Ruby Pratka

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Quebec’s English-language school boards are preparing to defend their continued existence before the Supreme Court of Canada. After a Quebec appeals court ruling earlier this year found the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government’s school governance reforms infringed on the English-speaking community’s charter right to oversee its education system, the Quebec government has applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, multiple sources reported on Friday.

In February 2020, the CAQ government passed Bill 40, which replaced elected school boards with government-run service centres overseen by volunteer boards with limited power. At the time, English boards argued the law infringed on the anglophone community’s charter right to control its education system. The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) took the government to court, obtaining first an injunction which suspended the law’s application to English boards, then a Superior Court ruling which found the law did infringe on the community’s charter rights. The government appealed that decision, and in April of this year, an appeals court panel unanimously upheld key elements of the Superior Court ruling. At the time, QESBA and its member boards hoped the government would accept the ruling and lay the groundwork for a new working relationship with English school boards. That hasn’t happened.

In a statement, the association said its members were “deeply disappointed” by the government’s decision to ask for leave to appeal.

“We were hopeful that the government would accept the unanimous ruling of the Court of Appeal and finally respect the rights of the English-speaking community,” said QESBA president Joe Ortona. “At a time when Quebec faces serious financial pressures, it is disappointing to see public funds used to continue a legal battle that so clearly infringes on the rights of minority communities.”

Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB) chairperson Michael Murray called the government’s decision to appeal a political decision. “We hoped that they would see sense, we invited them to sit down and discuss and possibly negotiate, but they’re not interested.”

Murray noted that the government was pursuing the case with public funds. “Taxpayers are paying for both sides of this.”

He pointed out that the government’s decision to request leave to appeal to the Supreme Court didn’t necessarily mean the court would accept to hear the case. “I expect they will decide to hear the case, because it has implications for francophone minorities in the rest of Canada.”

“All of the reporting on this case has focused on school boards, but we’re protecting not only school boards but other rights that can’t be trampled on. If this judgment stands, these rights become clearer for the pleading of other cases around Bill 21, Bill 96 and other bills that infringe on the rights of minorities,” he said.

The timeline is uncertain – Supreme Court cases can take years, but the federal government also has the right to ask the court for a ruling to settle the issue, short-circuiting the full litigation process.

Murray said the ETSB had not yet discussed how to fund the ongoing legal battle; he said the board had raised money for previous court proceedings thanks to philanthropy and to commissioners making donations out of their personal savings.

“Given the two previous judgments, I think it’s likely we’ll receive a favourable judgment,” he said. “In the meantime, we’re carrying on our business as we did before. We might have a long future of just living with the status quo.”   

The Quebec government does not generally comment on ongoing court cases.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Coalition Avenir Québec government took another step to distance itself – and the province – from Canadian multiculturalism last week when it passed Bill 84, An Act respecting integration into the Quebec nation.

“For the first time, we are enacting our model, which is called national integration. And we are returning Canadian multiculturalism to where it should have remained, that is, in the limbo of history,” minister for the French language Jean-François Roberge told a National Assembly press conference. “It is a model that has always been harmful to Quebec.”

The stated purpose of the bill, introduced in January, is to “establish the Quebec national integration model, which fosters the vitality and preservation of Quebec culture as the common culture and vector for social cohesion.” Notably, the bill amends the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms to ensure that rights and freedoms are “exercised in accordance with the Quebec model,” and says government grants must be distributed in a manner “consistent with the Quebec national integration model or one of its foundations.” The state is expected to “take measures aimed at ensuring the preservation, vitality and sharing of the French language and Quebec culture” The law sets out a series of obligations for municipalities, schools and publicly funded organizations to contribute to the integration of newcomers; individual Quebecers are also expected to “collaborate in welcoming immigrants and foster immigrants’ integration into the Quebec nation.” Under the law, the government will develop a national integration policy before the 2026 election.

The bill states that the law will be applied in a way that recognizes Indigenous rights and is “respectful of the institutions of the English-speaking community of Quebec.” It also enshrines into law a “common culture,” characterized by “distinct social values” and the importance of equality between women and men, state secularism and French as the common language. It describes Quebec culture as the “crucible” that enables Quebecers to form a united nation. It lays out a list of expectations for immigrants – they’re expected to learn French if they don’t already speak it, participate in the vitality of Quebec culture and “participate fully, in French, in Quebec society.”

Roberge rejected arguments that the bill encouraged immigrants to assimilate. “We want people who come here from everywhere to be able to bring their colour, to make their contribution from their culture of origin,” he told reporters. He said the law laid out a “social contract” that immigrants should be aware of before moving to the province. “They arrive here knowing that they have duties, responsibilities, … that the government has responsibilities, but that they must accept this social contract. Otherwise, well, it’s not a good idea to come here.” 

The law passed without the support of Québec Solidaire and the Liberals. Liberal immigration critic André A. Morin criticized Roberge for opening the door to changes to the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms and for not holding extensive consultations on the law. “For me as an MNA and a jurist, the idea that we will temporize Charter rights [in accordance with] a model that will be refined by a policy that hasn’t been written yet, I’m not giving you a blank cheque.”

“If you want people to recognize themselves in this law, then consult them,” he added. “I said make a wider consultation, and that’s not provided for in the law. … This says, ‘We’ll make a policy but we won’t consult you, just trust us. That’s wrong.”

The Ligue des droits et libertés (LDL) and the Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes (TCRI) issued a joint statement criticizing the law, calling it a “deliberate attack on the system of the protection of human rights in Quebec.”

“There are still serious problems with the assimilationist nature of Bill 84, the reduction of rights in favour of values, the attacks on charters and the rights of the population, as well as serious concerns for the autonomy of the community,” they said.

“Although it is difficult to anticipate the legal scope of the amendments made to the Quebec Charter, they could establish a hierarchy of rights and threaten several human rights, including the right to equality and freedoms of conscience, expression and religion,” said LDL head of political dossiers Paul-Etienne Rainville.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Quebec Liberal Party critic for environment and climate change is calling on the CAQ government to offer more support to municipalities with concerns about the impact of “forever chemicals” on their water supply, after spot testing from a Université de Montréal research team led to drinking water advisories in several municipalities.

Virginie Dufour tabled a bill at the National Assembly on Friday which would require the government to conduct a sweeping evaluation of the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the province’s drinking water, residue from water treatment plants and runoff from dumps. The bill would require municipalities, public utilities and dump operators to participate in the evaluation by having their water (lixiviate or runoff, in the case of a dump) sampled by an accredited lab.

After the evaluation, the bill would require the government to establish norms for PFAS concentration in drinking water, conduct regular testing and sanction violators.

Dufour said “thousands” of water sources in the province hadn’t been adequately tested for PFAS. “We don’t know what water sources are contaminated… if we know some of them, it’s because [Université de Montréal chemistry professor Sébastien] Sauvé tested them for research, but we don’t know the portrait of all the water sources in Quebec.” She emphasized that she didn’t want municipalities to bear the burden of funding PFAS testing, suggesting the provincial government could fund it, using the proceeds from joining a class action lawsuit against several PFAS producers, currently before Quebec’s superior court. “At the beginning, it will be up to the government to pay, but ultimately, we want the companies to pay,” she said.

She pointed out that Quebec and Canada have yet to establish hard and fast safety thresholds for PFAS levels in drinking water. The Quebec government has fixed an informal “objective” of no more than 30 nanograms per litre.

PFAS have been commonly used in fire retardants and in waterproofing, leakproofing and packaging common household goods for decades; Canada has moved to ban the importation of some PFAS-containing products in recent years, but PFAS residue can linger for long periods in the environment. According to a Health Canada fact sheet, studies suggest long-term PFAS exposure may affect the liver and metabolism, the nervous and immune systems as well as the birth weight of infants. Dufour called on the government to conduct more research into the environmental and health impacts of PFAS.

At a National Assembly press conference, Sauvé said his team had tested drinking water at “a few hundred” wells and municipal water lines across the province and found “half a dozen” where PFAS levels were problematic. “People have a right to know whether their drinking water might be contaminated…The name ‘forever chemicals’ scares people, but there are ways to treat water to remove chemicals. Before removing them, we need to know where they are.”

Paul Sarrazin is the prefect of Haute-Yamaska and the mayor of Sainte-Cécile de Milton. Thirty-seven households in his municipality, all on well water in proximity to a decades-old dump, are under a Quebec government drinking water advisory. The local primary school is also taking measures to clean its water and supply bottled water to students. Residents and elected officials learned of unsafe PFAS levels in the local water supply after Sauvé’s study.  “Our case is not unique in Quebec,” he said. “This is a complex dossier…and the purpose of this bill is to investigate where the sources of contamination are so we can identify them and take measures.” said Sarrazin, whose municipality is part of the lawsuit. “There are municipalities that are going to need to upgrade their water treatment plants [and] our citizens should not have to pay the price.”  Sarrazin said.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A citizens’ group in Bromont is concerned that the municipality may not be doing enough to push back against the construction of new wireless communication towers on its territory.

A proposed Videotron cell phone tower project was shelved in 2023 amid widespread public opposition; now, Mayor Tatiana Contreras said Rogers has expressed interest in building a similar tower, although no formal written request has been filed with the city. On May 21, at a special meeting primarily held to formally swear Contreras in as mayor – the former councillor was acclaimed by fellow councillors to succeed Louis Villeneuve, who stepped down to seek federal office and was elected MP for Brome-Missisquoi – councillors also tabled a three-page bylaw aimed at regulating permit requests for cell phone towers.

Contreras said discussions on developing a bylaw had been ongoing “since the Videotron debate.”

The proposed bylaw states that towers 15 metres tall or higher must be constructed so as to “ensure the harmonious integration of antennas and communication towers into the natural and built landscape … to preserve the visual quality of the area and the character of sensitive areas” and to “reduce the environmental, social, and security impacts associated with the installation of communication structures, particularly through rigorous planning.” It states that companies which propose projects must justify their necessity; show they have been “designed in such a way as to have a minimal impact on plant and animal life and wetlands;” “minimize their visual impact” including the use of discreet colours, non-reflective materials and limited light pollution;  and minimize the cutting of trees around the site.

Contreras said the municipality could refuse to grant a permit to a noncompliant project, although any such refusal could be overridden by Industry, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). “The federal [government] could go over our heads if we refuse, but at least we would be able to say we refused.”

Pascal Gélinas is a spokesperson for the citizens’ group Comité Vigilance Bromont, formed during the debate over the Videotron tower. He argued that the proposed bylaw lacked teeth and didn’t take into account the potential effects of radiation from cell towers on human health.

“It’s a bit silly; all it says is that you need to protect sugarbushes and wetlands, to privilege industrial and commercial zones and avoid residential areas as much as possible,” Gélinas said. “When you write ‘avoid this as much as possible,’ that’s not a regulation – that’s a wish.” He also noted that the proposed bylaw did not cover antennas shorter than 15 metres.

Gélinas, a former filmmaker and producer for the Radio-Canada science program Découvertes, pointed out that there is still uncertainty around the health risks posed by exposure to the sort of radiation that cell phone towers emit. Some scientific studies have shown a possible link between exposure to cell phone radiation and certain forms of cancer.  “Any antenna should be at least 500 metres from any house, school, daycare centre, seniors’ home, park, hospital or playground,” he said. “The health aspect is no joke – we can’t close our eyes just because most people don’t feel the effects at the moment. When in doubt, we need to not do this.”

Gélinas was also concerned about the speed and lack of public consultation around the tabling of the original draft bylaw. “There wasn’t really any discussion; I spoke and Ms. Contreras said it was not the time, point of order, she said don’t be shy to send her something in writing, which I’m going to do –  I feel like their decision is made; they are scared because the federal [government]  is involved, but the federal government is telling them, ‘Make your own rules.’ One thing the town did do right is that they said Rogers had to wait [while a bylaw was developed].”

Contreras said a public consultation will be held on June 17, before the final bylaw is tabled. “We hope people who have concerns come and talk to us then.” She added that the municipality planned to follow all Health Canada recommendations regarding cell towers.

