waste

Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist

GASPÉ – A major turnaround, the Town of Gaspé has reached an agreement with Matrec to reduce the costs of residual material collection for the commercial, institutional and industrial sectors. 

Twelve years ago, the Town had transferred this collection to the private sector and the contractor reached an agreement with the customers for the billing but, in September, the town council announced its intention to take it all under its wing after complaints were received at Town Hall when it was suggested that the bill was doubling, tripling or more. 

A 90-day notice had been adopted by the town council for a change effective in January 2025. 

A clause in the contract allowed the Town to do so. “When Matrec saw that, they were open to negotiating. As part of this negotiation, they agreed to lower the rates for merchants by 34% in addition to bringing the contractual clauses back to September 2026. They committed to freezing the rates for 2025 and increasing them to the cost of inflation in 2026,” explains the Mayor of Gaspé, Daniel Côté. 

“It will also give us time if we repatriate everything into a single contract,” says the mayor. 

Following this negotiation, the gap between what the Town would have billed starting in January via the tax account versus the agreement reached with Matrec no longer justified Gaspé taking over the service. 

“It’s difficult to calculate for each specific case, but overall, it probably would have been the same. But by going back to the same, it would have been a real headache for the Town to repatriate all that and redo the contracts. It would have been much more complicated. The result makes sense. I hope our merchants and industrialists will be happy,” says the mayor. 

Bill 96 

Gaspé’s municipal council has adopted a resolution requesting flexibility in Bill 96, which mandates that all municipal communications be in French. 

“We don’t have the same history as Montreal and its suburbs. Here, we have always lived very harmoniously between francophones, anglophones and the Mi’gmaq community,” explains the mayor. 

According to census data, the proportion of English speakers in Gaspé declined from 13% in 2016 to 11% in 2021. 

“It is not in Gaspé that French is in decline. Why apply the same rule to Gaspé where English is in decline in favour of French? Why penalize our anglophone community when the problem is not here?” asks Mr. Côté. 

“I hope that our reality is recognized and that we can have some form of modulation, but honestly, I have little hope for a result,” says the elected official. 

If the law is not changed, Vision Gaspe Perce now has offered its services to translate communications into English. Gaspé does not have bilingual town status. In the 1940s and 1950s, half of Gaspé’s citizens were English-speaking. There are exceptions in the law for emergency measures, tourism and financial information. 

Changes mentioned in minor emergencies 

The mayor of Gaspé is concerned by the Gaspé Peninsula Integrated Health and Social Services Centre’s reflection on the modification of the composition of the teams in the emergency departments at the Murdochville and Grande-Vallée CLSCs. On the sidelines of the organization’s board of directors meeting on November 28, President and CEO Martin Pelletier indicated that services are not being reduced, but he mentioned changes in the way care is provided, such as replacing a nurse with a nursing assistant. 

“We are somewhat afraid of a service cut. These are hubs that are far from the Gaspé and Sainte-Anne-des-Monts hospitals. We are talking about an hour’s drive. A nursing assistant can do some of the work, but cannot do everything that a full-time nurse can do in terms of care,” explained Mr. Côté, who has heard concerns from specialists in the health network. 

This is the third time in a decade that the fate of the 24/7 emergency services at the CLSCs in Murdochville, Grande-Vallée and Paspébiac has been in the news. 

“I hope the inevitable does not happen. With all the projects on the drawing board, there should normally be an economic resurgence in Murdochville and Grande-Vallée, therefore, an increase in the population. An increase in risks related to industrial activities that will require 24/7 services in emergencies. I hope that we will think about the future and that we will not only take into account current demographic data,” notes the mayor who is also prefect of the MRC of Côte-de-Gaspé. 

Work at the Town Hall 

The Town of Gapé is asking the Quebec government to reduce its subsidy to its initial promise due to the additional costs incurred by the work. 

Initially, the project was $4.3 million, but following the calls for tenders, the cost of the work was just over $3 million. The government assistance of 65% had been reduced accordingly. 

In the meantime, an unforeseen amount of $700,000 has arisen. “This unforeseen event that no one saw coming is likely due to a design error. We are asking the ministry to assume part of this additional cost. Initially, it had budgeted $4 million for the project. We assume that it had budgeted that way,” hopes the mayor. 

In the meantime, the claims process against the architectural firm to which the fault is attributed continues. “We hope to reach an agreement with the firm. Except that in any good agreement, will we get 100% of our gain? If not, we turn to the ministry so that it does its part,” notes the mayor.