP, leading to speculation about whether young adults who have attended French school are applying for certificates between high school and CEGEP.

Ministry spokesperson Bryan St-Louis clarified that young adults who have finished high school aren’t entitled to eligibility certificates. “Eligibility certificates are requested by parents before or during their child’s studies, and issued to students enrolled in preschool, elementary or high school in the youth sector. A student must be declared eligible before the end of their secondary studies,” he said.

In a previous interview, Murray urged families to contact the ETSB and apply for eligibility certificates for their children “as soon as possible,” even if their children attend school in the French system. In addition to easing access to English CEGEPs, the certificates ensure that English school eligibility is passed from parent to child.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town council of Sutton has approved funding for a dog park and a turtle crossing after those two projects received the most votes in the town’s participatory budget poll, town officials announced on Nov. 1.

Participatory budget initiatives, where cities earmark $50,000 for citizen-driven projects, have been established in Montreal, Longueuil, Laval, Rimouski, Granby and several smaller towns across the province in recent years. Mayor Robert Benoit and the Action Sutton slate made a participatory budget part of their campaign platform. “It’s a [concept] that is taking root all over Quebec, and we thought it was important to do it here, ” Benoit told the BCN in April, shortly after the project was launched.

Through the participatory budget initiative, citizens were invited to submit their own proposals to put their stamp on town property. According to a city information document, projects needed to be completed by the end of 2024, designed to last at least three years, require a one-time investment of no more than $50,000 with no subsequent recurring costs, serve the common good and be “financially, technically and legally feasible” within the time frame and budget described. Twenty-nine projects were submitted, 16 were judged eligible, and after a process of consolidation and feasibility assessment, 12 appeared on the final ballot.

Voting took place online and in person with polling stations at the Tourist Office, the municipal and school libraries and voting events held at the farmers’ market the Maison des Jeunes and Les Villas des Monts seniors’ residence; polling places were also set up in Sutton Junction and Glen Sutton. Although each proposal had to have an adult project lead, children and youth groups were welcome to submit projects, and children as young as 10 were given the right to vote for their favourite, according to the president of the project steering committee, Sylvie Grégoire. “We wanted young people to get involved and have a voice in their community,” Grégoire said. Town officials said in a statement that 875 people – nearly 19 per cent of the eligible population – cast their votes.

When the votes were counted, the dog park at the end of Rue des Puits was the clear winner with just over 41 per cent of the vote, followed by the turtle crossing with 37 per cent. Despite the fact that the proposed budget for the dog park ($50,000) theoretically left no room for additional projects, councillors voted to earmark another $2,500 to put in place a turtle crossing at the south end of Chemin Alderbrooke. According to the statement, officials expect both projects to be completed by the end of 2024. “The public will be kept informed of the progress of the work, in which citizens might be invited to participate,” the statement said.

“We have a lot of very involved citizens, and that’s one of the things that make it nice to live here,” Grégoire said. “We were hoping to have 15 projects submitted and finally we had 29. That’s more than we ever hoped for, and it shows there’s a lot of interest for this kind of participation.” She added that while councillors will have the final say on whether and when subsequent participatory budget projects move forward, the steering committee has recommended that this edition not be the first.

Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Residents of poorer neighbourhoods in Quebec City were more vulnerable to COVID-19 infections than their fellow citizens in wealthier areas, a recent study has found.

The study was carried out by researchers from Université Laval and the public health directorate (DSP) of the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de la Capitale-Nationale (CIUSSS-CN) and the results were published in English in the journal BMC Public Health. The study explored COVID prevalence within the 1,206 census subdivisions of the Capitale-Nationale region from March 2020 through November 2021.

“The spread of the epidemic was concentrated in the most disadvantaged areas, especial- ly in the densely populated areas. Socioeconomic inequality appeared early and increased with each successive pandemic wave. The models showed that areas with economically dis- advantaged populations were three times more likely to be among the areas at highest risk for COVID-19,” the authors wrote.