“I’m not optimistic [about the public consultation] but I’d like to be,” Gélinas said. “For Bromont and other towns, it would be a great thing to set an example, to show some spine and protect people.” 

The BCN was unable to contact representatives for Rogers or ISED before press time.

By Ruby pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Brome Lake residents who plan to apply for vignettes to take their boats out on the lake this summer can now do so online through the municipality’s new web portal.

Town of Brome Lake (TOBL) director of communications and citizen relations Ghyslain Forcier said the framework for the portal had been in place since late last year, but the online vignette application service had only been live since May 20. He said the web portal would eventually allow citizens to access other municipal services, such as phone and email alerts for non-emergency situations, garbage collection schedules and reminders and potentially pet licence applications.

Residents who create an account on the web portal to apply for a vignette will also be able to save their data, meaning that they won’t have to re-enter their information when applying for a vignette next year.

“At this point, 500 people have already created accounts, and applied for 700 vignettes,” Forcier said. “These are people who have not had to come to the town hall with a paper application. This frees up time for our frontline staff, makes for less foot traffic in and out of the town hall and people don’t have to stand in line.” People who apply online for vignettes can choose to come to the town hall and pick up their vignette or to receive it by mail. Brome Lake residents are required to get vignettes for any motorized or non-motorized watercraft they plan to take on the lake, including paddleboards; after June 15, boaters who haven’t yet applied for a vignette may face fines. 

Forcier invited people who are having trouble setting up an account to call the town hall; those who can’t or don’t want to set up an account can still print and mail the vignette application form or pick up a paper form in person at the town hall; however, their data won’t be saved from year to year.

Forcier said the town’s new website, which went live late last year and included the “shell” of the web portal, cost $32,000; the addition of the vignette application tool cost an additional $1,750.

“We’ve wanted to improve our online services and accessibility for a while,” Forcier said. “We’re very happy with the results.”

New boat washing station

On May 23, ​​the town also announced the purchase of a new  self-service wash station, accessible at all times and relocated to 704 Lakeside Road, next to the Tourism Welcome Centre “With its chemical-free decontamination equipment for interior compartments, pipes, and engines, as well as its wash progress display, the station features advanced, state-of-the-art technology,” town officials said in a statement. Residents who have motorboats will be able to request free wash station access when applying for their vignette. Non-resident motorboat users will pay a fee of $20 for a single wash or $200 for a season pass. The service is free for non-motorized watercraft.

“These changes mark another step toward better protecting our lake while simplifying life for our citizens,” Mayor Richard Burcombe said in a statement. “The new citizen portal and self-serve wash station demonstrate our commitment to modernizing our services and preserving Brome Lake’s natural wealth for future generations.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town of East Bolton has received a grant of nearly $1.7 million from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs to fund the building of a new municipal garage. Orford MNA Gilles Bélanger made the announcement on behalf of Municipal Affairs Minister Andrée Laforest on May 23.

The wooden garage will have a surface area of approximately 345 square metres. It will eventually house an archives room, an office, storage rooms, and utility rooms, in addition to a storage space on the mezzanine; there will also be outdoor parking.

The municipality qualified for the grant through the Programme d’amélioration et de construction d’infrastructures municipales (PRACIM), receiving a top-up worth eight per cent of the grant due to the use of wood in the structure, and an additional top-up reserved for towns with a population of less than 2,000. The grant will cover 78 per cent of the expected cost of the project and construction is expected to continue through the fall.

“Thank you to East Bolton for this project, which is another step toward ensuring the sustainability of municipal services offered to residents, and thank you to the people of the municipality for their commitment to their community,” Laforest said in a statement.

“The arrival of this modern garage will allow the municipality to consolidate several of its services in a single location. I am pleased to see that this new infrastructure will help improve the efficiency of East Bolton’s operations,” Bélanger added.

East Bolton mayor Vinciane Peeters said she was “delighted to see this project take shape.”

“This new municipal garage will be a valuable asset to our community, providing essential services and strengthening our ability to respond to emergency situations. Furthermore, the use of wood will blend perfectly with our environment, thus respecting our commitment to sustainability,” she said in a statement. Peeters was not available for a follow-up interview before press time.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiaitive

A group of Dunham residents are bracing for “a heck of a fight” against the Brome electrical substation project as currently proposed by Hydro-Québec.

Denis Dumouchel, who has lived in the area for 40 years, is the spokesperson for the recently formed group Résistance Dunham. In the past two months, he and his fellow volunteers have distributed more than 750 yard signs to people opposed to the project.

He and his neighbours have concerns about the environmental, social and economic impact of the transmission lines for the new substation, which will supply electricity to Sutton, Brome Lake and Cowansville and replace existing substations in Sutton and Knowlton. Both currently proposed routes for the transmission line pass through Dunham; according to Dumouchel, both would pass over a pipeline. “We know there’s a low likelihood [that an accident would happen during construction], but as long as there’s reasonable doubt, we’re concerned,” he said. He added that residents were worried about electromagnetic radiation generated by the 120-kV line, damage to the landscape from the construction of 40-metre pylons and impact on property values, tourism and the local economy. “In the years I’ve lived here, I’ve seen agrotourism grow a lot. It took years and years to get where we are now, and if you break the landscape, you break that.”

Dumouchel is encouraging Hydro-Québec to consider an alternative plan pitched by the Town of Sutton involving 69-kV lines; a Hydro-Québec representative has previously told the BCN Sutton’s current proposal is not feasible for technical reasons, but the town plans to submit a detailed study later this week in hopes of persuading the utility.

On May 20, Hydro-Québec held a question-and-answer session in Dunham which lasted nearly five hours and attracted more than 200 participants. Dumouchel and Mayor Pierre Janecek were in attendance. “I congratulate the citizens [who attended] because there were a lot of good questions and a lot of good answers,” the mayor said. “The [Hydro-Québec] representatives were professional; they know their stuff.”

Janecek said that under two of the scenarios Hydro-Québec is currently proposing, “eighty per cent” of the transmission line would pass through the territory of his municipality, with no tangible benefit for Dunhamites. “The line is to supply Sutton and Brome, not us.” He shared Dumouchel’s concerns about declining property values, which could potentially impact tax revenue, and “disfigurement” to the landscape. “Dunham is a tourist town, and no one wants to see a trench or pylons crossing the woods.” He acknowledged that “nobody” wanted the transmission line in their backyard, and his counterparts in surrounding towns are also fighting to have the line built someplace else. “We are working to win, and so are the others, but there will be a winner and a loser somewhere. We’ve said our piece.”

Janecek said Dunham was also working on an alternative proposal, for which he would be able to provide details in the coming weeks.

Hydro-Québec regional affairs representative Ève-Marie Jodoin said the citizens’ concerns were “legitimate.”

“We know it’s a region that is very sensitive and has a lot of deeply involved citizens who have their region at heart,” she said. “We need to put [the line] somewhere; that’s why we have three proposals, and we’re collecting comments to see which one will be most compatible.” She explained that the utility determines the locations of new substations and transmission lines based on a “balance” of technical, economic, agroenvironmental and social acceptability criteria. “Since April, we’ve received a number of proposals, people saying, ‘Did you look at this, did you look at that, have you thought of this?’ We look at all of them.”

Jodoin said another consultation may take place in the fall to “present an optimized line, or explain why we couldn’t use one or the other [suggestion].” Hydro-Québec aims to have sites for the substation and the transmission line selected by the end of the year, with construction expected to begin in 2027.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The municipalities of Frelighsburg and Saint-Armand are encouraging residents to get their dogs and cats vaccinated against rabies amid a sharp spike in raccoon rabies cases. According to the Quebec government, at least 22 raccoons infected with the disease have been discovered in Estrie and Montérégie since December 2024. The virus is spread by the saliva of infected animals, and is fatal to unvaccinated animals. The Quebec environment ministry has been planting edible “vaccine baits” in parts of Estrie and Montérégie frequented by raccoons as part of its efforts to slow the spread.

Saint-Armand will hold a cat and dog vaccination clinic in partnership with the Bedford Veterinary Clinic on May 24. Pet owners who sign up in advance (by phone at 450-248-2344 or online on the town website) will be able to get one cat or dog vaccinated for free, and additional animals vaccinated at cost while supplies last; clinicians will volunteer their time. Frelighsburg plans to hold a similar clinic later this spring on a date to be determined, with support from the SPA des Cantons and a volunteer veterinarian who will measure out doses adapted for each animal. Both clinics are being held for the first time.

“The goal is to get as many animals as possible vaccinated,” said Marie-Hélène Croteau, director general of the municipality of Saint-Armand, where 12 cases of rabies in raccoons have been documented since December. “We don’t want the budget to be a barrier.”

“Vaccination remains the most effective way to prevent rabies and protect both animals and the people around them. We strongly encourage eligible pet owners in Saint-Armand to take advantage of this opportunity to ensure their pets are protected,” the Bedford Veterinary Clinic said in a statement.

“We are letting people know about the importance of getting their pets vaccinated, but for a lot of people, unfortunately, the financial aspect goes ahead of the safety aspect,” Frelighsburg mayor Lucie Dagenais told the BCN. “The cost of around $150 is prohibitive for some people, because before the animal gets vaccinated, it has to be examined by a vet.” Veterinarians recommend vaccinating dogs and cats against rabies once around 12 weeks of age and a second time a year later; booster shots are recommended every three years. Dagenais warned area residents to keep small children and pets away from wild animals.

Rabies also presents a risk to humans, although human cases are rare – the last recorded human rabies fatality in Quebec was in 2000. According to the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS, there are no plans to carry out a large-scale vaccination campaign to prevent rabies in humans in the near future; those who think they may have been bitten by a rabid animal are advised to wash the bite wound thoroughly with soap and water and call Info-Santé 811 as soon as possible to schedule an emergency vaccination. People who come into frequent contact with animals can get a preventive rabies vaccine at a travel clinic. Further information in English about rabies prevention can be found at quebec.ca/en/health/health-issues/a-z/rabies-in-humans.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town of Sutton plans to hire a new community outreach worker and implement an online graffiti reporting system as part of a graffiti prevention plan announced at the May 7 council meeting.

Élizabeth Deit is the director of recreation, community life and culture at the town of Sutton. She explained that for the past several years, Sutton has been dealing with a growing graffiti problem, including graffiti with hateful messages. In April, a construction cone was burned on the new basketball court, damaging its composite surface and requiring the replacement of seven tiles. This winter, new bollards along the bike path were tagged, forcing several clean-ups; just recently, according to the municipality, graffiti was discovered in the washrooms in the park chalet. The town has had to shoulder cleanup costs for vandalism.

Deit said the town needed a “game plan” to manage vandalism. That game plan, she explained, will focus on prevention and intervention, rather than punishing people who create illegal graffiti.  

The town plans to scale up “rapid and systematic” graffiti removal on public property, share information on the town website and notice boards to raise awareness and encourage reporting of vandalism, hold workshops for at-risk populations on the consequences of illegal graffiti in collaboration with the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), increase protection and surveillance of areas at risk of vandalism, establish an online reporting tool and promote public art projects, such as murals and “legal graffiti,” to discourage illegal graffiti and “enable graffiti artists to participate in beautifying the town while increasing their sense of belonging.” The online reporting tool is already up and running (sutton.ca/vandalism) and most other elements of the plan will be implemented this summer.

The outreach worker will be tasked with speaking with people, particularly at-risk youth, who spend time in the municipal park on evenings and weekends. “When there’s an [official] presence in the park, there is no graffiti … but the SQ has a big territory to cover and they can’t be everywhere, ” Deit said.

“Vandalism affects a lot of departments [of the municipal administration] and the more people we have working together to address it, the better, and the more efficiently we can use the resources we have,” she said.

In a statement, the municipality noted that anyone who commits an act of vandalism in Sutton faces a fine of anywhere from $150 to $1,000 under the town’s peace, order and nuisance bylaw, and anyone who “willfully damages or destroys property” could be charged with mischief under the Criminal Code; if convicted, they face a prison term of two to 10 years and a criminal record.

People who notice graffiti on public property in Sutton are encouraged to report it using the online reporting tool. Graffiti on private property can be reported to local law enforcement at 450-310-4141.

