Zenith Wolfe

Kaz 2025 budget promises to keep taxes down, invest in rec spaces

By Zenith Wolfe

As the population in Kazabazua slowly rises, the municipality is promising to keep property taxes down, build more recreational spaces and hire two more municipal employees, according to the annual and triennial budgets published in December.

The municipality anticipates around $2,490,000 in revenue this year, up six per cent from $2,350,000 in 2024. The annual budget also foresees $2,540,000 in expenses, up 8.5 per cent from $2,340,000 the previous year, for an overall budget increase of around 2.5 per cent.

Kaz Mayor Robert Bergeron says every year since 2020, between five and 10 properties have been built across the municipality. Combined with property assessment values that have increased by an average of 50 per cent across much of the region in recent years, this has increased the Kaz property tax revenue by around $1M. It’s allowed the municipality to reduce the tax rate to $0.55 per $100 of property assessment, down from $0.79 in 2024, he explains.

Bergeron says the tax for waste disposal has decreased as well: septic and organic waste went up by a total of $6 per household, but residual waste went down by $5, and recycling went down by $41.

“That’s a saving of $40 right there for all houses,” Bergeron says.

This increase in revenue coincides with the municipality’s population boom. According to Canadian census data, Kazabazua had a population of 786 in 2001, but Bergeron says now the number is close to 1,100.

“Cantley and Chelsea [are] overflowing, and we’re sort of inheriting the people. People want to buy, and now is the time because the tax rate is lower than most municipalities,” he says about Kaz.

To accommodate the growing population, the mayor says Kaz is increasing investments in recreational spaces. In 2025, $20,000 will go towards a small swing set, a picnic table, and a walking path at the Lee Road park, which the municipality hopes to name soon. Another $20,000 will finance a small wharf for kayaks and canoes on the Gatineau River.

The most expensive community development planned for Kaz in 2025 is a new splash pad and well, at a price of $137,000. The municipality will then spend $25,000 a year until 2027 to install a volleyball and badminton field behind the community centre and fix the current baseball field.

“We’re making the investment for our kids. It’s been long overdue,” the mayor says. “For municipalities to develop to bring in new citizens, [they have] to bring in new activities. Development is coming to Kazabazua.”

The higher population has also increased demand for road work, maintenance and municipal cleaning services, Bergeron says, so the municipality is using part of its budget to hire a road work employee. According to the triennial budget, Kazabazua will commit more than $580,000 to road maintenance between 2025 and 2027, subsidized by Quebec’s Local Roads Assistance program.

Kazabazua will then spend around $875,000 in 2026 to repair Chemin Village d’Aylwin after it was partially destroyed by a landslide. Bergeron says that, despite the provincial government pre-approving a grant for 75 per cent of the project costs in the early 2020s, the Quebec Ministry of Environment has since requested several environmental impact reports that have stalled construction.

“We never seem to be able to meet their ever-changing expectations. Now they turn around and say our analysis was three to four years ago, so we need to do another one,” he says about the environmental report on Chemin Village d’Aylwin. “In 2026 we should be able to start [repairs], and it takes about two to three months.”

The budget also includes funds for a new assistant director-general. That person will help the director-general finish revising municipal zoning bylaws for urban, heavy industrial and mining sectors, a process that has been ongoing since 2021.

Around $26,000 will also be used to purchase a new air compressor for the local fire department this year. The mayor says it will be shared with fire departments in Lac-Sainte-Marie, Low and Denholm, each paying the same amount. In 2026 Kaz will also invest $70,000 in a new fire truck.

$1.4 million municipal garage

Kaz Mayor Robert Bergeron says the $1.4 million municipal garage that began construction in 2024 will open in March this year.

“We’ve been gathering money since 2009 for the garage and that meant no loans or payments from the citizens,” Bergeron says, adding that the province subsidized around 70 per cent of the costs. “Because of the subsidies, we had extra, so we also purchased a snowplow, and the good thing is we still have some money left from that to start our triennial plan.”

The 4,000-square-foot garage behind the municipality office will be used to store fire trucks, snow plows and tractors, as well as welding equipment and other maintenance or construction equipment for municipal staff, Bergeron says. It will also have an office and kitchen.

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MRC property owners contesting assessment values more often

by Zenith Wolfe

As property assessment values increase significantly for taxpayers in MRC des Collines municipalities, the MRC prefect says property owners are contesting their values more often.

In 2024 property assessments increased around 49 per cent for Chelsea residents and around 70 per cent in l’Ange-Gardien, according to MRC Prefect Marc Carrière. That trend is continuing this year, with Cantley and La Pêche property assessments increasing around 50 per cent.

The prefect says this is likely because of how the pandemic impacted property sales. Assessors have to compare the current sale prices to the sale prices from 18 months prior, meaning 2022 – in the midst of the pandemic – prices were the point of comparison for 2024 assessments in Chelsea, Val-des-Monts and l’Ange-Gardien.

“Everyone was looking to go to rural areas [in 2022]. There’s also a lack of housing, so that’s another pressure on the market,” Carrière says.

This year, the MRC is evaluating properties in Cantley and La Pêche. If property owners want to revise their assessments, Carrière says there are a few steps to take.

The first is to call the MRC’s property assessment services number (819-827-0516, ext. 2239) and leave a brief voicemail explaining what should be re-evaluated. Carrière says they received around 800 of these service calls from Chelsea, Val-des-Monts and l’Ange-Gardien in 2024, with 87 of them ending in a revision. This is up from 63 revisions in 2021 and 85 revisions in 2018.

“Maybe the market was slower in the middle of the pandemic,” Carrière says when asked about this increase.

The prefect says callers should also mention their municipality, address and phone number. The MRC will call back within 15 business days and discuss a revision, free of charge. The MRC may decide to send a representative to visit the property in March 2025 and propose a new property value.

If a property owner disagrees with the proposed value, or if there is none, Carrière suggests submitting a Request for Assessment Review form to the MRC before April 30.

Carrière says they processed around 120 of these forms for Chelsea, Val-des-Monts and l’Ange-Gardien properties in 2024, up from 20 in 2021 and 59 in 2018. François Lanthier, assistant director for the MRC, said around 60 per cent of property owners in these municipalities who submitted forms got a lower assessment value.

Submitting this form requires paying a fee based on the assessment value of the property:

$88 below $500,000

$355 between $500,001 and $2M

$591 between $2M and $5M

 $1,183 above $5M

Lanthier recommends that property owners include information about defects, planned renovations and estimates for planned work on their forms so the MRC can make informed decisions. 

Lanthier adds that property owners should make arguments based on the sale values of properties on the market.

“People tend, usually, to look at neighbours’ assessment values and view their analyses based on that, but we’ll look at the sales comparables on the market and compare them with the property for the fairest value,” he explains.

Property owners who submit these forms can expect to hear from the MRC by Sept. 1. They must write back to accept the new value within 30 days. Lanthier adds that property owners submitting these forms should still pay their taxes for the higher property value so they’re not charged for interest.

“Pay the taxes,” Lanthier says. “If you get a new value, the municipality will reimburse you, but if you don’t pay and you don’t get a proposition, we don’t have control over the taxation.”

The last option for re-evaluation is to bring a case before the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec. Carrière said this is the slowest process of the three, but it’s usually resolved in a year. In 2024 there were 14 requests for tribunal cases – most submitted by the same property owner. There was only one request in 2021 and three in 2018.

Lanthier says only seven cases across the MRC have gone to tribunal since 2017. The MRC won around half and made deals with the property owner out of court for the other half, he says.

Neither MRC representative could give an estimate for how much this step costs, since it varies greatly based on the property.

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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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