Dr. Slim Haddad, one of the study’s lead authors, is a professor in the department of social and preventive medicine at Université Laval and a medical advisor at the regional public health directorate. He explained that researchers wanted to work on a granular level, using the census to di- vide the city’s population into clusters of 500-700 people. “Thanks to the census, we know the level of poverty, the proportion of immigrants, the number of people who spend a significant proportion of their income on housing, in each part of the city. We can evalu- ate their level of [economic] defavorization and make a link with [COVID] transmission. We managed to objectively [show] that transmission was higher in poorer milieus. Our study doesn’t directly answer the question why, but we do have some hypotheses based on our experience of how social in- equality affects public health.”

One hypothesis has to do with housing arrangements. “If you’re in a small dwelling with a large number of other people, you’re close together and there might be less ventilation, less capacity [to self-isolate].” Employment is another probable factor, according to Haddad: “People who are economically disadvantaged often have jobs where they’re directly serving the community – home care aides, people working in the food industry or with delivery services. You can’t work from home when you have a job like that, and you’re often in con- tact with the clientele, more exposed to other people.” Local author Nora Loreto, who began chronicling deaths from COVID in care homes and workplaces early in the pandemic, said the study’s findings “weren’t a shock at all.” “People were advised to isolate in their spare bedrooms [if they had COVID],” she re- called. “That’s great advice if you live in a small apartment. Just under half of Canadians live in a single detached house … but those who didn’t were erased. Politicians aren’t liv- ing in these neighbourhoods where people are most at risk. If we orient policies toward people who are most [at risk], they’re more efficient. ”

Access to information

Haddad said people who are economically disadvantaged are often less able to access or interpret quality health information than their wealthier counterparts.

Marie-Noëlle Béland is the director of L’Engrenage, a civic participation organization in Saint-Roch. According to data released by the city in 2019, the average annual income in Saint-Roch is $10,000 lower than in the city as a whole. One in seven residents is an immi- grant (compared to about one in 14 in the city at large) and one in six has no high school diploma (slightly higher than the city at large).

For Béland, a former literacy educator, the study’s results are a cautionary tale about access to information. She said since the beginning of the pandemic, the organization has gotten creative with its efforts to inform residents, many of whom don’t have reliable Internet access or access to news.

“A lot of people in Lower Town have issues with the digital divide, but also sometimes with reading comprehension,” she said. A hasty flyer cam- paign early in the pandemic gave rise to a community bulletin board, and a “town crier” – Charles-Auguste Lehoux – reads community news bulletins aloud two afternoons a week. Béland also said she hopes to work with community organizations on using more accessible language. “There’s a significant access- to-information issue when most media outlets are aimed at educated people. It takes a lot of translation to be able to take language used by highly educated people and make it accessible to everyone in the population,” she said.

DSP spokesperson Mariane Lajoie said the results will help public health officials prepare for a COVID resurgence or a future epidemic. Ultimately, according to Haddad, COVID is far from the “great equal- izer” that it was portrayed as early in the pandemic. “It’s not a democratic illness [and] it didn’t arrive in a vacuum. It arose in a context of social inequality. It doesn’t affect everyone in the same way, and it won’t affect everyone in the same way in the future.”

This is the second story in an occasional series about the ongoing impact of COVID-19 in Quebec.

Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Representatives of five public sector unions rejected an offer from Treasury Board president Sonia LeBel on Oct. 29 and confirmed plans to go ahead with brief strike actions next week.

Public sector unions rep- resented by the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), the Fédération des travailleurs du Québec (FTQ), the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS) and the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), which represent a total of about 500,000 workers in schools, hospitals, care homes and health and social service centres, have been in negotiations for more than a year. The CSQ, CSN, FTQ and APTS have been negotiating as a single bloc, the Front Commun.

Union leaders have said a proposed salary increase below the rate of inflation, pension penalties for employees who retire early, mandatory overtime for health-care workers and working conditions that discourage retention are major sticking points, and blasted the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government for the slow pace of negotiations. In mid- October, the Front Commun announced that a combined 95 per cent of its members had voted in favour of strike action up to and including an unlimited general strike. The Front Commun subsequently announced plans for a half-day strike Nov. 6. Union leaders said the short strike would go ahead despite the new offer; public schools will open at 10:30 a.m. that day and CEGEPs will open at noon.

“Today, we submitted significant proposals to the unions which could have a very positive impact on the current discussions,” LeBel said in a statement. “We must not forget that this negotiation must lead to gains for both sides. Yes, we must better pay state employees, but I also have the responsibility that each dollar from taxpayers’ pockets is maximized and has a long-term impact on our networks.”

