Wakefield

La Pêche residents browse the municipality’s urban maps during a public consultation on future growth.

No Farm Point planned for La Peche anytime soon…

By Trevor Greenway

Higher density, wetland protection, commercial hubs and the possibility of converting the old railway in Wakefield into a multipurpose pedestrian trail – these are just a few of the things that urban planners in La Pêche are looking at as they plan for the next decade-plus of growth in the Hills. 

The municipality held its urban planning consultations Feb. 6 in Wakefield, where La Pêche Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux and urbanism director Jalloul Salah ran residents through a number of initiatives the municipality is looking at implementing to align with the MRC des Collines’ masterplan. 

Among other things, one of the biggest changes La Pêche could see is increased density in the municipality’s two urban perimeters – Masham and Wakefield – where the current maximum is 30 units per hectare, which must be serviced by a sewer system. However La Pêche is looking at increasing that maximum to 45 units per hectare, but Lamoureux explained that developments of that size would require both sewer and water services. 

“​​Such densities are not legally permitted in every zone of the urban perimeters,” said Lamoureux, explaining that, “If a developer comes forward with a project in a zone where high density is permitted, studies are then conducted to determine the site’s constraints, which may be lower than what is legally permitted.” 

Wakefield doesn’t currently have water services and has only a limited sewer system in Wakefield’s village core. Lamoureux explained that development approvals will be based on studies that determine whether the current infrastructure, including the area’s aqueduct, can handle the increased density. 

Part of the urban planning review process, according to Lamoureux, is to monitor urban expansion as more and more residents move into the Hills. However, despite La Pêche’s growth, Lamoureux said his council has no plans to expand or add to the municipality’s two urban perimeters in Wakefield and Masham. That means La Pêche residents won’t wake up anytime soon, according to Lamoureux, to find out there is a new urban perimeter in Edelweiss or Lac des Loups, as happened in Chelsea with regard to Farm Point.

“There is no plan or need to increase their current size. It could happen during a future review of the MRC masterplan if a need to do so was demonstrated, in the distant future, maybe,” Lamoureux told the Low Down, but added, “There is no talk of adding other urban perimeters and no reason to do so.”

According to Lamoureux, the municipality must review its urban plan (PU) to ensure that it aligns with the MRC des Collines’ regional masterplan, which was adopted last year. The MRC’s masterplan outlines things like zoning regulations, environmental setbacks and development rules. 

Among zoning changes, La Pêche’s urban plan is also an exercise in “cohesive” village hubs in both Masham and Wakefield through the promotion of “attractive commercial and industrial clusters.” In Wakefield, the idea is to make the heart of the village a dynamic shopping and visitor’s space by enticing more small and unique businesses to set up there. The urban planning document even talks about developing a promotional plan to promote natural and organic products from the village. 

Lamoureux told the Low Down that studies are already underway to convert the old railway tracks in Wakefield into a multi-use pathway, similar to what Chelsea did with its popular Voie Verte trail along the Gatineau River. 

“These studies are underway, and this project has been discussed in recent years,” said Lamoureux. “We have secured funding for the studies needed to connect both Chelsea and Low. We are including it in the PU because it’s an ongoing project.”

A big portion of the urban planning document focused on environmental protections, namely around protecting wetlands, local water sources and the Wakefield spring. 

According to La Pêche biologist Dominique Lavoie, the municipality will add bacteriological protection of 46 metres around the spring, as well as virological protection of 116 metres. 

“Groundwater migration time calculations show that beyond these setbacks, pathogenic elements should no longer be active by the time they reach the source’s collection point,” she wrote in an email to the Low Down. “As for the immediate 30-metres protection area, it’s defined by provincial regulations but takes into account the built environment. Ultimately, these setbacks will be taken into consideration for any decision-making regarding areas surrounding the spring.”

La Pêche is also adding extra protection around wetlands, shorelines and ecological corridors. The municipality is adding an additional 15-metre setback on shorelines in eco corridors and lakes, a 500-metre protection on blue heron nesting sites and additional protections around wetlands. 

“Unless authorized by the provincial level, no destruction of wetlands may be authorized, with the exception of work related to public utilities or public safety,” the document reads. 

La Pêche will now begin its adoption process of this new urban plan and by-laws that will go along with it. Lamoureux said that, based on the 60 or so residents who attended the meeting, he and staff will be holding several more meetings to update constituents on the process. 

