Chris Lowrey
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC Nov. 5, 2017
The Municipality of Pontiac has a new mayor: local entrepreneur Joanne Labadie.
Labadie unseated former mayor Roger Larose by a count of 1,227 to Larose’s 852, good for 59 per cent of the vote.
Labadie leads the charge when it comes to a group of newcomers to the municipality’s council. Only two councillors – Nancy Draper-Maxsom and Thomas Howard – are returning from last term.
Labadie said the returning councillors will be able to help the new councillors extensively with their experience from the last four years.
Her first order of business is to get up to speed when it comes to the flood victims from the springtime.

She said more than 60 families are still in need of assistance and she will be working with the Ministry of Public Safety to make sure their needs are met.
Ten of the households that were affected by the spring floods are waiting for permits so they can begin renovations while 12 homes are slated for demolition.
“These families need a lot of support,” Labadie said. “So that’s my priority, making sure that file is being dealt with, and there are still lots of outstanding issues.”
In light of those outstanding issues, like homeowners waiting for the proper permits to begin to remedy their situation, Labadie said a thorough post-mortem of the municipality’s response to the floods needs to be undertaken.
“With climate change these excessive rainfalls are predicted to be the new norm,” she said. “We need to do conditional indexing on all of our infrastructure, our roads, our culverts, our bridges, etc., so we can mitigate against other heavy rainfalls.”
Labadie also wants to work to quickly form a healthy working relationship between the administration at the municipality and the newly-elected council.
“It’s challenging for the public servants to work between four year election cycles not knowing what their futures [hold] and what the mandate will be,” Labadie said. “So I met with the team and reassured them that they hold the experience and the capital knowledge required for us to move forward.”
Labadie said the most important issue facing the municipality is infrastructure improvement. She said these kinds of upgrades can go a long way to improving the economic development of the region.
“There are some easy projects like the Eardley-Masham Road,” she said. “There’s 4.5 km of that road that is still gravel.”
She would like to see the road fully paved to create a tourist route to link the municipality of Pontiac with the rest of the MRC des Collines.
In keeping with tourism development, Labadie said she wants to put more emphasis on agri-tourism since 45 per cent of the municipality is zoned agricultural.
“I see lots of potential with working with our agricultural community to support more agri-tourism initiatives but also eco-tourism initiatives both with our water – the Ottawa River – and the Gatineau Park.”
Labadie wanted to thank her supporters and the many volunteers that helped with her campaign.