The latest offer proposes a 10.3 per cent salary increase over five years, additional aides in elementary and high school classes, additional salary increases for nurses who work nights and weekends and a one-time bonus of $1,000 per worker.

FTQ president and Front Commun co-spokesperson Magali Picard said the salary increase was insufficient, and despite the end of the controversial penalties, the proposed pension structure deprived older workers of bonuses that their private-sector counterparts receive through the Régie des rentes du Québec (RRQ).

“With a [proposal] like the one that was made this morning, I can guarantee that the level of frustration will only rise,” Picard said.

LeBel said she was surprised by the “rapidity and vigour” with which the offer was rejected.

Nurses to strike Nov. 8-9

Representatives of the FIQ, which is not part of the Front Commun, announced strike plans shortly before LeBel’s most recent offer. They plan to hold a two-day strike on Nov. 8-9. “During negotiations, the government only wanted to speak about their demands – they had no openness to ours,” said Nancy Hogan, president of the Syndicat interprofessionnel du CHU de Québec (SICHU), a FIQ union which represents 4,500 professionals across the CHU de Québec hospital system, mostly nurses. “We were the guardian angels during the pandemic and now we’re the pawns. We want to move forward on work-life balance, the ratio of patients to professionals and the end of mandatory overtime, and we haven’t seen movement on that. We are missing 900 nurses and more than half of our staff quit after less than five years of service. How can we provide secure care under those conditions?”

FIQ treasurer Roberto Bom- ba said mandatory overtime makes it impossible for nurses, many of whom are parents, to plan their lives outside of work. “A lot of [nurses] leave [the public sector] and return via private agencies, and we can’t blame them – they’re trying to save themselves,” he said. Nurses “are dedicated professionals who go above and beyond for the population, and to get to this point emphasizes how difficult conditions are,” he said.

“Our working conditions are your caring conditions,” said Hogan, adding that the fact five union federations had voted to strike at once showed that “the time has come” for drastic action.

Late last week, Bomba said while the two-day strike will not affect emergency and critical care services, other hospital units staffed by FIQ members would see “a slowdown” on Nov. 8-9.

Bomba and Hogan were not available to comment on LeBel’s offer on Oct. 29. Another FIQ representative told the QCT via text message that the two-day strike would go ahead “more than ever.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Patients and health-care professionals at the CLSC de Bedford now have access to state-of-the-art X-ray equipment thanks to a $465,000 contribution from the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) and the Fondation Lévesque-Craighead.

The new wall-mounted, motorized remote-controlled machine and wheelchair-accessible examining table have been in use since Oct. 18, according to Stéphanie Davenport, head of medical imaging at the La Pommeraie local health network. Skeletal, chest and abdominal X-rays can be conducted in as little as five minutes with the new machine. The machine is the only one of its kind in the region for the moment, although two are expected to be installed at Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins hospital before the end of the year.

“The nearest hospital is 25-30 minutes away, so it’s important to have this in Bedford – it’s exactly the same kind of device we use in hospitals,” Davenport said.

X-ray technician Mélina Lévesque-Boyer said the new table is “user-friendly, rapid and precise” especially for wheelchair users, who no longer need to step or be supported onto the table. It speeds up service to patients and reduces wait times. The system also includes a camera which allows technicians to monitor patients’ movements during the scan and evaluate whether scans need to be redone.

“When people are in pain, we’ll be able to get them examined faster,” Davenport added.

According to the CLSC, about 2,000 X-rays are conducted there every year, mainly to diagnose broken bones, joint problems and lung disease.

The Fondation Lévesque-Craighead contributed $50,000 toward the purchase of the machine, money raised through donations from community members and local businesses and fundraising events. A drive-through spaghetti dinner on Oct. 27 served more than 900 people and collected at least $10,000 to top off the fundraising campaign for the new X-ray machine, according to the president of the foundation, Christiane Granger. “It’s important for us to maintain local services in the community, especially for elderly people.”