No Farm Point planned for La Peche anytime soon… Read More »

La Peche municipal sign

La Pêche urban plan needs your voice

By Trevor Greenway
Local Journalism Initiative

La Pêche is starting to develop its new urban plan across the municipality and is looking for citizens’ input on how they want their towns, villages and countryside to look and feel. 

La Pêche Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux said that the municipality’s current urban plan from 2003 is well out of date and he and his council are starting to tour the municipality’s various sectors to gather input from residents on how they want to see La Pêche grow. 

Lamoureux said that because the MRC des Collines regional government passed a new master plan, municipalities must revise their urban plans to ensure they align with regional priorities. Lamoureux is hoping to build a smart growth plan for the municipality while still preserving La Pêche’s “unique local character.”

“As you may know, our current [urban plan] is over 20 years old,” said Lamoureux in a statement. “Many changes have occurred since then, and it no longer meets provincial requirements.”

The Wakefield urban planning meeting will take place Feb. 6 at the Wakefield community centre at 6:30 p.m. Residents can consult the urban planning draft document online here: www.villelapeche.qc.ca/citizens/practical-information/regulations

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Cohabitat Wakefield takes giant leap toward housing project

By Trevor Greenway

One major barrier that the volunteers at Cohabitat Wakefield repeatedly encountered when trying to build their 41-unit cooperative housing project in the village was the lack of land. 

The lack of land left the group spinning its tires. They couldn’t apply for grants, conduct environmental, geotechnical, or hydrology studies, or present a feasibility study to show how crucial a cooperative housing model is in Wakefield, which lacks rental properties and has skyrocketing housing prices. 

But the project got traction after the municipality of La Pêche stepped up and donated 2.5 acres of prime land just behind the Wakefield Fire Hall and former car wash. 

“We were excited like you wouldn’t believe,” said Cohabitat Wakefield president Louise Chatelain, standing with co-volunteer Francine Costa in front of the land that will soon be the home of Cohabitat Wakefield. The land is rocky and heavily forested, and it will take much work to clear it and make it buildable, but the group is determined.  

 “We have a feasibility study that just got out in January this year,” added Chatelain. “The goal of having a feasibility study was to first of all demonstrate that affordable housing was absolutely an issue. It is an issue across Canada, but there’s no rental here at all.”

She isn’t wrong. According to the Association Provinciale Des Constructeurs D’Habitation Du Québec (APCHQ), in 2023, there was a shortfall of 15,000 rental units in Quebec. That number has likely risen over the past two years, especially with the Quebec rental board setting the 2025 rent increase to 5.9 per cent, the highest it has been in three decades. 

Locally, the stats are even more dire. A 2021 report by La Table de développement social des Collines-de-l’Outaouais (TDSCO) shows a significant divide between homeowners and those who rent in the region, where 31.6 per cent of renters in the MRC des Collines spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing, while just 13 per cent of those who own their homes spend as much on their homes. Of the 835 residents surveyed, most identified a lack of housing diversity, a lack of affordable housing and housing conditions as the top three issues facing the region. The report also found that more than 3,000 residents, or 15 per cent of the MRC des Collines population, are spending more than 30 per cent of their income on housing – the 30 per cent benchmark set by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) as “affordable.”

“It’s a universal need and when you realize it’s not being met by so many people – think about older folks that have been here forever, and they are alone in a big house – they are forced to move out; they can’t stay here anymore, and they really lose that connection to where they grew up and where they raised their family,” added Costa. “The question that we all ask ourselves as we age is, ‘Where am I going to end up? What do I want to do with this part of my life?’ And you know, a lot of the co-founders are already in their, I would say, 60s.”

The group will now use this feasibility study to approach “the big funders” in the hopes of getting the entire project 100 per cent funded through CMHC’s Co-op Housing Development Program, which received a $1.5 billion boost from the 2022 and 2023 Fall Economic Statements. If successful, the project could receive top-to-bottom funding from the federal government and, if all goes according to plan, be built within the next two years. 

While the housing project may be a drop in the bucket in the global housing crisis, the projected 41 units built in Wakefield will make a difference locally. The shared space will boast private dwellings for multigenerational families—single moms and dads, elderly folks, young families, and everyone in between. The project will also include shared recreational and kitchen spaces to encourage neighbourly connections among residents.

“Of course, we need our own space, but we also need a place to connect with people,” said Chatelaine. She added that the exterior space will be landscaped with lit pathways and common areas to increase the frequency of “spontaneous encounters.” 