By Ruby Pratka

Local journalism Initiative

Former Mont-Soleil Councillor and former deputy mayor Tatiana Contreras succeeded Louis Villeneuve as mayor of the city on May 12, becoming the second woman and the first person of colour to lead the town of 12,000 people.

Louis Villeneuve, mayor of the municipality since 2017, stepped down earlier this spring to run for Parliament; on April 28, he was elected MP for Brome-Missisquoi. With less than a year to go before the next municipal election – scheduled for Nov. 2 – the municipality had the option of scheduling a byelection or of having city councillors hold an internal vote to choose a mayor among themselves. Councillors chose the latter option, and Contreras was acclaimed mayor after previous acting mayor and Pierre-Laporte Councillor Nicolas Robillard decided not to throw his hat in the ring.

“It is with humility and in full collaboration with the city council that I accept this responsibility. Our shared goal is to ensure stability and to continue, together, to represent the Bromont community with sincerity and legitimacy. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Nicolas Robillard, who has led this transition with conviction,” said Contreras in the city’s official announcement.

“Given that I do not currently wish to run for mayor in November, contrary to Tatiana Contreras’ clear intentions, it seemed only right to give her ample opportunity to take over the mayoralty and flourish as mayor. My priority remains to contribute to the development of our city, in harmony with the people of the Pierre-Laporte district and my current commitments,” Robillard said.

Contreras is an entrepreneur who moved to Bromont in 2015 and fell in love with the town for its community spirit. She was first elected in 2021 and served two years as deputy mayor, which she said prepared her for serving as mayor and gave her a deeper understanding of key issues.

“I wanted to run because I thought it was the thing to do, to start working on the things I wanted to do,” Contreras told the BCN in a brief interview. “I’d like to ensure continuity and stability for our teams and for the citizens, and stick to the game plan that we started….to ensure a smooth transition.” She said Villeneuve left “big shoes to fill,” adding that the municipality was “lucky to have an MP who knows our local issues as well as he does.”

“The things that I have at heart are optimizing the citizen experience, preserving nature, keeping nature accessible and ensuring connectivity between neighbourhoods, and active transport is part of that vision,” Contreras said, adding that heritage preservation was also among her priorities. Responding to an opinion piece in La Voix de l’Est from a Bromont resident concerned about short, confrontational question periods at the town council, Contreras said she “had heard those concerns” and was open to suggestions.

“We’ve all heard those concerns and we can only improve; our goal is to address people’s worries,” she said.

Contreras added that her partner is anglophone, her children attend English school and she lives in a bilingual household. She said constituents are welcome to come to her with questions or concerns in English. “I don’t always know the technical terms …but people can talk to me in English, no problem.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town of Sutton has a new director general. Former assistant director general and director of legal affairs Jonathan Fortin was formally named to the position on May 8. Fortin succeeds Pascal Smith, who stepped down in April to take another job closer to where he lived.

Geneviève Bonnichon, named assistant director of legal affairs in January, succeeds Smith as clerk and director of legal affairs; the town is still seeking candidates for the position of assistant director general.

The town also named longtime public works co-ordinator Patrick Roy as public works foreman, and urban planning and land use planning advisor Harry Pressoir as interim director of urban planning during Claude Théberge’s leave of absence.

“We carried out a detailed evaluation of potential candidates for the position of director general, and the decision was unanimous,” Mayor Robert Benoit said in a statement. “Jonathan, whose administrative rigour we appreciate, is the best candidate for this strategic position. We are counting on him to ensure the continuity of good municipal management and staff stability. Geneviève will naturally take Jonathan’s place as head of the town clerk’s [office] and legal affairs department. As for Pat Roy, his new title of foreman simply recognizes the role he was already fulfilling, and Harry Pressoir is ideally suited to head up the urban and land use planning department during the prolonged absence of its current director, Claude Théberge.”

Fortin is a lawyer who began working for the municipality in 2019. He was named director of legal affairs in 2021 before being promoted to assistant director general in March 2022. He got the permanent job when Smith had an opportunity to work closer to home. “He lives in Montérégie, and he was spending two or three hours on the road every day to get to and from work,” Fortin explained. “We got along well, so that was kind of sad, but it’s understandable.” Smith’s departure reflects a major human resources challenge that Sutton and similar towns face – hiring qualified personnel who live close by. “We have the disadvantage of having the U.S. border on one side and mountains on another,” said Fortin, who lives in Cowansville. “The employees who work here ideally live in Sutton, but if not, we have to look toward Cowansville, Brome Lake, Bromont, Granby, Shefford, Waterloo…and even then you’re 30, 45 minutes away. So yes, it’s a challenge in terms of human resources.”

Fortin explained that his role and the role of his department is to put into practice the decisions made by elected councillors. “We need to move forward in support of [their] decisions. There’s an analysis process, and then we can say ‘Here’s our recommendation, and you can go to the left of it or the right of it or follow it down the middle, but whatever you decide, we’ll support you.’”

He told the BCN the biggest challenges his office is facing are to definitively solve the problem of piping water to the mountain sector, and to stabilize and manage the town’s growth. “We’ve been experiencing a residential and tourism boom over the last couple of years, and the pandemic exacerbated that. We could say Sutton is in a teenage phase – in transition from a small-town to a medium-size town – and with tourism and everything, we’re seeing how best we can manage, like any teenager, to live in our growing body with all of the emotions that come with that.”

“I would say priority number one is solving the water problem in the mountain sector, but as for priorities two, three, four and so on, we’ll leave that to the new council after the elections,” Fortin said, adding that he expects strategic planning and affordable housing to be near the top of the list.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The Town of Brome Lake (TOBL) plans to expropriate land from the Brome Lake Ducks (BLD) duck farm to build a new fire station, TOBL director general Gilbert Arel confirmed last week. The exact size, dimensions and location of the land to be expropriated will be determined after analysis by surveyors.

Arel explained that the town asked the farm’s owners as far back as 2016 if they were willing to sell land to the town for the fire hall; when the farm wasn’t willing to sell, the town planned to build the fire station on land it purchased adjacent to the community centre. However, he said changes to provincial regulations about building near wetlands made some of that land off limits.

Arel said there were “not a lot of options” in terms of possible locations for the fire station. “It needs to be big enough – 85,000 to 95,000 square feet – and it needs to be near the high-risk buildings downtown,” he told the BCN. “I proposed a few ideas, and [councillors] wanted me to make an offer to the duck farm. We started negotiating with them, but when we made an offer, they said they did not want to go that route anymore.” By that time, he said, the town had gotten a grant from the provincial government that required them to build the fire station within a certain time frame.

“For reasons that belong to them, they could not go ahead with the sale of that land. We said, ‘We understand, but we have the authority to go ahead with an expropriation.’ They said, ‘We understand.’ …  If we had known [BLD] was not interested in selling, we would have looked at other options. One of the reasons [we couldn’t] was because of the timing of the grant.”

Legally, the municipality has the right to expropriate most private land “for any municipal use,” including the expansion of water, sewage or road infrastructure or any work required by a municipal bylaw. The town is required to give BLD a formal notice of expropriation and submit a detailed plan for the expropriation to the provincial administrative court (Tribunal administratif du Québec; TAQ), and BLD is entitled to financial compensation. According to a description of the procedure on the Quebec government website, the TAQ “has exclusive jurisdiction to determine the compensation payable in the event of an expropriation.”

At the May 5 council meeting, a contract for just over $32,000 was awarded to Laboratoire Montérégie to conduct geotechnical studies on the site. At the time, a council representative described relations between the duck farm and the town as “excellent.” Councillor Louise Morin said she “felt bad” to expropriate land from the duck farm, but “they understand it, so it’s not a problem.”

“Unexpected and regrettable”

Angela Anderson is the general manager of Brome Lake Ducks. In an email exchange with the BCN, she said the company was not pleased with the situation, but did not want to get into a “he-said-she-said” spat with the town.

“Brome Lake Ducks has always maintained a professional and collaborative relationship with the Town of Brome Lake. As [Mayor Richard] Burcombe has stated previously, we have supported the town over the years, by donating land for the community center and the daycare. We fully support the town’s decision to build a new fire hall. […]  We also hold the utmost respect for the fire department and the dedicated individuals who serve as members of the TBL fire squad,” Anderson said. “That said, we were deeply disappointed by the town’s decision to proceed with the expropriation of our land for this project. Given our longstanding relationship and history of cooperation with the town, this course of action was unexpected and regrettable.”

She said BLD had initially been open to exploring the potential of selling the land to the town. However, by the time the town made an offer earlier this year, she said, “we had since reassessed our position and made the decision to retain the land. This was done to maintain greater operational flexibility—particularly the potential for future cultivation to help offset our feed costs. From our understanding during discussions with Mr. Arel and Mr. Burcombe, the town pursued multiple leads on different land opportunities and ultimately made the decision to expropriate our land due to time constraints and the risk of losing the grant. While we recognize the importance of making timely decisions to ensure the fire hall project moves forward, I want to be very clear that this does not mean we are pleased with the decision to expropriate our land.” 

She said BLD’s lawyers and the town’s lawyers were currently reviewing the file.

Arel said he expects the TAQ procedure to take three or four months, although the final negotiation of compensation could take a year or more.

The new fire hall is expected to cost between $10-12 million, with $4 million contributed by the provincial government and smaller amounts contributed by Brome Village and the town of West Bolton, which will share the fire hall. Calls for tenders will be sent out either before or shortly after the Nov. 2 elections. If all goes according to plan, he said construction should be completed by the end of 2026.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

English-speaking Quebecers everywhere in the province who need someone to talk to now have access to a toll-free 24-hour active listening helpline in their primary language.

Montreal-based helpline Tel-Aide has been offering bilingual, 24-hour active listening services in the Montreal area since 1971, although overnight service was suspended from 2022 through this spring due to staffing issues. 

Since May 1, through a $660,000 grant from the provincial government via the Secretariat for relations with English-speaking Quebecers, Tel-Aide has been able to bring back its overnight service and offer toll-free assistance in English to anyone who requests it.

Tel-Aide Montreal is the only bilingual active listening helpline in the province. Although callers from the regions have always been able to access English-language service by calling the Montreal call centre, the cost of a long-distance call was a deterrent for some people, explained Tel-Aide spokesperson Jennifer McMahon, herself a member of the anglophone community from Bromont.

“There are a few Tel-Aide centres in the province, but we’re the only one that offers service in English,” McMahon explained. “There are not many free active listening services in English in the province. There are crisis intervention or suicide prevention lines, but we are mostly there for active listening.”

She explained that active listening helplines exist for “people who are feeling lonely or overwhelmed or going through a rough patch” but who aren’t necessarily in crisis. The service is confidential and anonymous – callers can provide as much or as little personal information as they see fit.

“Loneliness is a huge issue in our society, and people don’t necessarily have emotional support when they’re struggling,” she said. “An active listener provides their full undivided attention, there’s no pressure, they respect your pace.” An active listener doesn’t actively propose solutions, but “asks open-ended questions to help the caller see what their options are, and helps people put words to what they’re experiencing.” If someone is in crisis or needs additional support, an active listener can refer them to locally available resources or transfer them to a crisis line.

“With this funding, we’re able to bring back 24-7 service, which is important, because at night, anxiety doesn’t stop. It can feel especially lonely,” McMahon said. “There are Canadian active listening helplines in English, but people there don’t necessarily understand Quebec. It’s hard for people in Quebec who are not fluent in French to get a listening ear. Now, our mission is expanding the service to the whole province because everyone deserves to be heard.”

Tel-Aide’s active listening service can be reached toll free at any time at 1-877-935-1101. To learn more about Tel-Aide or about becoming an active listener, visit telaidemontreal.org.   

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

On May 1, International Workers’ Day, Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet announced a minimum wage hike. As of the beginning of the month, minimum wage for untipped positions is $16.10 per hour, an increase of 35 cents. Minimum wage for tipped positions rises to $12.90, an increase of 30 cents.

According to the Ministry of Labour, the increase of 2.2 per cent will impact 217,400 Quebec workers, including over 118,000 women. “Thanks to this measure, these workers’ disposable income will increase by as much as $484 per year” for those working full time, a ministry statement said, adding that the new minimum wage is expected to be just over half of the average hourly wage.