Granger said the donation was part of the volunteer-run foundation’s commitment to contribute $150,000 over three years for equipment and services at the CLSC and CHSLD in Bedford, adding “a little plus” to investments made by public health authorities. The foundation also plans to raise funds for the forthcoming CHSLD expansion in Bedford. She invited people interested in supporting the foundation’s efforts to visit its website at fondationlevesquecraighead.org.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB) officials are warning English-speaking families to get eligibility certificates for their children as soon as possible before the end of their children’s school days, even if their children study in the French system or attend private school.

According to the Charter of the French Language, an eligibility certificate is required to attend English public school; when applying for a certificate, a young person or their family must prove that one of their parents or siblings completed part of their primary or secondary education in English in Canada, or that there are extenuating circumstances (for example, a short stay in the province or a learning disability which makes mastering a second language unrealistic). The children of eligibility certificate holders (known as ayants-droit or rightsholders) can apply for certificates in turn. Although English school boards work with families to gather the necessary documentation, the certificates are issued by the Ministry of Education.

Under Bill 96, the legislation passed in May 22 aimed at shoring up French in the province, students who have eligibility certificates, even if they did not attend English public school, have easier access to English CEGEPs and face less onerous French language exam requirements.

ETSB chair Michael Murray said the school board has been receiving reports that the ministry is refusing eligibility certificates to young adults who meet eligibility requirements.

“It’s entirely arbitrary of the ministry to refuse [eligibility certificate applications] but technically, the certificates should be issued to youth,” he said. “Many parents send their kids to French elementary school, which is laudable for parents who want their kids to become bilingual, but they’re the ones being penalized now for their conformity to making French the official language of Quebec.”

Murray acknowledged that certificates are issued at the ministry’s discretion. “We don’t adjudicate eligibility, and they could have been declined for any number of reasons.” However, for Murray, the refusals of eligibility certificates “are just one more facet of the relentless attack on English – Bill 96, Bill 40 [which abolishes elected school boards], Bill 21 [which bars people who wear visible religious symbols from most public sector jobs], the fee rise [for out-of-province students] – it’s all part and parcel of an attempt to discourage and eliminate Englishness.” He said that as far as he knew, such denials “were not a problem” before Bill 96.

Murray encouraged families to apply for their children’s eligibility certificates as soon as possible. “The obvious message to parents with children under 18 is to get [their applications] in as soon as possible, but it’s totally unexpected and unacceptable that otherwise eligible people are being declined. If that becomes common, we’ll have to take it up with the ministry.”

The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) and the Ministry of Education and Higher Learning were not able to respond to requests for comment by press time.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Public sector union leaders say there’s no plan for a general strike to begin Oct. 31, despite an assertion to that effect last week by Premier François Legault.

“Unions always think they have to go on strike to gain as much as possible, so we’re going to expect a strike on Oct. 31,” Legault told reporters on Oct. 17, the day after the conclusion of a round of strike votes where locals under four public sector union federations voted in support of a strike mandate by an average of 95 per cent.

Éric Gingras is the president of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) and a co-spokesperson for the Front Commun, the negotiating bloc made up of the CSQ, the Fédération des travailleurs du Québec (FTQ), the Conseil des syndicats nationaux (CSN) and the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS).

“We don’t usually comment on rumours, but unfortunately, we have to comment on this one because it came from the premier,” Gingras said. “That [Oct. 31 strike date] is not what is planned.”

Gingras said unions that go on strike are bound by legal restrictions that require ten days of advance notice before any strike action. “A strike action is not something that we’ll announce the night before,” he said. He also said union members would most likely engage in a series of brief, time-limited strikes before taking the rare and drastic step of an unlimited general strike. Such a strike would close schools, colleges and daycares around the province, and some health care workers would also walk picket lines, although the Essential Services Act ensures that there won’t be service interruptions in the sector. A Front Commun statement released Oct. 18 said “Bientôt en Grève” (“On strike soon”) banners will soon pop up across the region. “This is a clear warning to the government that public sector workers are willing to go all the way,” the statement said.

Gingras said negotiations were ongoing between the Front Commun, which represents a combined 420,000 public sector workers in health, education and social services fields, and the government. Union leaders have previously told the BCN that a salary increase below the predicted rate of inflation, the imposition of pension penalties for those who retire early and working conditions that they say don’t encourage retention are among the major sticking points. “The goal is to get an offer that’s satisfying for our members – we don’t want to have to reach an unlimited general strike. The next few weeks [of negotiations] will be key,” said Gingras.