“Often when you leave your house, you don’t see your neighbours; you just come out of your driveway there, and that’s it,” added Chatelaine. “But by having these pathways, we will connect with each other to have spontaneous encounters.”

Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux said that his council is fully behind Cohabitat and added that the group has received nearly $30,000 in grants from the municipality’s green fund. 

“It’s important because it’s one of the ways the housing shortage can be addressed in La Pêche,” said Lamoureux. “Council welcomes any opportunities to work with organizations like Cohabitat Wakefield or the Office de l’habitation de l’Outaouais.”

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John Ward

Ladysmith writer to launch Indigenous disability studies book at Wakefield Library

By Zenith Wolfe

Ladysmith resident John Ward is hoping to change the narrative around Indigenous disability studies with his new book, launching at Wakefield Library this weekend.

The 350-page ‘Indigenous Disability Studies’ is a compilation of essays that explore how Indigenous elders, government workers, teachers, and students understand and navigate disability. The launch event for the book, whose chapters represent 38 Indigenous peoples from 20 countries, will be hosted at 3 p.m. on Feb. 1.

Ward is a federal HR Advisor, a University of Sydney professor, and the book’s editor. He says most research on Indigenous disabilities comes from Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. This encouraged him to expand out into central and southern America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania to include as diverse a range of stories as possible.

“I wanted this global perspective to have an impact so that when the readers would look at it, they would be able to link things in their own ways and through their own perspectives,” he says.

The research for this book started in 2016 with Ward’s PhD in Education at the University of Ottawa. Ward, a self-described “mixed settler” of Algonquin ancestry with ADHD and dyslexia, decided to dedicate his PhD studies to how Indigenous Elders understand learning disabilities.

Three of the Elders he interviewed for his PhD would go on to write chapters for ‘Indigenous Disability Studies’. Ward says his book will contribute to an emerging field that can help Indigenous peoples process the traumas of Canadian education systems and prevent future abuse.

“I was abused by my principal to the point that I can never walk by that school today. I’ve heard other kids who have stories far worse than I ever had. Even the Elders had residential school experiences that were traumatizing,” Ward says. “In the area of Indigenous disability healthcare, a lot of people lack services and specialized equipment.”

The writing process was also a form of reconciliation for some writers, Ward says, because publishers have habitually dismissed them.

“You can’t write people off. You have to understand them,” he says. “Many of these people who are first time writers, it helped them to connect with readers. This was a form of healing.”

Ward says some writers take a “two-eyed seeing” approach to disability. Many Indigenous peoples hesitate to identify as disabled because Western labels uphold colonial systems of oppression, he says. This approach allows Indigenous contributors like Mohawk Elder Tom Dearhouse to instead incorporate traditional teachings to address the limits of labels.

According to Ward, Dearhouse writes about how many Indigenous people consider children with Down syndrome blessings who bring families together with their happy, empathetic attitudes.

“From [Mohawk] oral history, every child that was born was a gift from the creator,” Ward says. “The spirit went into the body knowing fully what challenges would happen later on, so who are we to speak against the creator?”

Three of the book’s writers will attend the launch event. Elder Annie Smith St-Georges will discuss her chapter on how Indigenous children with learning differences are taught. Kevin Morgan will talk about the colonial implications of the label “blind,” and Lexi (Giizhigokwe) Nahwegiizhic will explore the relationship between neurodiversity and the Seven Grandfather Teachings.

Ladysmith writer to launch Indigenous disability studies book at Wakefield Library Read More »

Logan Vaillant

Executive director of Wakefield palliative care home resigns

By Zenith Wolfe

When Logan Vaillant’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2022, Vaillant had less than a month to visit her before she passed.

He describes Marie-Anna Plouffe as the liveliest person he’s ever met; a woman who loved the outdoors, and who always did her best to help those around her. Vaillant has only good things to say about how Hôpital de Hull staff treated them, but he says restricted visitation hours and the small room made it harder to stay by her side. Shared bathrooms provided little privacy, there was no accessible kitchen and she was barely able to go outside.

If he had known about Wakefield’s palliative care home Maison des Collines, he says he would have admitted his mother there in her final weeks. 

“We receive people with prognostics of three months or less. They get in and say, ‘Well, I should have been here before,’ because they’re so comfortable, and family just gets to be with them,” he says.

Vaillant says that it was his mother’s death and philosophy on life that encouraged him to become the Maison’s executive director in October 2023. 

