K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Only two of the MRC Pontiac’s 18 municipalities have chosen to reduce their municipal councils from six to four seats after a new provincial bill made this change possible for municipalities with under 2,000 residents.

Over the past few months, councils across the MRC have been holding sessions and public consultations about the question of whether or not to resize. Councils have until the end of December to make a decision, which will affect seats in the municipal elections set for Nov. 2025.

Almost all MRC Pontiac municipalities have decided to keep six council seats, except Bryson and Fort Coulonge, which have decided to shrink to four-person councils.

Bill 57, passed by the National Assembly in June, aims to “protect elected officers and to facilitate the unhindered exercise of their functions,” according to its title.

As part of this, it allows for the province’s smallest municipalities to reduce the number of mandatory council seats to help fill seats that had previously been left vacant, or been filled unopposed.

CBC reported this year that close to 5,000 candidates were elected unopposed in Quebec’s 2021 municipal elections.

Local radio station CHIP FM previously reported that in the Pontiac, 73 candidates ran unopposed in the 2021 municipal elections, representing nearly 60 per cent of those running for seats in the county, with the councils of Chichester, Campbell’s Bay and Waltham elected entirely by acclamation.

Bryson mayor Alain Gagnon said his municipality has been trying to reduce its council size since 2017, when it volunteered to go down to four candidates due to low turnout for councillor seats in recent elections.

“We had to fight at the last day to get somebody to put their name in,” he said, adding that at the time, the province’s municipal affairs ministry denied Bryson’s request to reduce its council size due to a high number of requests.

“So they said, ‘We’ll redo the electoral law’, which they did,” said Gagnon.

Clarendon mayor Edward Walsh said his council unanimously decided to remain at six to ensure representation of the whole territory. He noted they wanted to ensure decisions were more democratic in nature.

“If you get down to four, and you get a couple of them that are chummy chummy, they can really swing a lot of votes at council. With six people you usually get a pretty fair opinion of anything,” he said.

Portage du Fort mayor Lynne Cameron said her council also wanted to keep six voices at the table.

“Our councillors do not get a huge wage – $280 [per month]. We had a full council on that, and it had something to do with just having more people’s opinions and thoughts, and they just figured it would be better than four,” she said.

“If two people weren’t here, then there’s two people making a decision for the whole town.”

Waltham’s council, which represents a population of just under 400 people, voted to stick with the six-seat system. Mayor Odette Godin said her council believed the reduction would cause unwanted competition between councillors.

“They didn’t want to do that because it causes bad feelings. In a small town like Waltham, you’re running against relatives, friends, neighbours,” Godin said. “They didn’t think it was right to pit each other against each other.”

She said despite the ultimate decision, she doesn’t think Waltham needs six councillors, and that the reduction would save money.

“Right off the bat it would save the taxpayers money. And with the FQM talking about amalgamation, I’m afraid that if nobody budges there won’t be councillors for Waltham at all. We won’t have a seat at the table,” she said, adding that reducing council would show that council is committed to making life better for Waltham residents.

“If we can show we’re doing what we can to reduce costs while still being able to service the taxpayers, I can’t see that as a bad thing.”

Fort Coulonge is the second of Pontiac’s two municipalities set to reduce its council to four, and its mayor Christine Francoeur told THE EQUITY she is confident it will have enough hands to do the work.

While the decision will save the municipality about $14,000 a year, money was not the biggest factor in the council’s unanimous decision to reduce its size.

“Do we really need six councillors for 1,300 people? [ . . . ] It’s not like we are in a big city where we have projects galore to work on,” she said, adding that in a city being a councillor is a full-time job, but in the Pontiac it is part-time.

The city of Gatineau, for example, has 21 councillors for 291,041 people — roughly one councillor for every 13,860 residents.

With 106 councillors and a 2023 population of 14,860, the MRC Pontiac has one councillor for roughly every 140 residents.

Francoeur said the MRC Pontiac as a whole has too many elected officials and she might consider amalgamation if the option presented itself.

“Our whole council is all in agreement that we do have too many councillors for the Pontiac. Too many councillors and too many mayors. I think it should be reduced [ . . . ] Maybe this is a first step toward [an amalgamation].”

Any municipality that decides to reduce to four councillors must pass a resolution, a draft by-law and hold a public consultation meeting on it, and must inform the FQM of its decision before Dec. 31 of this year.

Any changes to the makeup of councils will take effect during the municipal elections scheduled for Nov. 2025. After this, if a municipality wishes to revert back to having six councillors, it will have to wait until the municipal elections of 2029.