However, anti-poverty groups say the increase, which amounts to an extra $40.30 per month, doesn’t go far enough to help low-wage workers struggling to deal with several years of inflation and record rent increases.

“For a lot of people, [$484 per year] probably doesn’t even cover their rent increase,” said Marie-Ève Godbout, co-director of Action Plus Brome-Missisquoi, a Cowansville-based nonprofit which advocates for the rights of social assistance recipients and low-wage workers. “This is the smallest increase in ten years, and it’s indecent to scale it up so little when we have a housing crisis and inflation. There are people working full time who can’t afford both food and housing.”

A person working 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, with take-home pay of $16.10 per hour would earn $32,200 per year. According to a 2024 report from the Montreal-based Institut des recherches et informations socioéconomiques (IRIS), which compiles cost-of-living data around the province, a single, childless person with a car living in Bedford or Cowansville would need around $42,000 to pay for basic expenses, participate in society and put money aside for emergencies. In Bromont, that number is nearly $52,000. “It’s inconceivable that someone who works full time can’t live decently,” Godbout said. Action Plus advocates for a universal basic income, which Godbout said would reduce pressure on the health and legal systems as people took fewer risks to survive. “Poverty is expensive for society.”

Jean-Philippe Benjamin, co-coordinator of the Sherbrooke-based Table de concertation contre l’appauvrissement de l’Estrie (TACAE), said the increase “wouldn’t change a lot” for low-wage workers, many of whom work in the retail and service industries. He suggested boosting the solidarity tax credit and strengthening the social safety net alongside a minimum wage increase to better support low-wage workers.

Serge Petitclerc is the spokesperson for the Quebec City-based Collectif pour un Québec sans pauvreté (CPQSP), of which the TACAE is a member. “The previous minimum wage of $15.75 wasn’t enough to allow people to work their way out of poverty,” he said. “We can add 35 cents, but still, that’s $4.50 a week … the rent increase will eat that right up.” In January, the province’s housing tribunal estimated that rents would rise about 6.5 per cent, or $65 per month ($16.25 per week) for a person paying $1000 per month in 2024.

“Twenty per cent of people seeking help at food banks are working people, and with such a small salary increase, you’ll have more workers turning to food banks because rent is too high and salaries aren’t high enough,” he predicted.

Petitclerc noted that some people stay in minimum-wage jobs or low-wage jobs their whole careers, while others take part-time low-wage work to fit around their studies or other responsibilities. He argued for a higher minimum wage which would allow low-wage workers “not just to pay rent and eat, but to have a dignified life, which means having recreational activities, going out to eat from time to time, going camping for a week in the summer.”

He said a decent hourly wage would be closer to $28 per hour. “We won’t get there in a year, but these are things that can be planned over time – say, raise it to $18, then $20, then $22 and so on; that’s sensible long-term planning.”

“We’re close to a recession, mainly because of what’s going on with our southern neighbours, but we’re not really talking about the social safety net; we’re hearing a lot about tax cuts which will mainly benefit people who are relatively well off,” said Benjamin, the TACAE representative. “We’re definitely worried about this discourse.” 

The Conseil du patronat du Québec, which represents the province’s major employers, did not immediately comment on the increase.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Education Minister Bernard Drainville announced a new plan to improve school safety and the working environment in schools on May 1. Under the plan, students in public and private schools in the youth sector will no longer be allowed to use cell phones, headphones or other personal mobile devices on school property as of September 2025. Students will be required to call teachers “sir” and “miss,” use the formal vous when addressing them in French, and use “marks of politeness” with classmates and school staff. Language on gender equality will also be added to the updated codes of conduct in schools, which will be in force as of January 2026. Students who violate the code of conduct may be required to take “reparatory” action, such as writing an apology letter or doing chores around school. 

Additionally, Drainville said the ministry plans to have “SWAT teams,” mainly made up of retired educators, on call to help schools address systemic behavioural or cultural issues.

“As minister of education, and as a father, I have the responsibility to act so that our kids and the adults who accompany them have the right to an environment where they feel safe,” he said at a press conference at École secondaire de Rochebelle in Quebec City.

He said the plan was part of the government’s ongoing response to violence in schools and to cyberbullying, a “preventive” anti-bullying strategy which will contribute to “creating a culture of respect and civility.” He noted that several of the proposals in the strategy had been put forward by the recent parliamentary commission on the impact of screens on youth or by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) youth commission. He mentioned that as many as 400 schools in Quebec have some form of a cell phone ban in place.

Drainville said the ministry intended to “leave latitude” to individual schools to enforce the code in ways that worked for them, to enforce the phone ban, ensure students could communicate with their parents in an emergency, manage exceptions for those who need their phones for medical, pedagogical or family reasons, and promote the plan to parents. “Parents need to actively collaborate with school staff to support the application of the code of conduct,” he said.

Sophie Veilleux is a longtime teacher who is now president of the Syndicat d’enseignement de la Haute-Yamaska (SEHY), which represents teachers at French-language schools in the Centre des services scolaire de Val-des-Cerfs (CSSVDC) service area. She said that as far as she knew, teachers had not been consulted while the policy was being developed. “What I deplore is that this kind of thing should be discussed in schools, not imposed,” she told the BCN. “Yes, there are incivility issues and bullying issues, but a lot of students who act out are calling for help, so why don’t we put our energy into providing services [for those children]?”

Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB) board chair Michael Murray said the minister’s strategy was “not an ideal approach.”

“It downloads all of the responsibility onto the schools,” he said. “We can’t frisk the students coming into school, and we don’t want to be like some schools in New York City where they have metal detectors at the entrance,” he said. “We expect parents will object, because they like to stay in touch with their students during the day.”

Murray said he was concerned that enforcing the policy to the letter would place an additional burden on school staff. “Who is going to supervise a student who has been told to clean up litter – do we have to have an employee following the student?” He also expressed skepticism over the minister’s “SWAT team” proposal, pointing out that a call for retirees to fill teaching jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic “didn’t receive a great response.”

“These are musings by someone who is unfamiliar with the school system – well-meaning, but ultimately impractical,” he concluded.

Government boosts francisation funding

In a separate announcement last week, Drainville said the government would invest $119.3 million to fund subsidized French language courses for adults, known as francisation, offered by school boards and service centres over the course of the 2025-26 school year. The previous year’s francisation budget was $114.4 million, including $10 million in emergency top-up funding added in December.

Last year, several boards and service centres around the province, including the ETSB and CSSVDC, were forced to shut down their entire adult francisation programs after government funding – pro-rated according to student numbers from three years prior – turned out to be insufficient to meet vastly increased demand. The ETSB’s adult education division heavily promoted the program ahead of the 2024-2025 school year, only to have to shut it down in late November.

Murray said the ETSB expected to be able to reopen some classes with increased funding from the education ministry – “not on the scale of what we had before.”  He said it was too early to tell how many classes would open and where they would be located, although the board is actively recruiting teachers. “The location will depend on funding and where the students are. Adult education is year round, so we start the classes as soon as we have the mechanics together – the budget, the teachers and the students – and we continue until we run out of either funding or students,” he said.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

By this fall, Wilson Park in Farnham will host a memorial to the Japanese-Canadian internment camp survivors who were sent there in the years following the Second World War. The Quebec chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians recently received a grant from the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) to organize an opening ceremony for the memorial, which they hope will take place this fall. 

Montreal-based theatre artist Julie Tamiko Manning, the grandchild of survivors who was born in Cowansville and grew up in Farnham, has been working with the municipality for the past year and a half on the design of the project. “We are going back and forth with the municipality about what they can maintain, but we’re hoping to have it done by the end of the summer.”

Manning said the memorial will feature a Japanese-style rock garden designed by Montreal-based artist Stephen Kawai, also the descendent of survivors, a bench for contemplation and a tree – most likely a crabapple tree. Manning explained that the crabapple tree is a symbol of resilience for survivors and their families. “Cherry trees wouldn’t grow in this climate, so families planted crabapple trees instead, because they also flowered beautifully in the springtime. There are still cherry trees on my parents’ property in Farnham.”

Manning’s grandparents were among the 22,000 Japanese Canadians, mostly living in British Columbia, who were sent to internment camps during the Second World War. In 1946, they were allowed to leave, given the choice between returning to war-ravaged Japan or being resettled east of the Rockies. (Japanese Canadians’ right to free movement within Canada wasn’t restored until 1949.)

Her grandparents left the camp later than many other families because her 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,” Manning previously told the BCN. “Farnham is where people were sent who didn’t have family or sponsors or a job offer in Montreal.” Eleven families settled in Farnham, although once freedom of movement was restored, most left for Montreal or other parts of the country. “We would love to bring families back for the opening ceremony,” she said.

The project has received support from QAHN, the municipality of Farnham and the Japanese Canadian Legacy Society. The project is “about having something for community members to feel seen and remembered, and about telling the story more broadly,” said Sara Hanako Breitkreutz, manager of the Farnham Nikkei Memorial project at the NAJC Quebec chapter. “Other Japanese Canadians don’t necessarily know about this side of the story, let alone the broader Québécois population.” She added that the organization recognizes that the dispossession of Japanese Canadians happened on land that had already been stolen from Indigenous Peoples. “That’s another connection we want to make, both with the history of colonialism and the ongoing impact on Indigenous Peoples.”

“What jumped out at me about Farnham was that so many people, myself included, do not realize there was a Japanese-Canadian history in Farnham,” said Julie Miller, project co-ordinator of the SHARE (Supporting Heritage Awareness, Recognition and Engagement) grant program, administered by QAHN and funded by Canadian Heritage. “I think people are generally aware of what happened if they are placed in camps but many people aren’t aware that they were relocated as far as Quebec. It’s an important story.”

The Farnham Nikkei Memorial Project was one of ten living history projects across the province that received SHARE grant funding, and one of two in Estrie, along with The Hut in Lennoxville.

 Submissions are open for the second round of SHARE grants administered by QAHN. If you represent an organization and have questions about the grant, contact Julie Miller (julie@qahn.org). For more information on the Farnham Nikkei Memorial, or if you have relatives who were resettled in Farnham after the Second World War, contact Sara Hanako Breitkreutz at NAJCQuebec@gmail.com.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A new bus service is expected to be up and running between Cowansville, Bromont, Granby, Saint-Alphonse-de-Granby and East Farnham by the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year.

The future Circuit Brome-Yamaska is a one-year pilot project developed by the MRCs of Brome-Missisquoi and Haute-Yamaska, financed by the Quebec government’s Fonds Régions et Ruralité. It responds to longstanding demand from transit riders for service between the two MRCs.

Buses will run on a single circular route between the five municipalities; the service schedule, ticket prices, ways to buy tickets and exact location of the stops are yet to be determined, although the service is being developed with students at the Campus Brome-Missisquoi and Cégep de Granby, commuters and patients and staff at local health facilities in mind. A call for tenders is expected to be launched in the next few weeks to find a bus service provider. Once the bus service has begun, the route and schedule may be adjusted to better adapt to how people are using the service.

“This has taken many years of work, but we are extremely pleased to have officially ratified this important inter-MRC agreement. In Haute-Yamaska, we are convinced that improving the regional public transit offering is a key element in achieving a more carbon-neutral region, in addition to being an essential service for our communities,” said Paul Sarrazin, prefect of the MRC of Haute-Yamaska.

Sarrazin said the two MRCs had been working together for several years on resource-sharing agreements before hitting on the idea of a shared transit service. “For the last several years, we have been working more and more closely, and we said, ‘Why can’t we work together on this?’,” Sarrazin said. “The [jurisdictional] obstacles were easily avoided because there was a lot of good will. We want to provide alternatives to solo car use.”

Sarrazin and MRC Brome-Missisquoi transport co-ordinator Khalil El Fatmi said the pilot project wouldn’t replace any existing transit services in the two municipalities, and that it would be co-ordinated as much as possible to allow riders to transfer between services – for example, to use the existing Haute-Yamaska bus service to travel from Waterloo to Granby and then the new Circuit service to go on to Cowansville. “A transport service succeeds or fails because of how easy to use it is, and we want to make it an interesting experience,” Sarrazin said. He said officials don’t have a specific ridership target in mind, but they “hope the demand will be there.”