For the last 15 months, he’s kept a photo of his mother on his desk. But he’ll soon take that photo with him when he assumes a new role elsewhere: executive director of the aid society Bureau régional d’action sida (BRAS) Outaouais, working with people nearing homelessness or struggling with addiction, and survivors of abuse.

“Leaving is a very, very difficult decision, and I’m not leaving because of anything relating to the organization,” he says. “I’m following something that’s kind of a dream for me. But I’m a phone call away, so if the Maison needs some kind of information, I’ll always make myself available.”

During his time with Maison des Collines, Vaillant has helped bring more public awareness to the five-year-old care home, which has led to an increase in their volunteer team to around 60 people; up from 50 when he joined the team. He adds that they anticipate taking on 10 more volunteers by the end of January. 

Vaillant says he also improved their fundraising. In 2024, their golf tournament fundraiser brought in around $63,500, almost triple the revenue from 2023. Other campaigns improved to a smaller degree, he notes. 

They’re still not exceeding targets for the year, but Vaillant says they’re on the way to sustainability. The homes’ 2024 holiday campaign surpassed its goal of $50,000, as donors gifted more than $83,000 in December and January following the Low Down’s Dec. 18, 2024 feature article on its financial struggles. 

“We thank Dr. David Gold, who is our campaign chair this year, as well as everyone who’s donated so generously,” added Vaillant. “While $83,620 is an incredible testament of generosity from the community, we want to remind folks that we need over $500,000 per year to maintain our services. So, while the holiday campaign is an incredible success, we still have a ways to reach our yearly target.”

After he steps down from his post on Jan. 17, Vaillant says the Maison’s board will manage the executive director’s responsibilities and work on opening the application process to replace him. He says people interested in the position can contact board member Caryl Green.

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Wakefield’s Hamilton Gardens back after 13-year hiatus

By Trevor Greenway

Local Journalism Initiative

It’s been 13 years since Wakefielders first got up in arms over the design of Hamilton Gardens’ three-storey condo design. 

After more than a decade of back-and-forth proposals and a controversial move by Devcore president Jean Pierre Poulin to block parking for locals on Riverside Drive after opposition to his original 2011 plan, the development is back on track. 

The new Hamilton Gardens features a total of 40 units, mixed within duplexes, triplexes and townhomes, which will offer two-to-three bedroom homes for locals in a community setting. 

“The development has a real community look and feel that’s well integrated into the village and respects its surroundings,” said Devcore project manager Daniel Landry. 

The designs are a far cry from the original towering condos that would have changed the feel of the village. These homes will be built in a traditional style, with peaked roofs, large dormer windows and big covered porches where residents can sit and interact with village life. 

The development will also include a local park for residents, common courtyard, and walking trails that aim to encourage residents to transform their neighbourhood into a walkable community. 

“We are creating spaces for people to meet and to walk. The place where it’s located, it’s so easy to just leave your car at home. If you want to go to the community centre or the post office, you don’t have to take your car,” added Landry. “And with the river, it’s so nice, even in the winter. It’s like cottage life inside of a village.”

Landry said the design approach is based on a “missing middle” design – developments that contain a higher density than a single-family house but a lower density than a mid-rise building. 

The homes in the front of the development are lower-density, two-unit buildings that look like regular Wakefield-style homes, while three-bedroom townhouses will take up the centre of the development. Three triplexes of six units each will appear at the back and west side of the lot, however Landry said the configuration could still change slightly. 

Each home will also come with a detached basement for active residents looking to store bikes, tires or other belongings, and they won’t have to travel through their homes to get there. Basement access will be separate from the interiors. 

“Let’s say you have a paddleboard, your skis, your bikes… you go directly in the basement,” added Landry. “Residents can create what we call, sometimes, like a mud room down there.”

Landry said the designs are based similarly on 1950s-style homes that had large porches at the front. The large front porches in the design will be slightly elevated to give residents a peek into what’s happening in the village, but also some much needed privacy. 

“It gives the appropriate height – people sitting there will be able to interact with people walking, but they’re higher, so people won’t see into the house,” said Landry. “But when you’re in your living room, you’ll be able to see what’s going on out front.”

The homes will be clad in a mix of red brick, wood and high density wood fibre like Maibec or other composite materials. They will have tin roofs, and every unit will be its own unique colour; earth tone reds, greens, yellows and greys. 

“What I like is that they all have different colours, so it’s easy to say, if you’re a kid, ‘I live in the yellow house there,’ or ‘I live in the green one.’”

Devcore hasn’t fully finished the specs and couldn’t say what the square footage of each unit will be or what the footprint of the buildings will be.