“If we go on strike, people will find that difficult – we know that,” he added. “We’re fighting so that the public can have the levels of service they’re entitled to, so that our members will be able to better serve the public.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Inititaive

A British Columbia family with aspirations to settle in the Eastern Townships is asking hard questions after the CAQ government announced plans to double tuition fees for out-of-province students.

Clay and Dianne Bassendowski are based in Dawson’s Creek, B.C., but have a holiday home in Knowlton – where they hope to retire – and attend Sherbrooke Phoenix games at every opportunity. Although they’re not fluent in French, Clay Bassendowski said they “love the language” and become better versed in it with every visit. Their 17-year-old daughter, an aspiring math teacher, learned earlier this fall that she had been accepted to Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, realizing a long-held dream.

That was before Oct. 13, when higher education minister Pascale Déry announced that tuition fees for out-of-province students at Quebec universities would double starting next September.

When the Bassendowski family heard the announcement, they “were in shock,” Clay Bassendowski said. “She found out she was accepted, and we learned about this the same week. It’s a real emotional roller coaster.”

They are now considering other options. Although the family hasn’t given up on sending their daughter to Bishop’s, “the more we digest it, the more we realize we need a plan B,” he said.

“One of the concerns we have is the cost – it’s an extra $40,000 over four years, although living expenses are cheaper, and we are factoring that in,” he said. “The other concern is that with 40 per cent of the student body coming from out of province, that’s a big part of the university’s business model. What happens if in three or four years, the university’s business model isn’t viable anymore?”

Bassendowski, a former town councillor, said the idea of finding a workaround to make his daughter eligible for in-province tuition via their holiday home didn’t sit right with him. “I don’t feel we deserve the in-province rate, but we would be happy to pay the same rate that a Quebecer would pay at the University of British Columbia (UBC),” he said. “It’s a great thing for students to be able to experience other provinces.”

He said the opportunity to perfect her French – and one day teach in Quebec – was part of the appeal of Bishop’s for his daughter. “I don’t know why the government assumes that people won’t stay,” he said. “You go to university, you make friends, you put down roots – I think there’s a very high likelihood you will stay.”

Political fallout

The announcement has been roundly criticized by opposition parties. Madwa-Nika Cadet, the Liberal Party critic for public finances and the French language, called on Déry to produce data to back up her assertions that out-of-province students don’t stay in the province or integrate. She noted that students who do leave after their studies in Quebec can be “ambassadors” for Quebec language and culture elsewhere, strengthening connections within the federation.

Québec Solidaire MNA Christine Labrie’s riding includes Bishop’s University. She has called on Déry to exempt Bishop’s from the fee increase. “Bishop’s risks losing a third of their student body, and if nothing is done, this policy will lead to job losses. The consequences will hit the region hard, and the policy won’t achieve its goal because there will be less money coming in to finance French-language universities.”

Labrie said out-of-province students who attend Bishop’s, McGill or Concordia “choose to come and live in a francophone province, and I read that as a will to learn more about Quebec. If they stay, great. If they leave, that means more people in the rest of Canada are familiar with Quebec, and that’s also great.”

Parti Québécois education critic Pascal Bérubé said his party supported the measure but didn’t believe it would have a significant impact on the vitality of French. He said the government should apply the Charter of the French Language to CEGEPs and invest more in French language learning opportunities for temporary foreign workers to reinforce the vitality of the language.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Municipalities and Indigenous communities will soon have access to a faster and easier process to regulate navigation on lakes in their jurisdiction, Compton-Stanstead MP Marie-Claude Bibeau announced last week.

Bibeau, Brome-Missisquoi MP Pascale St-Onge, and Sherbrooke MP Isabelle Brière gathered alongside municipal officials and lake preservation advocates near Lake Massawippi in Ayer’s Cliff on Oct. 12 to announce upcoming policy changes.

Navigable lakes and rivers in Canada, even those on the territory of a single municipality, fall under federal jurisdiction. For many years, municipalities that wanted to regulate lakes on their territory – for example, to ban a certain type of boat or impose a boating speed limit – had to apply to Transport Canada for authorization, a long and involved process that could take two to three years. Transport Canada can now approve municipalities’ requests by decree, making the process much faster.