“We want it to be operational for back-to-school in September, and we’ll give you more details before then,” said Sarrazin. “Things will move quickly over the next few months.”

MRC promotes local carpooling partnership

In other shared transportation news, the MRC of Brome-Missisquoi announced last week that it is rolling out a new carpooling service in partnership with the established online carpool reservation service Amigo Express, the Table des MRC de l’Estrie and several major employers.  The service uses a mobile booking platform called Amigo Local to book rides and let other users know they’re looking for rides. “Thanks to this partnership, Brome-Missisquoi residents will now have access to a user-friendly and secure platform to organize their travel within the MRC and throughout the Estrie region. This local carpooling service is designed to meet everyday mobility needs while promoting an eco-responsible and community-based approach,” El Fatmi said. “This new service complements our current services and aims to expand the options available to everyone, particularly in underserved areas or during off-peak hours.”

Amigo Express founder Marc-Olivier Vachon explained that Amigo Local is “more informal” than the Amigo Express long-distance platform. “It’s about seeing who uses the same route as you do, developing a bank of contacts and chatting with them to co-ordinate. You determine the price and the payment method between yourselves; maybe you want to rotate drivers. Amigo Express doesn’t do the coordination, but our customer service line will be available if there’s a problem.” Signing up for the platform is free.

Although Estrie is the only region to date where Amigo Local is being promoted in partnership with municipalities and major employers, the platform can be used anywhere in Canada. “We have people who use it in Baie-Comeau and in Sept-Iles,” said Vachon.

Vachon said clear communication is key for a fun, safe and simple carpooling experience. “Carpooling is more than just going from a to b … be open-minded and don’t be afraid to start a conversation,” he said. To learn more about Amigo Local, email info@amigoexpress.com or call the Amigo Express customer service line at 1 (877) 264-4697.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The leaders of Canada’s four main political parties held two wide-ranging debates this past weekend at the Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal. The French-language debate on April 16 was moderated by Radio-Canada anchor Patrice Roy and the English debate the next evening by Steve Paikin, host of TVO’s The Agenda.

The French-language debate was overshadowed by several controversies. Less than 24 hours before the debate, it was rescheduled to avoid a potential overlap with the end of a Montreal Canadiens game; the morning of the debate, Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault was ruled ineligible to participate because Elections Canada had not confirmed a sufficient number of Green candidates. The post-debate press conference attracted nationwide attention when several right-wing outlets asked contentious questions and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh declined to answer; the following day’s conference was cancelled after two arguments between reporters in the press room, leading Michel Cormier, the director general of the Leaders’ Debates’ Commission, to say the commission “could not ensure a propitious environment” for it.

It was centered around five themes – cost of living, energy and climate, trade war, identity and sovereignty, and immigration. All four leaders linked the themes to their respective agendas. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised to cut taxes by 15 per cent, eliminate federal sales tax on new homes and reduce regulations to speed the building of houses and resource extraction projects such as mines, and linked Carney’s proposals to those of his predecessor, Justin Trudeau. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet emphasized Quebec’s resource-based economy and cultural and linguistic distinctions; Liberal Leader and frontrunner Mark Carney emphasized the importance of crisis management and the necessity of countertariffs. Singh repeatedly brought up the health system (which Blanchet emphasized was under provincial jurisdiction) and emphasized the NDP’s role in creating the federal dental care program. Carney pledged to reduce taxes for the middle class but defended his decision to walk back a capital gains tax increase.

The trade war segment led to animated discussion. All of the leaders pledged to maintain supply management in the dairy sector, the French language and Canadian sovereignty, and build more homes.

They all weighed in on Quebec City’s tramway and the proposed “third link” between Quebec City and Lévis.  “Quebec City wants a tramway, the Quebec government wants a tramway, the federal government’s responsibility is to send them the money,” Blanchet said. Singh said the NDP supported the tramway but not the third link; Poilievre backed the third link but not the tramway, accusing his rivals of wanting to “ban cars.” Carney said the federal government would continue to support the tramway, but he couldn’t commit to supporting the third link because he hadn’t seen the project yet.

Issues affecting Indigenous people and linguistic minorities were almost entirely off the agenda, except for Poilievre’s defence of Radio-Canada as a crucial link for francophone minority communities. (He defended his plan to defund CBC and made no mention of Indigenous broadcasting.)

The English debate was centred around public safety, the cost of living, energy, crisis management and “tariffs and threats to Canada.” The four leaders agreed that U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policies posed a threat to the country, and both Carney and Poilievre said they supported countertariffs, although not necessarily dollar-for-dollar tariffs. Poilievre criticized the previous Liberal government for weakening the economy and making it more difficult to build pipelines which he argued were essential for the country’s energy independence. Singh criticized the short-lived Carney government for walking back the capital gains tax increase while failing to increase EI. Blanchet argued that Carney’s and Poilievre’s plans for reducing red tape around pipelines and other energy sovereignty projects overrode provincial jurisdiction.

Poilievre and Singh criticized the Liberals for the cost-of-living crisis. “Only 10 years ago, you could buy a house for $450,000, but in the lost Liberal decade, housing costs have doubled,” the Conservative leader said, saying a Conservative government would build houses on federal land and train thousands of tradespeople. His NDP counterpart suggested putting price controls on grocery staples and banning corporate landlords from buying affordable rental housing units.

International affairs were also on the agenda, with Singh calling the conflict in Gaza a genocide, Carney calling for an immediate ceasefire and a resumption of aid, and Poilievre coming out in support of a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine. 

Toward the end of the debate, candidates discussed gun control, crime and the notwithstanding clause. Poilievre said his government would use the notwithstanding clause to enact tough-on-crime policies. “In fact, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms exists to protect Canadians from people like us on the stage, politicians who may use their power to override fundamental rights,” Carney argued, before the four leaders made their final pitch to voters.

The full debate can be watched on the CBC website. Advance polls began over the weekend; the final day of voting is April 28.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Councillors in the town of Brome Lake have passed a resolution supporting a southern route for the main transmission line of the new Brome substation.

Although the exact location of the substation itself hasn’t been determined, two routes are under consideration for the transmission line – the “southern line” which would begin in Cowansville and the “northern line” which would begin in Brigham.

“The southern line is currently privileged by Hydro-Québec for economic and technical reasons, [and] it’s also privileged by the Town of Brome Lake, given that it presents the least negative impact on bucolic landscapes and the interests of the Town of Brome Lake,” the resolution reads.

Councillors unanimously resolved to inform Hydro-Québec that the town prefers the southern route, and to send a copy of the resolution to the MRC Brome-Missisquoi, to neighbouring municipalities and to MNA Isabelle Charest.

Choosing the southern route is the “better thing to do financially and environmentally,” Brome Lake mayor Richard Burcombe told the BCN. “The distance of the southern line will be six or seven kilometres shorter than the northern one, and why pass through that beautiful land to the north, virgin forest? The southern route is down lower, the [transmission line] will be better hidden.”

He noted that the area under study for the placement of the substation has been enlarged and now includes some land on the opposite side of Route 139. “If it’s possible to have the [substation] on the western side of that [zone] it would make the transmission line even shorter, so that would be the best option.”

Burcombe referenced a resolution passed earlier this month by the town of Sutton, calling on Hydro-Québec to consider alternative locations and modalities for the substation. A Hydro-Québec representative later told the BCN that the utility was considering some of Sutton’s proposals, including adding new batteries or capacitor banks, but that others – such as adding an additional transformer or additional lines – would leave a larger construction footprint than originally planned. “I don’t want to talk about what another municipality did, but I can’t argue with engineers,” Burcombe said. “If we’re going to do something, we should do it right for the next 70 years.”

The exact location of the substation is currently up for debate. Burcombe, Sutton Mayor Robert Benoit and Cowansville Mayor Sylvie Beauregard have all expressed reservations about a site under consideration in Sutton Junction. According to a timeline on Hydro-Québec’s website, details of the “optimized” project should be announced this fall. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, and the new substation should start providing electricity to Sutton and the surrounding area in 2028. Hydro-Québec representatives were not immediately available to comment over Easter weekend.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The city of Bromont is developing a new public participation policy in partnership with the Institut du Nouveau Monde (INM), and teens will have a front-row seat, city officials announced last week.

“Bromont residents have a strong sense of civic engagement, and this is a real asset for our community. This is why, along with the members of the council, we want to work to foster this proud civic participation by recognizing it in our policies. We will take advantage of this public exercise to collectively reflect on optimizing our methods of dialogue, which we hope will be constructive and ongoing,” acting deputy mayor Tatiana Contreras said in a statement.

A nonpartisan ad hoc committee formed of elected officials (Mont-Brome Councillor Michel Bilodeau and Adamsville Councillor Jocelyne Corbeil), city employees (Ève Panneton, head of the department of culture and community life, and public affairs assistant Audrey Leboeuf), one representative of the INM (former Bromont resident Marianik Gagnon), representatives of community organizations and four citizens in a personal capacity (to be named later) will be formed this month and tasked with developing the policy. Applications are open until April 27, and two of the four citizen spots on the committee will be reserved for 16- and 17-year-olds.

Leboeuf is the spokesperson for the public participation policy initiative. She said the initiative has been on the table since 2023 as part of Bromont’s ten-year strategic plan. She explained that there are three ways of participating in public life in your community – voting, social participation (getting involved with a community organization, school or local social movement) or public participation (taking part in a participative budget process, urban planning consultation or similar event).  “We want to favour public participation and we don’t have a structure for it,” she said. “We want to see how people would like to be consulted, and that’s something we will see with the ad hoc committee.”

Leboeuf, a former employee of the Val-des-Cerfs school service centre, said she and Corbeil, a retired teacher, had pushed especially hard to make sure teens were consulted. “Young people are the citizens of tomorrow, and we want to make sure we have a constructive dialogue with them,” Leboeuf said. “They inform themselves differently and they participate in society differently. They are the spokespeople of their generation, and if we want to get their interest, we should give them the mic.”

“It was very important for us to involve young people from the very beginning of the process. We want to demonstrate our willingness to welcome their ideas and dreams regarding the implementation of this policy,” said Corbeil.

Leboeuf added that the policy was inspired by similar initiatives in Sherbrooke and in several towns in France. “We’re trying to take the best of what has been done elsewhere and adapt it to the issues that are unique to us and our region. Bromonters are really involved with their city, their community and their social fabric. We want to increase and optimize that involvement…to optimize the processes in place.”

The members of the ad hoc committee will be formally named at the May 5 council meeting. As part of the process, elected officials and city employees will be trained on how to facilitate public participation, and residents of all ages will be able to present their own ideas about public consultation at a forum in late May. Leboeuf didn’t want to speculate about the ideas that would come out of the committee meetings or the forum. “I don’t want to speak for residents; let’s give them the microphone instead.”

The final public participation policy, developed with input from the committee and the public forum, will be adopted by councillors in August or September. 

Those who are interested in serving on the committee can apply online at bromont.net or pick up a paper application package at City Hall or at the Bromont Community Centre.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Brome Lake residents who own boats will not have to pay an additional fee to take their boats out on the town’s eponymous lake this summer, town officials have confirmed. A bylaw to that effect was passed at the April 7 council meeting.

Residents must register their boats and get a vignette to benefit from free access. Residents with vignettes will also be able to wash their boats at the municipal boat-washing station for free.

“Vignettes will be free for residents, and residents will have the moral obligation to make sure their boat is clean before using it on the lake,” director general Gilbert Arel said in a video recap of the council meeting. Arel said further information about how to obtain a vignette and how to use the new boat-washing station will be shared later. “I know we’re already in April, but there are still a few things to be worked out, and we invite you to keep an eye on communications from the town. It’s no use coming to get your vignette at the town hall right now because [the vignettes] are not available yet.”

Non-residents will be able to purchase a vignette allowing access for $100.