Landry said there are a few things still to be approved by the municipality, but Devcore hopes to break ground on this project next spring. Prices for the homes have not been finalized, and Landry said Devcore plans to host a public presentation on the development next spring. 

Wakefield’s Hamilton Gardens back after 13-year hiatus Read More »

Doctor shortage impact felt locally

By Trevor Greenway
Local Journalism Initiative

Bruce Langer is 75 years old. 

He’s suffered two heart attacks and does not have a family doctor in Quebec. 

“Dr. Sarah Olive at the University of Ottawa medical clinic was my doctor for over 20 years, so she had a lot of history with me,” said Langer, sitting in a garden in front of the St. Stephen’s Church in Chelsea. “In that 20-year span, I’ve had two heart attacks and two stent procedures. And so she was my family doctor and connected me to a lot of Ontario specialists…for follow up.”

Langer was told three years ago that the clinic would no longer be taking patients from across the river, unless they were university alumni or current students. With no family doctor, Langer now relies on the health ministry’s Primary Care Access Point, or GAP, and while he said he doesn’t have issues booking an appointment, he’s completely lost his patient-to-doctor relationship. 

No follow-ups with the same doctor and nobody following his medical history. Every time he goes to see a new doctor, he said he has to retell his entire medical story. 

“You definitely don’t get any of the kind of follow-up that you would with a consistent doctor or family doctor care,” said Langer. “They’re so overwhelmed with not being able to see you on a regular basis because there’s not enough doctors that they can’t maintain that consistency that you would normally have with the family doctor.”

According to the CISSS de l’Outaouais (CISSSO), there are currently 75,326 people in the Outaouais without a family doctor and 7,073 in the MRC des Collines region. 

That number is set to rise by several hundred next year as Wakefield MD Dr. Jacques Ménard announced last week that he will be retiring from the Wakefield Family Medical Clinic next June. 

Ménard will be the third Wakefield doctor to leave the clinic in the past two years, as the clinic lost both Dr. Folkerson and Dr. Sattenstein this past summer. The two village doctors left behind close to 1,500 local patients. 

To help ease this crunch, the Regional Department of General Medicine (DRMG) has created a new “gateway” for the GAP and keeps more than 62,000 open appointments per year for “orphan patients requiring a medical visit.”

Wakefield didn’t lose techs

The Outaouais was facing a major crisis this summer after several imaging technicians left the Hull and Gatineau hospitals for Ontario, where they could earn $30,000 more in salary. To combat this, the CISSSO added bonuses for medical techs to stay in the region. 

While the first round of funding was not equal among rural hospitals, the ministry eventually increased the bonuses to $22,000 for those working in Shawville, Maniwaki and Wakefield. CISSSO spokesperson Patricia Rhéaume told the Low Down that the Wakefield Hospital did not lose any medical technicians. 

“The three technician positions are filled at Wakefield [hospital]. 

No movement of this staff to other hospitals in the territory is currently planned,” said Rhéaume, adding that the health authority took a number of measures to avoid a major crisis this summer – one that Gatineau MD Dr. Peter Bonneville warned would end in more deaths. 

“In those sectors with greater challenges, for instance the operating room and the imaging department, action plans were applied to ensure continuity of care and avoid interruption in services,” added Rhéaume. “We are continuously working on ensuring the right patient is at the right place at the right time. Examples of this are the efforts made to re-orient patients presenting to the [emergency department] not needing emergency care and daily reevaluation of alternatives to hospitalizations for patients in need of care.”

Quebec patients ‘uninsured’

More and more Ontario clinics are saying no to Quebec patients – or doubling the rates for their out-of-province patients. Wakefield resident Andrea Rowe told the Low Down that her Ottawa doctor recently sent a letter stating that she – and other Quebec patients – are considered “uninsured.” The letter came with a list of updated fees that Rowe said are double what she used to pay. 

“They don’t consider us covered at all, even though we’re covered by Quebec,” said Rowe. 

She said she used to pay $50 for an appointment and Quebec would pay $40 of it. But now, with the fee increase – $102 for a short appointment or $232 for a long appointment – Rowe said she worries that she will still only get the $40 reimbursed and going to see her doctor of over 15 years will cost her greatly. 

“It’s such a big increase; it’s huge,” she said. “So, it’s gonna be over $60 that I have to pay just for a 10-minute visit.”

Other fees from the Ontario clinic include $30 for a referral note, $25 for a sick note and $225 for a driver’s medical examination and form. 

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