Dear Editor,
I would like to respond to your editorial from Feb. 28, 2018 entitled “Left Hand meet Right Hand.” Thank you for raising your concerns.
First I would like to reassure the people of the Pontiac that the GTI Swat team and the MRC Mayors Council are working together and that I sit on both committees as warden and I will ensure that good communication exists between the two groups.
Economic development and investor attraction are the most significant mandate for the MRC Council of Mayors and the GTI Swat Team. The swat team is made up of government staff including Jeffrey MacHan from MESI, business people and elected officials including André Fortin, Mayor Winston Sunstrum and myself.

As warden of the MRC Pontiac I feel we have a responsibility to tax payers to ensure that there is no duplication of efforts or waste of tax dollars.
Although the referred to program for investor attraction was approved by the Mayor’s Council, there were concerns expressed about what guarantee of results it could produce. Perhaps it requires further clarification and evaluation.
The recent announcements of the opening of the slaughterhouse in Shawville and the probable entrance of LiveWell to the Litchfield Industrial Area will most certainly give the Pontiac a much needed economic boost and will produce local jobs. I believe that when such good news is in the media that it cannot help but to attract more investors. Each of these projects involved the MRC Pontiac and the GTI Swat Team.
It is crucial to move forward in a united way. We still need to create our best promotional material and marketing plan including a tool box of incentives which we hope to obtain through the provincial government to make the Pontiac the best possible destination for investment in Quebec.

Jane Toller
Warden MRC Pontiac