At the boat-washing station, non-residents or residents without a vignette will pay $20 to wash a motorboat or $5 to wash a non-motorized boat. Non-resident boat owners who use the station regularly and don’t want the inconvenience of paying separately for each washing can buy a season pass for $200.

“Everything is free for Brome Lake residents,” Mayor Richard Burcombe told the BCN. “That was what was changed in the bylaw. The fact is, we heard what people were saying and we decided to make it free of charge for residents if they stay on Brome Lake, and that’s what most of them will do.”

Non-resident users and residents without vignettes must get a washing certificate before taking their boat out on the lake or face a fine. Although washing certificates are not required for residents with vignettes, Burcombe strongly encouraged boat owners to have their boats washed before taking them out on the lake, to prevent the spread of invasive species such as zebra mussels. “I don’t believe we’ve detected any zebra mussels here yet, but there are a lot of boats that come in and use the access points for non-residents … and it’s good to keep invasive species out.”

The same bylaw also made parking free for all Brome Lake residents “in all parking spaces located on the territory of the town of Brome Lake or held by the town,” on the condition that the parked car or truck is registered with the municipality. There is a $5 registration fee. Non-residents using the same parking spaces will pay $6 to park for a maximum of two hours or $20 for a day pass valid until midnight.

Courtesy

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

New Democratic Party organizers in Brome-Missisquoi are breathing a sigh of relief after successfully recruiting a new candidate with just days to go before the registration deadline. The previous candidate, Magog-based artist Joanne Brouard, pulled out shortly before the April 7 deadline for personal reasons. Zoé Larose will now run for the NDP in the riding.

According to Elections Canada, candidates must submit a nomination package including a personal information form, proof of identity, a statement of support signed by 100 voters from the candidate’s riding, signed declarations from a campaign agent, auditor and delegate and a statement of endorsement from their party (unless running as an independent). The deadline to submit these documents was 2 p.m. on April 7; candidates who missed the deadline could not appear on the ballot.

Larose does not have a biography on the NDP website and attempts to get in touch with her through the party and on social media have so far been unsuccessful.

NDP press attaché Olivier Clavet said such situations, where the party had to replace a candidate at the eleventh hour, were unusual but not unheard of. “It’s happened one or two times out of all the candidates we’ve recruited,” he said. “We did have to get all of the signatures again.”

The NDP is polling a distant fourth in Brome-Missisquoi, according to poll aggregator Canada338. The riding last elected an NDP MP in 2011, when “Orange Waver” Pierre Jacob won the riding. Brome-Missisquoi has had Liberal MPs since 2015.

The aggregator estimates that the Liberals, with 47 per cent support, have a greater than 99 per cent likelihood of holding on to the seat left vacant by Pascale St-Onge. The Conservatives are polling second in the riding at 23 per cent, followed closely by the Bloc Québécois at 21 per cent. The NDP and the Green Party have four and three per cent support respectively. Bromont Mayor Louis Villeneuve is running for the Liberals, former CFL player Steve Charbonneau for the Conservatives, actor Jeff Boudreault for the Bloc Québécois, Larose for the NDP, acupuncturist and activist Michelle Corcos for the Green Party and entrepreneur Jack McLeod for the People’s Party of Canada.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

For his 30th birthday last year, Farnhamite Gabriel Laguë invited 400 of his closest friends and neighbours to a party at Microbrasserie Farnham, and booked five local bands.

“When I was 18, I went backpacking with a friend and told him I wanted to make a music festival. It was an old dream. When I turned 30, I thought, why not do it?”

He enjoyed the birthday party-slash-festival so much that he decided to make it an annual tradition. The first official edition of the Festival Belle Banlieue is planned for Sept. 26-27 at the Microbrasserie. Eclectic Quebec folk singer-songwriter Bernard Adamus will headline the festival, alongside the festive country band Tailgate Radio and six yet-to-be-named local acts from around the Townships. The full program will be released April 30.

Laguë, a serving army nurse and former volunteer at Soif de Musique in Cowansville, has been working on the festival on evenings, on weekends and on his vacation days. He said he was motivated by the enthusiasm of Farnhamites for his original idea. “Everyone knows everyone in Farnham, and whenever something is going on, people show up,” he said. “We don’t have a festival in Farnham. I want to create an opportunity for people in Farnham to get to go to a real festival without going to a big city. In Farnham, we have great artists, great local businesses, great beer… there’s no reason we can’t do it!”

Mayor Patrick Melchior and town employees were among the guests at Laguë’s original shindig. “I wanted to show them what we could do with a small budget,” Laguë said. For this year’s festival, the town has provided a grant of $5,000, and the Microbrasserie Farnham will provide staff to sell food and drinks. The rest will be managed by Laguë, with help from his longtime friend and Soif de Musique cofounder Edouard Lagacé, in an advisory role; a technical director; and a security team made up of Laguë’s friends. They have also found a few local corporate sponsors and are eager for other local businesses to get involved “in some way that highlights their strengths.”

“The goal is for it to be festive and fun, with no misbehaviour, for everyone to have a good time, to get the party started,” he said. “It’s a first attempt, and I know there will be some kinks to work out. Financially, our goal is to break even…and potentially do something bigger for the town’s 150th birthday next year.” 

He added that the name “Belle Banlieue” (which translates to “beautiful suburb”) is “both a nod to and a declaration of love for our reality. Farnham is often seen as just a suburb, but it has a strong identity, a vibrant culture and a close-knit community. We wanted to reclaim this pride and show that the suburbs are beautiful, festive and creative.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A week after the town of Sutton passed a resolution formally calling for Hydro-Québec to consider alternatives for the Brome substation, Hydro-Québec says it is “evaluating” some of the proposals, but others appear technically infeasible.

The Brome substation, which is expected to be built in 2027, will replace the existing Sutton and Knowlton substations and provide electricity to Sutton, Brome Lake and Cowansville. Hydro-Québec intends to build the substation on rural land near the boundaries of Brome Lake, Brome village and Sutton. Earlier this year, the mayors of Sutton, Cowansville and Brome Lake expressed concerns about the proposed location, asking Hydro-Québec to consider alternate locations. “The three municipalities agree that Hydro-Québec’s current proposed site targets a particularly bucolic area where the presence of this substation, much larger than the previous ones, and new towers up to 45 metres high, risk disfiguring a landscape that makes our region so attractive,” according to a statement released in February by the town of Sutton.

On April 2, Sutton councillors passed a resolution asking the utility to look into alternatives to building a new substation, including adding new transformers, batteries or capacitor banks to existing substations; building additional 49-kV or 69-kV lines and increasing investment in solar energy.

Hydro-Québec regional affairs advisor Ève-Marie Jodoin said the utility was looking into the idea of adding new batteries or capacitor banks, although the other solutions proposed by councillors did not seem feasible from Hydro’s perspective.

“When we have space, it’s possible to add new transformers, but even if we have space, it’s not necessarily the best solution in the long term,” she said. “Adding a transformer would need to be part of a scenario that would include other kinds of construction, and we can’t really address that at this stage.” Creating additional 49-kV or 69-kV lines, at a time when Hydro is transitioning from the century-old 49-kV network to a 120-kV network, would “have an even bigger footprint” in terms of construction than the proposed substation.

Solar energy, “cannot replace the scenario we have proposed,” Jodoin said. “Is it something we can do complementarily? Certainly, but not on its own – it takes up a lot of space, we would have to find a place to put [the panels], and it’s hard to have [year-round] in Quebec for climatic reasons.”

Jodoin described Hydro-Québec’s working relationship with municipalities in the area and with the MRC Brome-Missisquoi as “very good,” and said Hydro representatives planned to meet with the Town of Sutton in the coming weeks. She said Hydro intends to finalize the location of the substation and the associated transmission lines by the end of this year. “Hydro-Québec will make that decision … We are the ones responsible for finding the location that will have the least social, economic, environmental and agricultural impact in terms of what we have heard from citizens.”

Sutton Mayor Robert Benoit said in a brief email exchange that no dates had been set for additional meetings between Hydro and the municipality as of this writing.

Jodoin added that citizens who would like to share their concerns and haven’t been able to do so at previous consultations should be able to do so via the Hydro-Québec website, in French or English, at least until the end of April. 

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

With the deadline to name candidates only hours away as this edition of The Record went to press, the electoral picture is becoming clear in Sherbrooke. Liberal incumbent Élisabeth Brière, minister of national revenue and veterans’ affairs, is running for a third term. In addition to Brière, in alphabetical order, the candidates are engineer Jean-Pierre Fortier for the New Democratic Party (NDP), Alexandre Lépine for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), former Champlain College art professor Kevin McKenna for the Green Party, Esteban Méndez-Hord for the Conservative Party and actor Pierre-Étienne Rouillard for the Bloc Québécois.

The downtown riding was reliably Liberal from its creation in 1925 – with the exception of a Conservative-Social Credit blip in the 1960s–  until future Quebec premier Jean Charest won it for the Mulroney Conservatives in 1984. The Bloc Québécois held the seat from 1998-2011, when Pierre-Luc Dusseault of the NDP captured it in the “Orange Wave;” Brière narrowly won it back for the Liberals in 2019. Although polls showed the Bloc was likely to win the seat as recently as early February, 338Canada now rates it as a safe Liberal seat, with polls indicating the Liberals have 53 per cent support compared to 19 per cent for the Bloc, 17 per cent for the Conservatives and six per cent for the NDP.

Brière said she believed the key issue in this election was Canada-U.S. relations. “We’re hearing a lot about that – businesspeople are worried about the threat of the tariffs, which are creating chaos. [Liberal Leader] Mark Carney is an economist who worked on two economic crises. As governor of the Bank of England after Brexit, he was there to respond well to a complex situation. At this time, he’s the best person to lead the country.”

She said the other major issues for the region were housing and affordability, and praised the Liberals’ national housing strategy and the Carney government’s plan to build 500,000 homes across the country. “We’re taking care of so many other issues when we take care of housing – when you have a roof over your head, that means security and safety.”

Brière, who spoke with The Record in English, said she had a good working relationship with the English-speaking community, including Bishop’s University, Townshippers’ and the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network. “When Bishop’s was in difficulty, we were able to get federal funding for them, for a new library and greenhouses.”

Carney has said his government would intervene in an eventual Supreme Court challenge to Bill 96, the CAQ government’s controversial language legislation, but defended the law when the Trump administration described it as a trade barrier. “It’s a complex situation,” Brière acknowledged. “We’re the party of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and official bilingualism … We support the goals of the law but oppose the use of the notwithstanding clause.”

NDP candidate Fortier said that amid the rise of disinformation and online hate, the climate crisis and the rising cost of living, he felt that he “had to do something more, just to be able to sleep at night.”

“Grocery prices are still going up, and with a full-time job, you should be able to buy groceries, pay rent, save and still have some money left over – that isn’t happening, and people are losing hope, which is something I want to address.” He said the housing crisis, climate anxiety, improving access to public health care and standing up to the Trump administration on trade were key issues. He also said a strong NDP caucus was necessary to defend the federal dental care and pharmacare programs. “Whether we have a Conservative or Liberal government, they will cut, and the Bloc is just there to block progress – we’re the only party with a progressive vision of the future,” he argued.

Fortier, who took leave from his job as head of the water management division of the Ville de Sherbrooke to campaign, described himself as a hardworking and responsible leader who understood infrastructure and emergency response. He described his English ability as “average,” but said he built some connections with the English-speaking community working on projects in Lennoxville.

Lépine is described on the PPC website as a community-minded candidate who “stands for the core values of freedom, personal responsibility, respect, and fairness” and believes Canada “can restore its prosperity and empower the people through bold convictions.”

Green Party candidate McKenna, who did not respond to a request for comment before press time, is described on the party website as an artist, freelance translator, graphic designer, ultralight aircraft instructor, contributor to several community publications and singer-songwriter who “wants to put his experience, creativity and deep local roots to work in support of ecological transition, social justice, and democratic renewal.”

Conservative candidate Méndez-Hord did not respond to interview requests, and his page on the Conservative Party website lacks a bio. His online presence amounts to a personal Facebook page sharing content by Poilievre and other Conservative candidates.