Bibeau said she had been determined to reform the process since 2016. “Our challenge was to change the Canada Shipping Act, which I was jokingly told was harder to change than the Constitution … that gives you an idea of the challenges we faced. We recently proposed modifications to the Act which received royal assent in June.” She said the new regulations that will be developed in the wake of these changes will clarify the role of municipalities and streamline the authorization process. In the interim, Transport Canada has eliminated several steps from that process. “It’s now easier and faster for municipalities and Indigenous communities to seek restrictions on local waterways if they have safety or environmental concerns,” she said.

“For those who haven’t been following the file closely, the changes aren’t super clear, but in essence…a municipality that wanted to ask to regulate a lake had to submit an application which would go through two or three levels of jurisdiction, and that would take a year or two,” explained Pierre St-Arnault, the president of the Comité de sauvegarde du bassin versant du lac Davignon and a longtime advocate for a streamlined process, who attended the Ayer’s Cliff announcement. “Now, the city will fill out the same forms, and if the ministry decides the application is sufficient, it can issue a decree authorizing the municipality to regulate. You submit something before the end of the year, and it can be authorized by this summer.”

Jacques Demers, president of the Fédération québécoise des municipalités, said the changes were “a positive step” after years of discussions and consultations on the issue.

In Cowansville, city officials have been in discussions with Transport Canada since earlier this year with an eye to ban motorboats on Lac Davignon. Cowansville communications director Fanny Poisson told the BCN the reforms announced last week were “good news” but that the city would not comment further while discussions with the ministry and public consultations were ongoing.

St-Arnault said the Lac Davignon motorboat ban needed to be authorized as soon as possible, for the safety of swimmers and kayakers and for the good of the lake. “Our goal is to ban all motors, fuel or electric, even the smallest ones. We have a small, shallow lake and motorboats stir it up – they stir up sediment which contains a lot of phosphate, and that’s bad for the lake. They’re an important [vector] of invasive species. … and they affect the safety of swimmers, kayakers and paddleboarders. We can’t have boats zooming around at 70 miles per hour if we care about the health of the lake and the safety of its users,” he said.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Bishop’s University Principal and Vice-Chancellor Sébastien Lebel-Grenier has said proposed changes to the province’s university fee structure announced last week could pose an “existential” threat to the Lennoxville institution.

On Oct. 13, Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry announced the province would essentially double university tuition fees for out-of-province students in undergraduate and professional master’s degree programs at Quebec universities. Fees for international students, whose tuition is already several times higher than what Quebec students pay, are also expected to rise slightly. The measure would apply to new students as of the 2024-2025 school year; fees for current students will remain the same until they finish their degree.

International students whose home countries have a reciprocity agreement with Quebec are exempt, as are doctoral students and those in research-based masters programs. Déry alluded to possible future exemptions for students from francophone communities outside Quebec, although no such exemptions were announced.

Déry argued that most Canadian students from outside Quebec leave at the end of their studies, and the change meant Quebec taxpayers would no longer subsidize out-of-province students who took advantage of Quebec’s relatively low tuition fees and then returned home to work. She did not cite data supporting her premise.

The proposal received immediate backlash from English-speaking educational institutions. Celine Cooper, managing director of the Consortium of English-language CEGEPs, Colleges and Universities of Quebec, said institutions reacted with “profound disappointment.”

“The measures announced on Friday are counterproductive. They will have serious and far-reaching consequences not only for Quebec’s higher education sector in the broadest sense, but also for Quebec’s economy, workforce development and international reputation,” Cooper told the BCN. “These new measures, coupled with recent changes to the Quebec Experience Program [for international students], are likely to discourage thousands of international students from choosing Quebec. The price point will be prohibitive for many out-of-province students, [and] we expect that Quebec’s English universities will see a significant drop in enrollments from out-of-province students.”

