STEPHEN RICCIO
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC Dec. 8, 2020
A Luskville beach association seeking municipal aid, the fire chief being promoted and winter road closures were some of the top topics during the Municipality of Pontiac council meeting on Dec. 8.
The monthly meeting was held virtually on Zoom and the mayor and all six councillors were in attendance, as well as a handful of residents.
Public Questions
There were several residents who attended the meeting and submitted questions to the council. A major theme across multiple questions was the status of possible municipal snow clearing assistance for a beach association located at the end of chemin des Pères Dominicains in Luskville.
According to the residents in attendance, the person who used to plow snow in the private community passed away recently, which left them without the means to do so. The request to the municipality was for funding to assist in hiring a contractor to plow the snow.
Mayor Joanne Labadie explained that the municipality is intending on assisting the community and has budgeted funding, but first needed to receive approval from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.
“We’ve been in communication with them and we should get a response from municipal affairs on the approval of this shortly,” Labadie said. “[We hope] to bring it back onto the agenda for our January meeting, and we regret that we didn’t get the response in time for December.”
Blake Draper, a Pontiac farmer, had a concern regarding the ongoing agricultural survey that is being carried out by the municipality. He said that he had heard from another farmer who was concerned that an employee had entered her farm property without her prior knowledge.
Draper also said that he felt that the municipality could access information regarding farm building placement through other government bodies that tracked it.
Labadie explained to Draper that the municipality’s goal through the survey was to update its own records to ensure that there wouldn’t be residential encroachment on agricultural properties. She offered that a meeting be arranged for Draper with Louis Montgrain, the director of urban planning.
“Building inspectors across Canada have a right to inspect your property without a warrant,” Labadie said after the meeting. “The purpose of this survey is so the municipality can have a clear portrait of the agricultural community in our municipality. Forty-seven per cent of our land mass is agricultural so you can see how important [the preservation] of agricultural land is for our municipality.”
She also explained that while Draper was correct in saying the information they were collecting was available through other channels, she said that they are not publicly accessible and it therefore made it easier for the municipality to carry out the survey.
For the final question, resident Alain Goulet explained to the council how the Pontiac Snowmobile Drivers Association was obtaining the required approval to build an ice and snow structure over a portion of chemin du Lac la Pêche to make it passable.
The road had been separated into two sections following a spring 2019 culvert washout. He said that he was driven to present to council after discovering that a resolution would be tabled later on in the meeting that would close the road between chemin du Lac Curley and chemin Gauvin.
Labadie assured Goulet that the resolution’s aim was not to impede snowmobile traffic in the area but to make sure that all other vehicles stay away.
Public Safety
The council made several moves to shore up it’s fire department staff during the meeting, and the most significant one was the promotion of Kevin Mansey from interim fire director to full-on director.
Mansey had served as interim director since March 31 following the resignation of the former director in early 2020.
The resolution, which passed unanimously, explained that it was the correct move due to “the positive results of the work performance evaluation of Kevin Mansey and the recommendations of the Director General.”
Meanwhile, Jessica Connolly and Réjean Bérubé were both hired as volunteer firefighters in order to fill vacant spots in the department.
The council also unanimously passed a resolution to affirm the municipality’s stance against domestic violence, which was prompted by the movement throughout Quebec to have “12 days of action for the elimination of violence against women” that spanned from Nov. 25 to Dec. 6.
It was unanimously supported by the councillors. Councillor Tom Howard asked Mayor Joanne Labadie why the resolution was heavily emphasizing women over men. She explained that it was due to the timeliness of the 12 days of action, which culminate on the anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre that took place on Dec. 6, 1989.
“It doesn’t mean that it places us in a position where we only recognize [violence against women],” Labadie said during the meeting.
Finances/ Administrative
Various expenses that were financed by the municipality’s working capital in 2020 were agreed to be financed by the non-allocated surplus instead through a unanimous resolution.
It stated that a total of $237,298.22 across eight different 2020 resolutions would be reimbursed to the working capital to avoid paying interest.
The repair work that was done on rue Saint Andrew and rue Saint John in Quyon during the summer had to be financed by the infrastructure surplus, after the municipality realized that the money must be invested before it will be receiving the 2019-2023 TECQ gas tax credit that was intended to finance the repair work.
The unanimous passing of the resolution shifted the $1 million cost of the repair onto the infrastructure surplus.
The council unanimously agreed to award three contracts for the maintenance of the three municipal rinks at Luskville Recreation Park, Quyon Recreation Park and Soulière-Davis Park.
The rinks at the Quyon and Luskville parks will be maintained by Karine Cloutier, at a total cost of $19,800. Meanwhile, the Soulière-Davis park rink will be maintained by Christian Lauzon for a price of $11,784.94.
The council also passed a resolution to set up a fund dedicated to park improvements during the meeting, with only councillors Scott McDonald and Nancy Maxsom Draper voting against it.
With the fund being approved, a budget transfer of $15,000 will be made to create the park surplus. The resolution stated that the municipality created a park improvement plan in 2020 and will now be implementing various projects in 2021.
Infrastructure
Several different sections of roads will be closed throughout the municipality after the council unanimously passed a resolution to close: chemins Mohr and Mulligan, chemins Proven and Murray between the 6th Concession and Steele Line, and the 5th Concession between chemins Kennedy and Taber.
The municipality deemed these roads “not necessary to maintain and plow … since they are secondary roads that are not used by motorists during the winter period,” and therefore they will be closed for the rest of the winter.
The resolution regarding the closure of chemin du Lac la Pêche was also passed unanimously by the council. The section of the road will remain closed until it is repaired, with the exception of snowmobile usage. It included in it that other off-road vehicle associations would have to come to an agreement with the municipality before using it, in the same way that the snowmobilers are being required to.
The municipality’s next council meeting is scheduled to take place on Jan. 12, 2021 at 7 p.m.
