STEPHEN RICCIO
OUTAOUAIS Sept. 21, 2020
The Outaouais council of wardens, or CPO, unanimously approved an MRC Pontiac-led proposal for a nursing pay pilot program at their Sept. 21 meeting, leaving its fate in the hands of Mathieu Lacombe, the provincial minister responsible for the Outaouais.
The resolution was approved at the Sept. 16 MRC mayors meeting and it proposes that . . .
the provincial government assist in equalizing nursing salaries for those within the first five years of their practice to help balance the competition with Ontario nursing employers.
MRC Pontiac Warden Jane Toller said that the other three wardens and Gatineau’s mayor agreed that because none of their regions have departments that have been closed, the proposal would be specifically for aid for the Pontiac’s nursing needs.
Toller said that the CPO is now prioritizing the nursing salary issue going forward.
“In my opinion this will be the only way that we will be assured of hiring 12 nurses to re-open the obstetrics department on Jan. 1,” she said.
The resolution was forwarded to Lacombe, who was not in attendance for the meeting. Toller also said that she would be speaking with Pontiac MNA André Fortin to seek his support on the issue.
The other issue that she brought to the CPO from the recent MRC mayor meeting was the request that the province allow residential waste to be brought from Ontario to Quebec.
This resolution was passed unanimously by the CPO, and it would make a potential energy-from-waste project in the Pontiac more efficient as waste could be brought from Ontario regions that are close by.
The proposal now goes to the Ministry of Environment to determine its outcome.
The Sept. 16 MRC mayor meeting also featured Shawville Mayor Sandra Murray asking Toller for help with securing aid for municipalities.
No resolution was brought forward at the meeting, but Toller did say to Murray that aid would need to come from the province and that she would bring the topic to the CPO.
Toller said that she did not bring the issue up at the CPO meeting due to no resolution being passed at the MRC meeting.
“We need a resolution, too bad that we didn’t kind of seize the moment,” she said. “I will ensure that we vote on this at our next meeting.”
The next MRC mayor meeting will take place on Oct. 21 at 6:30 p.m. in the Campbell’s Bay RA Centre.
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