While Déry emphasized that the policy change, applied to all universities, “was not a measure against anglophones,” it will have a disproportionate impact on Quebec’s three English-language universities, McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s, which welcome the lion’s share of students from other provinces. Déry said revenue from international and out-of-province student fees “creates a significant imbalance” between the French and English university systems. Between 2019 and 2022, according to the ministry, English-language universities gained a total of $282 million in extra revenue from international and out-of-province student fees, compared to a combined $46 million for the 10 public French-language universities in the Université du Québec network and an estimated $79 million for French-language universities outside the network. “I have to reduce this imbalance so our French-language universities can shine and grow,” said Déry. The extra income from the fee increase will “give the ministry the means to … better support the francophone network” while “putting the brakes on the anglicization of Montreal,” she argued.

None of that is any consolation to Lebel-Grenier, who said the announcement came “out of nowhere.”

“We got a two-day advance warning that this policy was going to be put in place; there was no consultation,” he told the BCN. “We received a letter in late spring telling us the minister was concerned about out-of-province students…but there was no invitation to discuss.” He said he was “expecting a conversation on how we can be better partners for unilingual anglophone students who want to learn French – not punitive measures.”

Nearly one in three Bishop’s students are from other provinces and one in six are international. Lebel-Grenier said he “fully expects” many prospective out-of-province students to reconsider their plans. That would have a potentially “catastrophic” impact on the university’s finances, with preliminary projections suggesting at least 25 per cent of the academic budget would vanish, affecting “our ability to go on as a university,” he said.

The school’s culture would also take a significant hit. “We’ve always been premised on welcoming students from across Canada, and the diversity of our community is what makes Bishop’s an incredible place to learn and grow as a person,” he said.

Lebel-Grenier said the university was receiving calls from “distraught” parents and prospective students. Beyond the financial impacts of the fee increase, “they are seeing this [announcement] as a message that they aren’t welcome.”

“A lot of students come to Bishop’s because they are curious about Quebec and they want to stay and learn French,” he added. “We don’t have data [on how many graduates stay on], but we have a lot of great stories of people who have stayed.”

Déry said she was “sensitive to” the school’s situation, but could not make an exemption to the policy for a single school.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Since childhood, Monika Nelis Dupont, 24, who lives in Bedford, has enjoyed going to the movies in Cowansville with friends and family. Since she lost her sight due to a degenerative condition five years ago, she finds it hard to follow all the action with sound alone. “When you need to constantly ask [other people] what happened, it’s not as much of a communal experience anymore,” she said.

Nelis Dupont, an activist and aspiring children’s author, has launched a petition on Change.org asking the Princess Cinema in Cowansville to invest in audio description devices. These devices, which are shaped like portable cassette players and include headphones, add an extra audio track to the film so moviegoers who are blind, visually impaired or experiencing sight loss can follow the action.

“If you’re watching a film and you hear suspenseful music, you understand why, but if you’re blind, you might not be able to follow the action,” she said. “If the film had audio description, I would hear, ‘Charlie is creeping down the hall with a baseball bat in his hand,’ and so forth. I wouldn’t have to ask what was going on…and it [wouldn’t] disrupt anyone else,” she said.

Nelis Dupont said the closest theatre which regularly shows English-language films with audio description is in Brossard, an hour away. She said she believes more widespread use of audio description devices in local theatres would help bring more blind and partially sighted people and their families and friends back to the movies. Her petition has received more than 360 signatures as of this writing, and she plans to launch a flyer campaign in the next few months. She said she has yet to receive a response from the Princess Cinema.

“The Princess Cinema is wheelchair-accessible, and that’s why I want to support it,” added Nelis Dupont, who also uses a wheelchair. “We have wheelchair-accessible seats. We have subtitles. It would be great if we had four or five audio description devices.”

Local cinema entrepreneur Yvan Fontaine owns the Princess Cinema and four other theatres in Magog, Orford, Quebec City and the Beauce region. He said he is aware of the petition but does not plan to invest in the devices for the moment.

“It’s not that we don’t want to do it,” he explained. “The equipment is not hugely expensive, but we need to make sure all of our theatres are equipped for it, and that requires installing transmitters and receivers. We would need to buy and install that equipment and then ensure that the films came with audio description, which not all films do. People don’t realize the complexity.”

“All of our theatres are wheelchair-accessible, but we have maybe two or three wheelchair users a year,” he added. “Just because we are adapted doesn’t mean people will come. I don’t know how many people have [visual impairments] in Brome-Missisquoi.”