Bloc candidate, actor and novice politician Rouillard said he “wasn’t scared” by the political arena. “It takes all kinds of people to represent society in Parliament – lawyers, journalists, workers and artists,” he said. “It’s important to be a good listener, to be available and to understand the issues.”

Cross-border trade is top of mind for Rouillard, as it is for several of his fellow candidates. “The tariffs are already touching the region. The Bloc proposes to modify certain measures to speed up the processing of unemployment insurance applications. When you lose your job, it’s very scary, and the Bloc understands that fear,” he said. He also said the Bloc plans to demand that a Quebec delegation be present on all Canadian trade missions, to defend “aluminium, fisheries, our water resources, critical minerals and all the things that make us proud to be Quebecers.”

Easing access to property for young people is another concern on Roullard’s agenda; he said the Bloc planned to push for policies to help first-time homebuyers with their down payments and abolish the GST on service fees associated with buying a house.

Rouillard said he isn’t bilingual but is eager to make connections with the English-speaking community. “I know certain anglophones can be scared of sovereignty, but we are proposing to protect the territory that we all live in,” he said. “We are the best placed to defend the interests of Quebec.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Quebec’s English-language school boards and education advocates are in a celebratory mood after the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled in their favour in a long-running court battle with the provincial government.

In February 2020, the Legault government passed Bill 40, which replaced elected school boards with service centres overseen by government-appointed directors general and unelected volunteer boards. At the time, the bill’s backers argued that it would increase the efficiency of governance in the educational system and remove the need for costly school board elections that relatively few people bothered to vote in. The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) and its member boards, however, saw an attempt to remove English-speaking communities’ control over minority-language education as laid out in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Several months after the bill passed, a court suspended its application to English-language school boards while a legal challenge, brought by QESBA, Montreal’s Lester B. Pearson School Board and a concerned parent, made its way through the courts. In August 2023, Superior Court Judge Sylvain Lussier struck down large parts of the law as it applied to English boards, in line with QESBA’s argument that the law unjustifiably limited the charter rights of official language minority communities. In September of that year, the government appealed the ruling.

In a ruling handed down April 3, appeals court judges Robert M. Mainville, Christine Baudouin and Judith Harvie essentially upheld Lussier’s conclusion, finding large parts of the bill inoperative with respect to English-language boards. The judges found that the school board governance scheme set out in Bill 40, infringed on the community’s right to control its education system and disincentivized parents and community members from getting involved. The community is “entitled to independent school boards that must, at a minimum, allow minority language representatives to exercise exclusive authority relating to minority-language education and facilities,” they wrote, in a ruling that extensively cited previous rulings involving francophone school districts in other parts of Canada. “The Court cannot accept the argument that the linguistic minority is represented through the staff hired by a service centre.” They also found that Bill 40 “radically alters existing structures…in response to political imperatives specific to the French-speaking majority” and the government failed to show, in its appeal, how the new system would help schools obtain educational objectives.

QESBA president Joe Ortona said the school boards “could not have asked for a better ruling.”

“We have been functioning since 2020 as if Bill 40 did not exist, and we plan to continue functioning that way, since the provisions we challenged continue not to apply for us,” he said. “We have local elected representatives who are accountable to the English-speaking community and that is how it should be. Our Section 23 rights matter.”

Eva Ludvig is the president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), which was granted intervenor status in the case.  “The QCGN had reminded the court that although Quebec has broad authority over education, that authority is not limitless,” she said in a statement on the day of the ruling. “If a law interferes with minority-language rights, the burden is on the province to justify it… and that is a high bar to meet. This is why today’s ruling is such a landmark win for our community.”

English Parents’ Committee Association president Katherine Korakakis said the ruling was a “historic victory, not just for parents, but for every member of our community who believes in shaping our children’s future.” Eastern Townships School Board chairperson Michael Murray said the ruling was “very satisfying,” particularly because it imposed a broad definition of the English-speaking community.

He added that the five-year-long legal battle “has been a huge distraction from our primary mission, which is to educate anglophone youth – the energy and the money we have spent to arrive at the same place where we were before the government began imposing Bill 40.  The government is within its rights to make changes where the majority community wants and supports them, but the minority community has protected rights, meaning it should not apply ipso facto to us.”

The Quebec government has 60 days to decide whether to ask the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to appeal. Murray and Ortona said they hoped the government would decide to meet with school board representatives to plan a way forward instead of appealing. “The two-speed system which has been in place since Bill 40 has been working pretty well,” Murray said. “That would be a starting point for discussions … it would be an enormous relief for us to have this succession of legal battles terminated so we can get back to the basics of operating our schools.”

The Quebec government has 60 days from the date of the ruling to apply for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the ruling “out of respect for the judicial process.”

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The federal election campaign is heating up in the riding of Shefford, which includes Granby, Waterloo, most of the MRCs of Rouville and Haute-Yamaska and the southwestern section of Val-Saint-François.

Until mid-March, polls suggested that Bloc Québécois incumbent Andréanne Larouche would retain her seat without much difficulty, but the momentum has shifted toward the Liberals in recent weeks, with 338Canada showing the seat as “LPC likely” as of this writing. Polls show the Liberals at 43 per cent, the Bloc at 32 per cent, the Conservatives at 17 per cent and the NDP at three per cent. A Liberal stronghold for much of the 20th century, the riding has alternated between Liberal and Bloc MPs since 1979, although it briefly swung Conservative from 1997-2000 and NDP from 2011-2015.

In alphabetical order, the candidates are Félix Dionne of the Liberals, Patrick Jasmin of the NDP, Larouche for the Bloc, Susanne Lefebvre of the People’s Party of Canada, James Seale of the Conservatives and Audrey-Ann Turcotte-Brochu of the Green Party.

Dionne, who stepped aside from his Granby city council seat to run for the Liberals, is an engineer who grew up in Shefford and worked for ten years for the federal government, mainly for Industry Canada. He moved back to Shefford to help his father and brother run a network of Tim Hortons franchises. Going to community events led him to take an interest in politics and run for city council, where he was given responsibility for commercial and tourism development. “As a civil servant I saw how we could develop programs, and as a business owner, I used the programs,” he said. “I’m very pragmatic, less attached to symbols and more to results. I want to see what we can get for Shefford, to use every program, every opportunity to make sure we don’t leave money on the table.”

“I worked on economic development, housing and infrastructure on city council, and those are the biggest issues in Shefford,” he said. “The other issue is our southern neighbour, the danger that’s stalking us… we have a lot of companies who have cross-border [operations] and we need to protect jobs. We also have a lot of farmers and agricultural communities. Mr. [François-Philippe] Champagne announced the party’s agricultural platform in Shefford, and I was proud that they came here. We explained our commitment to protect supply management.”

Dionne is a self-described centrist who said he believed Liberal leader Mark Carney was “the man of the moment” to “recenter” the party and defend Canadian interests amid the trade war with the United States.

Dionne said he was bilingual but learned English as an adult working in Ottawa; since coming back to Quebec, he hasn’t needed the language as much. “Some people have asked if I’ll do English campaign videos, and they’re right to ask – it’s my job to communicate with [anglophones] and I need to hurry up because it’s a short campaign.”

Jasmin is a communications professional and former paramedic who has lived in Shefford since 2019; he is running for the NDP in the riding for the second time. His mother’s family is anglophone and his children attended English school. He said the “American situation,” the rising cost of living, the housing crisis, the future of the agricultural sector and climate adaptation were the most pressing local issues.

“We’re all worried about climate change and how you can continue to be a farmer, and the support you need for climate adaptation,” he said. “We need a government that is ready to get involved, not saying we have to cut, cut, cut, lower the taxes of the privileged classes and subsidize oil – when we do that, we’re limiting the ways we can help the community. The NDP is the party that is the most ready to assume that responsibility to say, ‘Yes, we’ll invest in social programs.’ We can’t say we’re going all-in on renewable energy and ditch fossil fuels without working with workers on the economic transition and social programs and health care. I’ll keep working, whatever the polls say, and I hope people will hear that message.”

In a brief interview between campaign stops, Larouche said she hoped to continue the work she was elected to do in 2019 and 2021. “Minority governments go by fast, and I don’t feel like I’m at the end of everything.”

She said the housing crisis in urban areas, support for farmers in rural areas, and rising costs and the threat of job losses everywhere were the riding’s most pressing problems. She said the Bloc would work to protect supply management and increase allocations for people living on fixed incomes.

The two-term incumbent described herself as “an on-the ground MP, who would work in everyone’s interest,” and her Liberal rival Dionne acknowledged she was “very present.” She argued that a strong Bloc caucus would be to the benefit of both francophone and anglophone Quebecers. “We are a people of entrepreneurs; we have our own economic model and we need to maintain that. The anglophone community shares our entrepreneurial culture and they can defend Quebec as well.”

PPC candidate Lefebvre is described on the party website as a businesswoman who grew up in a bilingual and devoutly Christian family. She is a mother and grandmother and an advocate for healthy lifestyles and nutrition. “Like other PPC candidates, she opposes unnecessary foreign expenditures and believes that resources should be directed toward Canada’s economic development, healthcare system, and social safety net. She strongly opposes mass immigration and believes that anyone wishing to settle in our beautiful country should go through the legal processes,” her party biography reads. “Susanne stands for a peaceful Canada, where peace, prosperity, and human dignity are at the heart of national priorities and for a better and fairer future for all.”

Conservative candidate James Seale acknowledged an interview request but was not available to comment at press time. Seale ran for the PPC in the Montreal riding of Outremont in 2019. In a Facebook post, he describes his “multifaceted career” with military deployments in Germany, Israel, Bosnia and Haiti. After leaving the military, according to the post, he earned an MBA, CPA, and a master’s diploma in supply chain and operations, alongside becoming a certified fraud investigator. “His focus on fiscal responsibility and transparent governance stems from a deep-seated belief in maximizing value for taxpayers. Seale’s commitment to open dialogue and the defence of free speech underscores his belief in a robust and engaged citizenry,” his biography states.

Green candidate Turcot-Brochu, who did not respond to an interview request, is the director of communications and funding of the federal Green Party. “I’ve been actively engaged in my community for over a decade, serving on boards of directors for non-profits focused on women’s rights, women in sports and food security. These causes are close to my heart and continue to fuel my drive for change,” she writes in a party biography.

The federal election will take place April 28.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The race is on to replace former Liberal Cabinet minister Pascale St-Onge in Brome-Missisquoi. As of early last week, all five federal parties with parliamentary representation have presented their candidates in the riding; St-Onge announced in February that she did not plan to run again. 

In alphabetical order, the candidates are actor Jeff Boudreault for the Bloc Québécois, Magog-based artist and former journalist Joanne Brouard for the New Democratic Party (NDP), former Montreal Alouette and director general of the Fondation pour les sports adaptés Steve Charbonneau for the Conservatives, environmentalist and vice-president of the Ordre québécois des acupuncturistes Michelle Corcos for the Green Party and Bromont Mayor Louis Villeneuve for the Liberals. Entrepreneur Jack McLeod will run for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC). As of March 31, no independent or smaller-party candidates have registered in the riding with Elections Canada.

Since its creation in 1984, the riding has gone to the Conservatives from 1984-1993, the Bloc Québécois from 1993-1994, the Liberals from 1995-2006, the Bloc again from 2006-2011 and the NDP after the 2011 “Orange Wave.” Since 2015, it has been represented by three different Liberal MPs. Although polls late last year suggested the Bloc would reclaim the seat, poll aggregator 338Canada now rates it as a safe Liberal seat, with the Liberals polling at an average of 42 per cent compared to 25 per cent for the Bloc, 22 per cent for the Conservatives and 3 per cent each for the NDP and the Green Party (data for the PPC was not provided).

Boudreault, who has lived in Bromont for the past ten years, became a household name in much of the province when he played journalist Jean Brière on the popular Radio-Canada police drama District 31; he has also worked in special education and managed a microbrewery.  He said he was inspired to run by current Bloc MP for Lac-Saint-Jean Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, a former colleague, and by a former MP who helped him navigate the process of bringing his Haitian-born adopted child to Canada after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. “I want to be that kind of MP.” 