He said he and his counterparts at the Association québécoise des propriétaires du cinéma have been asking for greater support from the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), the provincial crown corporation that supports film and TV production. He said theatre owners have asked SODEC for funding to support installation costs and assurances that future Quebec-made films will include French-language audio description tracks. “We’ve been told that is not a priority for them right now,” he said.

SODEC communications director Johanne Morissette was not able to comment at press time.

Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Voters in two districts in Shannon will elect councillors on Nov. 5. Councillors Martin Comeau (District 1) and Ysabel Lafrance (District 2) stepped down earlier this year, leading the municipality to organize a byelection. Both districts are in the northern sector of the municipality, containing parts of the Valcartier military base.

Five candidates will run for the two seats. Former councillor Francine Girard, telecommunications executive Réjean Côté and electrical engineer Patrick Deschamps will con- test District 1 and Dominique Bowles, a lifelong Shannon resident, and Pierre Chamberland, a military retiree, will contest District 2. Other than Girard, who was a councillor from 2013-2021, all are first- time candidates.

Girard said that if elected, one of her priorities would be working with surrounding municipalities to protect wet- lands and green spaces. “We can approve building projects, but we need to pay attention to protecting green spaces too,” she said. A member of the town’s Municipalité amie des aînés (MADA – senior-friendly municipality) committee, she said she wanted to bring ideas from seniors and their families to the council chamber. Originally from Saguenay, Girard said she “can understand some English” but is not bilingual.

Côté owns a local telecommunications firm, Côté Té- lécom. “I’m very involved in the community … and the two councillors who resigned told me they could see me [on council],“ he said. He said there are “major files that need to be moved forward” in Shannon concerning wetlands preservation, public safety (after a spate of thefts earlier this year) and the quality of cell phone service, especially in and around his district. “Although I can’t promise anything, I have a few contacts in the telecommunications industry, and I can try to get that file to move a little faster,” he said. “We can’t lead a frontal attack on all three issues at once [crime prevention, marsh preservation and telecommunications] but I want to help advance things.”

A native of the region who lived in Quebec City for many years, Côté said he isn’t bilingual, but “can manage well in English.”

Improving the area’s communications network is also top of mind for Deschamps, along with road safety. “We need to improve [road] safety for cyclists, pedestrians and pets,” he said. “We [also] need to help people in the north part of Shannon with their telecommunications service; now that there are so many people working from home, it’s an economic necessity. The service is there but the quality is not great. If I’m elected, I’d like to see if we can do some- thing about it.” Preservation of green space is also a key issue for the would-be councillor: “If the city gives more building permits without thinking, more trees will be removed. If people didn’t want [green space] they would have stayed in the city.” Deschamps also wants to improve Shannon’s sports infrastructure, including potentially creating a community gym.

Deschamps said he speaks French, English, Portuguese and Spanish. “We need to follow the law [regarding the prominence of French in town communications] but we have a bilingual cultural characteristic that will decline because of the law, and I think that’s sad,” he added.

District 2

Bowles or Chamberland will become the next councillor for District 2. Bowles, a lifelong Shannonite, is proud of his re- cord of public involvement. His first experience with municipal government was in 2007, when he and other concerned citizens signed a register opposing a condo project, forcing a referendum which resulted in a No vote. “That’s what started it all,” he said. “I’ve attended a lot of council meetings since then, and often, unpopular decisions are passed by one vote, so a councillor can really make a difference.” He grew up in Shannon in a bicultural fam- ily, with a francophone mother and a father with Irish roots, and speaks fluent English with the distinct Irish-influenced cadence of the area. He said his priorities were to reduce speeding on local roads, “help keep taxes as low as possible, protect nature as well as possible and help people as best I can.”

Chamberland, who is originally from Charlevoix, spent much of his professional career in the army, stationed at Valcartier, before retiring to Shannon. He is bilingual and lived in Germany and the Netherlands during his military career. His priorities include addressing speeding and traffic problems and listening to citizens’ concerns. If elected, he said, “I’m in it for the next two years and I hope to bring solutions to the table and listen to people.”

Town clerk Mélanie Poirier said in a statement that residents eligible to vote in one of the two districts should receive proof of registration shortly. Polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 5; there will be one day of advance voting on Oct. 29 from noon to 8 p.m.