“There are a lot of issues in the riding – housing is very important, border security, water quality in Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog, supply management, the concerns of hunters around gun control, making sure seniors have enough money to end their days in peace,” he said.

He accused Liberal Leader Mark Carney and Ontario premier and Conservative standard bearer Doug Ford of being too focused on the auto and financial sectors, at the expense of Quebec priorities like aluminum, wood and water resources. “We know the Bloc Québécois are never going to form the government, but [electing Bloc MPs] is an insurance policy for Quebecers. We’re the guard dogs of Quebec’s interests.”  Although he is not bilingual and has few connections with the English-speaking community, he said he’s open to meeting with anglophones. “Whether you’re anglophone or francophone, you’re a Quebecer, at the root of things.”  

Brouard grew up in a “huge family of farmers” with roots in the Beauce region and previously ran unsuccessfully in a Montreal riding in 2011. In an English-language interview, she cited border security and water quality in lakes Champlain and Memphremagog as the main issues facing the riding.

Undiscouraged by the NDP’s faltering poll numbers, she encouraged voters to choose the NDP as a rebuke to the two-party system. “Both the Liberals and Conservatives have huge blind spots,” she argued. “Both say they want to safeguard the economy, but when they say ‘the economy,’ they mean large corporations. I’m not against corporations – they do provide jobs – but if you focus only on corporations, there’s an imbalance, and that’s what we’re seeing in the U.S. We’re the party making sure that not only the corporations, but also the people who are working and buying the products are taken care of.”

Conservative candidate Charbonneau is a lifelong West Bolton resident who played CFL football in Montreal and Edmonton before becoming involved in the field of adaptive sports. In an upbeat English-language interview, he said he decided to go into politics to help people.

“People are worried about high taxes, inflation and tariffs. We have a lot of farmers, and farmers are worried about keeping supply management, which is a very sensitive issue,” he said.

Charbonneau said he believed a Conservative government was best placed to stand up to the Trump administration and put more money in consumers’ pockets. “We [Conservatives] have always been an ally to farmers and workers. We need to reduce the size of the government and have better financial management, and the Conservatives have always proven that they are better at financial management.”

“I learned English at university in New Hampshire, where I went to play football,” he added. “I’m not a lifelong politician, and [going into politics] is a little scary, but it’s like going to the States to play football – you have to trust life. It’s too easy just to sit at home and complain.”

Green Party candidate Corcos, whose party has yet to elect an MP in Quebec, said in a statement on the party website that she “will work to strengthen access to sustainable and preventive healthcare, support ambitious climate policies and promote transparent and participatory governance.”  She said she also hoped to “advance concrete solutions to improve public transportation in rural areas, reducing dependence on single-occupancy vehicles and providing viable mobility alternatives” and support the growth of green jobs.

McLeod, the PPC candidate, is described on the party website as “an experienced programmer and business owner with a deep passion for technology” who is “committed to applying his analytical and problem-solving skills to politics,” emphasizing efficiency and transparency. “His background in IT and strategic thinking gives him a unique approach to tackling challenges in governance,” the website said.

Liberal candidate Villeneuve, who has taken unpaid leave from his job as mayor of Bromont to campaign, said he believed the Liberals represented steady leadership amid unprecedented threats to Canadian sovereignty from the Trump administration. “We’re facing something we’ve never seen before. We have an expansionist president on our southern border who wants to strangle us economically and make us the 51st state. It’s time to unite [Canadians], not divide them. I think the only one who can do that job, who can protect our economy and sovereignty, is Mr. Carney. That’s why I decided to jump in.”

In addition to Canada-U.S. relations, Villeneuve cited the fight against invasive species and fertilizer runoff in Lakes Memphremagog and Champlain, supply management in the dairy sector and a potential passenger train link between Lac-Mégantic and Montreal as major issues facing the riding. He also hopes to put his municipal politics experience to use addressing issues such as affordable housing and transit, for which different levels of government are responsible for different aspects.

“To be mayor in a city where every [council member] is independent, where you don’t have [municipal] parties, you need to use teamwork,” he said. “I’m a team player. I think I can be a person who brings people together,” he added.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Low-income Townships residents who haven’t yet filed their taxes may be able to get help from their local Centre d’action bénévole (CAB; volunteer action centre). The CABs in Bedford, Cowansville, Coaticook, Magog, Stanstead and Waterloo offer free tax assistance in English or French through the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP). Single filers with an income of $35,000 or less and couples filing jointly with a combined income of $45,000 or less are eligible to have their taxes prepared and filed online for free by trained volunteers.

The clinics are not equipped to help self-employed people or those filing after a bankruptcy or on behalf of a deceased person. Most clinics do accept people who have fallen a few years behind on their tax returns, although the one in Magog can only accept returns from the current year. Some clinics, including the one in Bedford, will refer people whose income is slightly above the threshold to a local accountant with relatively low rates.

Sara Martinez is the service co-ordinator at the CAB Marguerite-Dubois in Cowansville. She said the centre has offered the program for many years, and processed 2280 tax returns last year.

“We start recruiting volunteers in October and start preparing in November,” she said. “The volunteers have access to a lot of training,” she said. “In past years, people dropped off their files, but now, because of the new privacy law, we prepare them while you wait, which avoids the risk of losing documents.” People who would like to have a volunteer file their taxes can drop by during the centre’s regular opening hours, from Monday to Thursday; those with mobility issues can contact their local CLSC or CLSC agent, if they have one, for an alternative way to drop off documents. 

Martinez said many of the people who use the tax clinic are social assistance recipients or recent immigrants filing their taxes for the first time, but anyone who meets the criteria is welcome. “People are super grateful for what the volunteers are doing; it shows that there’s an important need,” she said.

Marie-Josée Proteau is the director general of the Centre d’action bénévole de Bedford et environs (CABBE; Greater Bedford volunteer action centre), which offers the CVITP in Bedford and surrounding municipalities, including Clarenceville. She said the CABBE has offered the program for at least 25 years. “The program will always exist. The people who are our clients are low-income and they don’t have the means to pay an accountant…but it’s important for them to do their taxes even if their only [source of income] is their pension or social assistance,” explained Proteau, herself an accountant. “Otherwise, they won’t receive the tax credits they’re eligible for.” 

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town of Sutton is calling on Hydro-Quebec to consider new locations for a controversial hydro substation.

The Brome substation, which is expected to be built in 2027, will replace the existing Sutton and Knowlton substations and provide electricity to Sutton, Brome Lake and Cowansville. While its exact location has not been determined, Hydro-Québec has narrowed down the area under study to a swath of rural land near the boundaries of Brome Lake, Brome village and Sutton. In a statement in February, the town of Sutton said the chosen site “targets a particularly bucolic area where the presence of this substation, much larger than the previous ones, and new towers up to 45m high, risk disfiguring a landscape that makes our region so attractive.”

At the April 2 council meeting, Sutton councillors passed a resolution laying out the town’s own concerns about the project and setting the stage for an analysis of potential alternatives.

The resolution stated that the project was “oversized” in relation to realistic assumptions of growth in electrical demand in the region. “No other option to serve the municipality of Sutton has been studied in detail, nor evaluated according to technical, economic, environmental and financial criteria; [and] the justification for choosing a new 120 kV trunk line and substation can only be assessed by analyzing other options,” it said. “[T]he residents of Sutton, and in particular those of Sutton Junction, have expressed their concerns about the justification for the project and the location of Hydro-Québec’s proposed new substation.”

The town called on Hydro-Québec to limit the height of pylons and analyze alternatives including the addition of a transformer at the existing Cowansville or Coeur–du-Village substation, reinforcement or extension of the existing 49-kV line line; building a new 69-kV line; adding new batteries or capacitor banks; and developing the area’s solar energy potential, including with a proposed solar microgrid project “to improve community resilience, with solar panels on the roofs of municipal and commercial buildings to reduce pressure on energy demand and peak load management.”

“The solution that Hydro-Quebec is presenting to us is oversized, seven times current peak demand, and even when you add Knowlton, [demand] is still far inferior to the proposed capacity,” Mayor Robert Benoit said at the meeting. “We have no factories and we don’t have an industrial park and we don’t plan to have one. Growth in demand is driven by residences. We build 34 new residences per year on average, 340 over the next ten years – two or three additional megawatts per year. We can’t imagine that we will need an augmentation of 100 or 150 megawatts even over the next ten years, unless the town changes drastically.” He added that it was unlikely that there would be a major residential development in the next few years, due to social acceptability concerns and the strain on the water supply in the mountain sector.

Benoit said he doesn’t believe Hydro-Québec has studied all potential options for the substation.  “I strongly recommend that they do that analysis to show us that this is the best choice.”

Although Brome Lake Mayor Richard Burcombe and Cowansville Mayor Sylvie Beauregard have also expressed objections to the proposed site, Benoit emphasized that the resolution did not intend to speak for any other municipality.

Benoit said the town was in constant communication with Hydro-Québec and intended to meet with the utility in the coming weeks. “The ball is in their court and I’m confident we’re going to find a solution,” he said.

Hydro-Québec was not available to comment at press time.

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Quebec’s English-language school boards and education advocates are in a celebratory mood after the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled in their favour in a long-running court battle with the provincial government.

In February 2020, the Legault government passed Bill 40, which replaced elected school boards with service centres overseen by government-appointed directors general and unelected volunteer boards. At the time, the bill’s backers argued that it would increase the efficiency of governance in the educational system and remove the need for costly school board elections that relatively few people bothered to vote in. The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) and its member boards, however, saw an attempt to remove English-speaking communities’ control over minority-language education as laid out in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Several months after the bill passed, a court suspended its application to English-language school boards while a legal challenge, brought by QESBA, Montreal’s Lester B. Pearson School Board and a concerned parent, made its way through the courts. In August 2023, Superior Court Judge Sylvain Lussier struck down large parts of the law as it applied to English boards, in line with QESBA’s argument that the law unjustifiably limited the charter rights of official language minority communities. In September of that year, the government appealed the ruling.

In a ruling handed down April 3, appeals court judges Robert M. Mainville, Christine Baudouin and Judith Harvie essentially upheld Lussier’s conclusion, finding large parts of the bill inoperative with respect to English-language boards. The judges found that the school board governance scheme set out in Bill 40, infringed on the community’s right to control its education system and disincentivized parents and community members from getting involved. The community is “entitled to independent school boards that must, at a minimum, allow minority language representatives to exercise exclusive authority relating to minority-language education and facilities,” they wrote, in a ruling that extensively cited previous rulings involving francophone school districts in other parts of Canada. “The Court cannot accept the argument that the linguistic minority is represented through the staff hired by a service centre.” They also found that Bill 40 “radically alters existing structures…in response to political imperatives specific to the French-speaking majority” and the government failed to show, in its appeal, how the new system would help schools obtain educational objectives.

QESBA president Joe Ortona said the school boards “could not have asked for a better ruling.”

“We have been functioning since 2020 as if Bill 40 did not exist, and we plan to continue functioning that way, since the provisions we challenged continue not to apply for us,” he said. “We have local elected representatives who are accountable to the English-speaking community and that is how it should be. Our Section 23 rights matter.”

English Parents’ Committee Association president Katherine Korakakis said the ruling was a “historic victory, not just for parents, but for every member of our community who believes in shaping our children’s future.” Eastern Townships School Board chairperson Michael Murray said the ruling was “very satisfying,” particularly because it imposed a broad definition of the English-speaking community.

He added that the five-year-long legal battle “has been a huge distraction from our primary mission, which is to educate anglophone youth – the energy and the money we have spent to arrive at the same place where we were before the government began imposing Bill 40.  The government is within its rights to make changes where the majority community wants and supports them, but the minority community has protected rights, meaning it should not apply ipso facto to us.”

The Quebec government has 60 days to decide whether to ask the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to appeal. Murray and Ortona said they hoped the government would decide to meet with school board representatives to plan a way forward instead of appealing. “The two-speed system which has been in place since Bill 40 has been working pretty well,” Murray said. “That would be a starting point for discussions … it would be an enormous relief for us to have this succession of legal battles terminated so we can get back to the basics of operating our schools.”

No one from the Ministry of Justice was available to comment at press time.